By T. D. Thornton
Two controversial Parx racetrack cases that have been held up by repeated delays and reschedulings of hearings since the summer finally came up on the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission appeals docket over the past 10 days.
But no resolution to those cases is in immediate sight, because neither appeal is likely to be adjudicated until some time in the first quarter of 2016, according to a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, the agency to which the PHRC directs all press inquiries.
Jockey Pierre Hernandez-Ortega, who has been riding for more than half a year pending an appeal of his license revocation for attempting to conceal an electronic stimulating device that the PHRC deemed an “equivalent to an attempt to fix the outcome of the fifth race at Parx on May 12, 2015,” had his hearing on Dec. 8.
Hernandez-Ortega's case has been mired in confusion and delays since the outset. When a May 12 regulatory search of the Parx jockeys' quarters turned up an illegal electrical device, the PHRC initially revoked the license of another jockey, Angel Castillo, for its possession. But when a follow-up investigation revealed that the device allegedly belonged to Hernandez-Ortega, the PHRC exonerated Castillo while waiting until May 28 to pull Hernandez-Ortega's license.
Hernandez-Ortega's appeal of his license revocation was cancelled or pushed back on three separate occasions over six months before finally taking place last week. To date he is the seventh-leading Parx rider while amassing more than $2.4 million in purse earnings at the meet.
Separately, the appeal of the ruled-off former groom for
GI Kentucky Derby and GI Preakness S. winner Smarty Jones was heard on Dec. 15.
Mario DeJesus-Arriaga, no longer a groom but now a multiple stakes-placed owner licensed in Pennsylvania, had his stabling privileges revoked and was evicted from Parx in late summer after an injured gelding he owned was discovered in an auction “kill pen.”
DeJesus-Arriaga swiftly appealed his ejection under Parx's “zero tolerance” owner-responsibility rule to the PHRC, then successfully argued to have his Oct. 27 hearing pushed back an additional six weeks. In the interim, DeJesus-Arriaga had started horses at the Meadowlands and Penn National.
The TDN twice asked the Department of Agriculture to explain what, if any, jurisdiction the PHRC has over a private property owner like Parx ejecting an unwanted person from its premises, but never received a reply.
In response to a query about the final rulings of both of these appeals, Brandi Hunter-Davenport, the press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, wrote in a Thursday email, “Generally, it takes two to three months before we get an opinion back from the hearing officer.” –@ThorntonTD
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