20 Days, $1,500 Fine in ‘Stolen Whip’ Case

The Parx stewards have penalized jockey Angel A. Castillo with a 20-day suspension and a $1,500 fine for snatching a whip out of a rival rider’s hands Sept. 21 and using it to propel his mount to a second-place finish.

The stewards cited Pennsylvania racing rules 163.6C (“detriment of racing”) and 163.236 (“striking and touching during race”) as grounds for the penalization.

“I would think right now we are going to appeal, but I’m really not sure right now,” said Jim Marini, Castillo’s agent. “We haven’t totally discussed it yet because Angel just sent me a text message from his phone in the jockeys’ room.”

Marini noted that in addition to the 20 days handed down on Tuesday, Castillo already has a backlog of 17 days that he needs to serve from previous infractions, “and then we have a hearing on Friday because he stood up before the wire and misjudged the finish, so you’ve go to figure that’s going to be additional days.”

Just inside the three-sixteenths pole in the fourth race Sept. 21, a bearing-out Interchange (Fairbanks), ridden by Castillo, brushed with the tiring Distant Thoughts (Lemon Drop Kid), ridden by Pierre Hernandez-Ortega. Castillo dropped his whip, then, according to the Equibase chart, “reached over and grabbed Hernandez-Ortega’s whip out of his hands.”

While Interchange rallied to earn a second-place purse ($10,000), Distant Thoughts, the 8-5 favorite, faded to sixth ($300).

Barring an appeal, Castillo’s suspension is scheduled to run Oct. 23-Nov. 11.