Jockey Luan Machado accepts 3-day suspension, $2,500 fine

Luan Machado, who had a big lead before easing his horse at the wrong finish line Wednesday at Keeneland, was suspended three days and fined $2,500 by the Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation.

Agent Cory Prewitt said Machado would not appeal.

“We accepted,” Prewitt wrote in a text message Friday. “It’s all good. Time to move on.”

Flatter: Machado mistake exposes bigger worry.

The ruling was posted on the KHRGC website Friday, the day after Machado’s mistake was addressed by stewards.

“After a hearing before the board of stewards, Luan Machado, who rode Ultimate Strike in the eighth race at Keeneland on (Wednesday), is hereby suspended three racing days, Oct. 27, Oct. 30 and Oct. 31, and fined $2,500 for his error in judgment, easing up on his mount approaching the finish, that resulted in the horse not obtaining his best placing,” the ruling said.

Ultimate Strike carried odds of 13-1 and had a 5 1/2-length lead at the stretch call of the $48,000 optional-claiming race for maidens. That was when Machado stood in the irons to ease the 3-year-old gelding trained by Carlos Santamaria. It happened just past the sixteenth pole, which is the alternate finish line for 1 1/16-mile races. This race was 1 1/8 miles, and Ultimate Strike was overtaken in the final stride by Gotta Have Dreams, a 19-1 long shot who won by a neck.

The suspension does not affect any of the 28 rides Machado had booked during the next week at Keeneland. They include graded-stakes assignments on Brunacini on Saturday in the Perryville (G3), Haulin Ice on Saturday in the Raven Run (G2), Chop Chop on Sunday in the Dowager (G3) and Whiskey Decision next Friday in the Valley View (G2).