Jamgotchian files suit against KHRC

A California-based horse owner on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission asking a Kentucky court to strike down a rule that restricts claimed horses to running at the track at which the horse was claimed until the track’s meet is over.

The owner, Jerry Jamgotchian, filed the suit in Franklin Circuit Court, six weeks after officials at Churchill Downs and the state’s racing commission cited the claiming rule in denying Jamgotchian the ability to enter a horse he claimed at Churchill in a race at Penn National. In the suit, Jamgotchian alleges that the rule is “invalid under federal law as it violates the Commerce and Equal Protection Clauses” of the U.S. Constitution.