Oscar Ceballos

For the second time in a little over a year, the New Mexico-based jockey Oscar Ceballos has successfully appealed to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to wipe out penalties related to a more-than-six-strikes whipping disqualification handed down by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA). The Oct. 3, 2024, ruling involved circumstances remarkably similar to Ceballos's first penalty reversal by the FTC on Sept. 11, 2023. Both successful appeals involved a total of 11 strikes administered to a Thoroughbred in a stakes at a New Mexico track, and both appeals...

Both the jockey and the owner/breeder of the second-place finisher in the Feb. 18 GIII Sunland Derby have filed a notice of appeal with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in an attempt to reverse a more-than-six-strikes whipping disqualification under Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) rules that cost them the placing in that stakes and $85,360 in purse winnings. At issue is the contention by jockey Oscar Ceballos and Eleanor Martin, the owner/breeder of Alotaluck (Sir Prancealot {Ire}), that some of the 11 strikes of the whip that Ceballos administered...

In a decision handed down Monday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) overturned a decision by Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) stewards at Albuquerque Downs Racetrack last September who ruled that jockey Oscar Ceballos had struck his mount, Sheriff Brown (Curlin), in the Downs At Albuquerque H. five more times than the maximum six strikes permitted by HISA. The sanctions imposed by the Albuquerque Downs stewards that day included a fine and suspension for the jockey, and disqualification of the horse's purse earnings. It is understood that this is the...