Suspended Saez Permitted to Ride in Blue Grass

Jockey Gabriel Saez, suspended 30 calendar days by Indiana Grand stewards for riding with "extreme carelessness" in a June 17 race with an accident, has reached an agreement with Indiana officials in which he will serve his suspension while being allowed to ride in upcoming stakes races, according to his agent and a representative of the Indiana Horse Racing Commission.

Per the terms of a settlement agreement, his suspension will be extended one day from the original set of dates for each day Saez rides in a stakes race, said Noah Jackson, general counsel for the IHRC. His suspension was to run from June 22 to July 21, dates that could now be pushed back somewhat.

Agent Liz Morris said Saez intends to ride Mr. Big News in the July 11 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G2) at Keeneland and potentially other stakes races that day, of which there are five others. Riding that afternoon would delay his full-time return until July 23 under the suspension terms.

Saez was forced to forgo his scheduled mounts last week at Churchill Downs after his requests for a stay of his suspension were denied by the IHRC and an Indiana court, Morris and Jackson said. Among his lost mounts was a ride aboard By My Standards in the  Stephen Foster Stakes (G2), a race in which the colt ran second to Tom's d'Etat under substitute rider Corey Lanerie.

Like By My Standards, Mr. Big News is owned by Chester Thomas' Allied Racing Stable and trained by Bret Calhoun, two of the Saez' main backers. Mr. Big News won the April 11 Oaklawn Stakes and is a 3-year-old on the Road to the Kentucky Derby.

"We really want to ride Mr. Big News in the Blue Grass. It's very important to us, that horse," Morris said.

Saez, 32, who won the 2008 Kentucky Oaks (G1) aboard Proud Spell, finished the Churchill Downs meet with three wins from 32 mounts. He twice rode during the ongoing Indiana Grand meet that began June 15, one of which was the race that led to his suspension.

That mount came aboard Justtequilatalkin, who was disqualified from first and placed ninth after stewards ruled he altered "course into the path of another horse without sufficient clearance, setting off a chain reaction in which the riders of three other horses were unseated."