Jockey is suspended 1 year for suspicious ride at Belterra
The Belterra Park board of stewards suspended Albin Jimenez for one year after review of race 2 on Thursday at the Cincinnati track. The suspension begins next Friday.
The stewards met with the journeyman rider Friday morning after trainer Tommy Drury asked stewards to review the race in which Afleet Vintage finished second as the 3-5 favorite. The race was won by Permit to Carry, who was ridden by Summer Pauly, the mother of Jimenez's child.
"I watched the race and wasn't happy and asked that (the stewards) take a look," Drury said. "They're the ones in charge."
The stewards determined that Jimenez did not put forth his best effort to win and suspended the jockey for one year, which would be reduced to six months if he does not appeal. Jimenez's agent Bert Crawford did not immediately return a text asking whether the rider would appeal, though he earlier denied any wrongdoing on behalf of his client.
Jimenez is the leading rider at Belterra, piloting 81 winners through Aug. 21, nearly double that of Yarmarie Correa. He was the leading rider last year as well with 88 total victories. Jimenez began riding in 2010 and has won 1,727 races with earnings of $35,141,942. The biggest win of his career came aboard Knicks Go in the 2018 Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland, his lone Grade 1 win. His only other graded-stakes win came aboard Lady Fog Horn in the 2016 Grade 2 Falls City Handicap at Churchill Downs.
Drury trains Afleet Vintage for breeders Richard Knapp and Richard Agnello. The 4-year-old Afleet Alex colt won a $5,000 maiden claimer on July 23 at Belterra by 15 lengths with Jimenez aboard. The pair reunited Thursday as the odds-on favorite in a $5,000 claimer for non-winners of two.
Afleet Vintage appeared to break well from the rail and settled mid-pack in the field of five. He coasted behind leaders through moderate fractions of 25.20, 49.63 and 1:15.22 in the one-mile race on dirt rated as fast. Afleet Vintage did not make a threatening move until the final quarter-mile when eventual winner Permit to Carry, the 3-1 third choice, was well clear en route to a three-length victory.
Through Thursday, Jimenez and Drury were an impressive 15: 6-5-2 at the current Belterra meeting. Drury has one starter on Friday's card, but Irving Moncada has that assignment. Jimenez was named on Drury's lone Saturday runner, so Green Lady, the 5-2 morning-line favorite in an allowance for Ohio-breds, will need a new jockey.