The New Mexico Racing Commission is conducting its own investigation into jockeys accused of participating in unsanctioned racing. In early August, the Washington Post published an investigative feature detailing the horrors of bush racing at a track in Georgia, where the Post reported horses were given injections immediately before races, horses ran with no pre-race examinations by veterinarians, illegal betting took place, and jockeys openly carried buzzers.
Some investigative work was done by representatives of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and later by Post reporters directly. PETA has since called for sanctions on what the organization claims are licensed jockeys documented participating in bush races at the Georgia facility.
PETA has alleged it has identified riders Bryan Candanosa, Alex Carrillo, Eduardo Nicasio, and Rodrigo Vallejo as riding at bush tracks while carrying electric shock devices known as buzzers.
NMRC executive director Izzy Trejo told the Paulick Report Sept. 1 that the commission is conducting its own investigation into the allegations, but proof of participation is limited.
“We are currently doing our own investigation after finding that the pictures utilized by PETA in the Washington Post article were merely photos taken from Facebook pages and not much more information than that,” said Trejo. “Although they do have a video that we need to look at.
“The jockeys in question did ride at Ruidoso a week and a half ago and we had an enforcement team there to scrutinize the jockeys with metal detection wands, as well as the pony people, the assistant starters, the valets, the jockey quarters, and the starting gate itself (all the nooks and crannies). Nothing was found but we will continue to investigate these suspect jockeys.”
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