Saturday’s Whitney-winning jockey suspended but will race today
A Friday incident at the Spa got the reigning Eclipse Award-winner a three-day suspension — midway through a fantastic season.
The day before Flavien Prat rode Sierra Leone to an epic come-from-behind Whitney Stakes win in front of 42,000 screaming fans, he got himself into trouble during the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame Stakes, also at the Spa.
The reigning Eclipse Award-winner, 33, was aboard Zulu Kingdom — favored to win — when he cut in on both Luther and Tiz Dashing coming into the first turn. The two horses would end up coming in second and fourth, respectively.
Prat is on the card for the fourth, sixth, eighth and ninth races today, despite NYRA’s announcement that stewards have ruled on a three-day suspension as a result of the incident. According to a Monday, Aug. 4 report in Daily Racing Form, Prat will serve his suspension Aug. 13-15, which is the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday before the Alabama Stakes.
Zulu Kingdom’s disqualification changed the placing of Friday’s race-in-question to: Luther, first; Clever Again, second; Tiz Dashing third and Zulu Kingdon, fourth.
Prat began racing full-time in Saratoga during its meet in 2022, and his suspension comes midway through an especially exciting season.
He won four races in front of enormous crowds here on Friday, June 6 — the day before the Belmont Stakes — and five wins on July 5 during the Spa’s special July Fourth Racing Festival. As a result of those wins and 34 more during the Belmont at the Big A (the spring/summer meet split between Aqueduct and Saratoga), on July 6, he was awarded his first New York riding title.
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