By T. D. Thornton
Junior Alvarado was granted a stay of suspension on Tuesday while the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) begins the process for hearing his newly-lodged appeal for allegedly using his whip two times above the six-strike limit when winning the GI Kentucky Derby aboard Sovereignty (Into Mischief) May 3.
Alvarado is facing a fine of $62,000 and a two-day suspension if the infraction is upheld.
The rule infraction is HISA-based, but the Churchill Downs stewards were in charge of interpreting and reporting purported violations of it.
The severity of the sanction–believed to be the second-largest monetary penalty ever imposed on a United States jockey–was triggered because of a “multiplier effect” related to a previous one-strike-over-the-limit whip infraction that Alvarado had incurred within the past 180 days, on Dec. 1, 2024, also at Churchill Downs.
HISA Rule 2283 (c)(1) mandates the doubling of what otherwise would have been a $31,000 financial hit (10% of the jockey's winning purse) and a one-day suspension.
In a number of published interviews over the past several weeks, Alvarado has maintained that several of the over-the-limit strikes he purportedly administered to Sovereignty were actually instances of him fanning the colt with the whip without making contact.
Sovereignty wins! 🌹 pic.twitter.com/5xJkjxcxIN
— Kentucky Derby (@KentuckyDerby) May 3, 2025
Those actions, Alvarado has said, were meant to encourage the colt to run faster without actually hitting him.
HISA's rules explicitly permit that type of whip usage, stating, “A jockey may show or wave the crop to the Covered Horse without physically contacting the Covered Horse.”
In a May 10 interview with Daily Racing Form's Dave Grening, Alvarado had said that when he attempted to explain the fanning actions to the three Churchill stewards (Barbara Borden, Brooks “Butch” Becraft and Tyler Picklesimer) at a May 8 initial video conference hearing on the matter, his account of what happened was met with silence by the stewards.
In addition, Alvarado told Grening, “They made me count the times that I had contact with the horse. When I asked [them] if they could count where they think I had contact, they didn't.”
Alvarado's suspension had been slated to be served May 29 and 30.
Alvarado can first contest his HISA charges before an internal adjudication panel. A secondary step would be to appeal to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). A third option might be litigation in the court system.
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