Jamgotchian upset over Kentucky claim rule

Jerry Jamgotchian, a California-based owner, said on Tuesday that he will file a lawsuit challenging the so-called “jail time” rule in Kentucky – restricting horses from starting at tracks other than where they were claimed – after a horse he claimed recently at Churchill Downs was denied entry at Penn National in Pennsylvania.

Jamgotchian said he will file the suit in U.S. District Court in Kentucky against the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, Churchill Downs, and Penn National seeking to have the jail-time rule struck down. Jamgotchian was successful in a similar lawsuit he filed two years ago in California challenging that state’s jail-time rules as a violation of the Interstate Commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution.

“My position as an owner is that my horses are my property, and under the Constitution we can race them wherever we like,” Jamgotchian said.