Luis Antonio Gonzalez

Jockeys either misjudging the location of an alternate finish line or failing to ride all-out under a traditional wire placement have been in the news on four occasions since October. But after apparently failing to realize that a one-mile stakes on Saturday ended at the sixteenth pole under Oaklawn Park's short-stretch configuration for races at that distance, the 22-year veteran Rafael Bejarano got penalized for essentially the opposite infraction. Timing his ride on a closer like there was still half a furlong to go, Bejarano kept whipping and driving his...

Jockey Terry "T.D." Houghton on Wednesday was suspended 30 days by the stewards at Mahoning Valley Race Course for failing "to use his utmost exertion to obtain a winning performance by standing up and appear[ing] to have stopped riding before the wire." The alleged lapse of judgment occurred in the second race Jan. 6, when Houghton had cleared the field by 1 1/2 lengths inside the eighth pole aboard the 5-2 third choice, Grace in Excess (Connect), in a $5,000 NW2L claimer over 1 mile 70 yards. The Equibase chart...

Jockey Luis Antonio Gonzalez was suspended 15 days by the Mahoning Valley Race Course stewards Monday for a "failure to give best effort" infraction while riding an Ohio-bred 2-year-old shipper from Santa Anita Park who had broken her maiden in her most recent race in California by six lengths. Gonzalez was aboard the 7-5 favorite Rapida (Country House) in the eighth race at Mahoning on Dec. 26, a state-bred N2L allowance sprint. After stalking the pace from the inside to the quarter pole, Rapida surged to the lead under urging...