Saez Serving Suspension After Appeal

Jockey Luis Saez has begun serving a five-day suspension instead of continuing a legal tussle with New York racing regulators over an alleged "careless riding" incident this summer at Saratoga Race Course.

The New York State Gaming Commission's board recently rejected the decision by an agency hearing officer to dismiss the case against Saez on what board members called technical grounds. The board ordered the matter re-opened despite the ruling by hearing officer Michael Hoblock, a former chairman of the state Racing and Wagering Board, the Gaming Commission's predecessor agency.

Saez's attorney, Karen Murphy, sharply criticized the decision, saying her client was being denied his due process rights by the board's move to undo the hearing officer's ruling.

Murphy said Saez decided to start serving his suspension Nov. 26.

"We commend former Racing and Wagering Board chairman, Michael J. Hoblock, for his well-reasoned decision to dismiss the matter against (Saez). A fundamental obligation of government is to protect the sanctity of our procedural due process rights. Because the Gaming Commission decided to send the matter back for a 're-do,' (Saez) decided to take his days to avoid any more uncertainty about his future," Murphy said Nov. 30.

Saez initially appealed a five-day suspension ordered immediately after an incident Aug. 8 during the fourth race at Saratoga. The appeal led to the hearing procedure run by Hoblock. He determined there was a "defect in the charging notice" against Saez and dismissed the case. The Gaming Commission unanimously voted earlier this month to have the matter reconsidered, in the words of one member, "based on the law and not technical aspects" of the charging notice.

Commission documents state that there was a stewards inquiry following the fourth race Aug. 8, when the jockey and trainer of the fifth-place finisher in the race claimed foul against Saez, riding Basic Hero, "for alleged interference in the stretch." The stewards agreed and re-ordered the race to move Basic Hero from a second-place finish to fifth.

Hoblock, in a September report, noted that Murphy said the charging notice failed to set forth the "predicate rule that fixes the penalty or punishment." Hoblock said he looked into 14 other suspension orders in 2016 issued by the commission against licensees in New York and all included information about potential punishment for the alleged infractions. Hoblock then rejected a bid by the agency to issue an amended charging document.

"It is my opinion that Ms. Murphy's motion raises an important issue of procedural law. The failure to identify a rule that allows a penalty or punishment for a specific violated renders this case deficient. The omission is more than a technicality,'' Hoblock wrote in September.