| In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors. |
LOS ANGELES (AP) Jockey Patrick Valenzuela filed a lawsuit Thursday against the state's horse racing board to delay a five-day suspension pending his appeal.
The California Horse Racing Board banned Valenzuela from riding Oct. 1-5 at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meet for an incident that happened Sept. 8 at Del Mar. Valenzuela was given the suspension after racing stewards determined that he interfered with another horse ridden by Omar Berrio during a race.
Valenzuela and Berrio also were fined $500 each for an altercation after the race.
The racing board denied Valenzuela's request for a delay of the suspension, prompting the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Valenzuela was previously suspended four times this year and appealed all of those rulings. An administrative law judge has made a decision on those four appeals and it will be considered in executive session during an upcoming board meeting, said Michael Marten, a spokesman for the racing board.
It is not unusual for jockeys to seek legal action to stay a suspension, Marten said.
Valenzuela said in the lawsuit that he is seeking the injunction because without it, he would ``have to serve the suspension before the case could be heard on its merits.''