HISA: Guild’s Claim of Contempt ‘Fails the Straight-Face Test’

Defending itself against contempt-of-court allegations for purportedly violating an under-dispute preliminary injunction order by imposing riding infraction penalties upon Jockeys' Guild members nationwide, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act Authority (HISA) fired back in federal court Tuesday with a filing that stated the plaintiffs' argument “fails the straight-face test.”

At issue is the still-disputed nature of the wording in a July 26 injunction order out of United States District Court (Western District of Louisiana), which stated that HISA rules would be enjoined in two plaintiff states until a June 29 lawsuit got decided in that court, while also noting that, “The geographic scope of the injunction shall be limited to the states of Louisiana and West Virginia, and as to all Plaintiffs in this proceeding.”

The plaintiffs–most specifically, the Guild–believe that last line of the judge's words applies to “all of the members of the Jockeys' Guild, regardless of the U.S. jurisdiction in which the jockey is riding.”

The HISA defendants have maintained that individual members of the Guild are clearly not plaintiffs in the lawsuit, and to consider them that way “would wreak havoc on the sport.”

HISA had asked the court to provide a clarification of the wording, but had first appealed the preliminary injunction to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which resulted in a stay being issued.

Now it appears as if the lodging of that appeal means no clarification will be forthcoming until the Fifth Circuit Court decides the matter it has been asked to consider, as per a separate order handed down early Tuesday evening by the district court.

“Because the Defendants have filed a Notice of Appeal before filing the Motion for Clarification of Preliminary Injunction Order, this Court does not have jurisdiction to clarify the Preliminary Injunction,” the Aug. 9 district court order stated. “The filing of a notice of appeal confers jurisdiction on the Court of Appeals and divests this Court over their aspects of the case as it rests before the Court of Appeals. Once jurisdiction has divested, this Court may not take any action that would alter the status of the case as it rests before the Court of Appeals.”

On Aug. 2 the plaintiffs, led by the states of Louisiana, West Virginia, and the Guild, had moved for a federal judge to issue an immediate order to enforce its injunction to keep Guild-member jockeys from being subject to HISA rules nationwide.

The plaintiffs also wanted the judge to make the HISA defendants explain to the court why they should not be held in contempt for “flagrantly violating this Court's injunction within a mere four days after this Court entered it.”

The Aug. 9 filing by HISA painted that dispute in a different light.

“Plaintiffs' contempt motion is beyond the pale,” is how the HISA filing started off.

“For starters, the Fifth Circuit has now stayed the preliminary injunction (PI) Order in substantial part, including as it relates to the riding-crop rules and other safety regulations that form the basis of Plaintiffs' motion,” the filing continued.

“In any event, until the Fifth Circuit's stay, the Authority complied fully with the PI Order as written. Indeed, the Authority's affirmative steps (out of an abundance of caution) to clarify the scope of the injunction contradict any suggestion that the Authority willfully flouted the Court's PI Order.”

The HISA filing continued: “The Authority complied fully with the PI Order even before the Fifth Circuit's stay orders. Plaintiffs do not contend that the Authority continued to enforce the enjoined HISA rules in either Louisiana or West Virginia (against anyone), or that the Authority continued to enforce the enjoined HISA rules against any actual Plaintiff (anywhere). And as the Authority has explained, the individual members of Plaintiff Jockeys' Guild (and other 'association plaintiffs') are not themselves 'Plaintiffs' to which the PI Order is expressly limited.

“There is good reason that the Order does not extend to all of Plaintiffs' thousands of individual members nationwide: That would transform the Court's limited preliminary injunction into the sort of expansive nationwide injunction that the Supreme Court and Fifth Circuit have sharply criticized, and it would wreak havoc on horseracing in every racing state [because some] jockeys would be subject to less protective rules (or perhaps no rules at all), while others remain subject to HISA rules.

“That is untenable,” the HISA filing summed up. “Yet Plaintiffs have offered no response to those critical legal and practical realities.”

In the Aug. 2 filing by the plaintiffs, three Guild-member jockeys (the California-based Drayden Van Dyke, plus Florida-based Edwin Gonzalez and Miguel Vasquez) were alleged to be plaintiffs who purportedly suffered new harms resulting from HISA's whip-rule enforcement that the Guild believed to be in contempt of the injunction order.

But HISA's response on Tuesday pointed out that the first two of those jockeys have yet to avail themselves of HISA's process to request stays pending appeals, and the third was never even formally penalized for the whip infraction that the Guild had alluded to in the court filing last week.

“Those jockeys have not suffered concrete harm for other reasons, too,” the HISA filing stated. “For example, the cited infractions for jockey Drayden Van Dyke (resulting in a 1-day suspension and $250 fine) would have violated California's own (pre-HISA) crop rules, and resulted in an even greater penalty. And no adverse ruling was even issued against jockey Miguel Vasquez.”

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Gulfstream’s Rainbow 6 Jackpot Pool Guaranteed At $300,000 Sunday

Monarch Stables Inc.'s Last Leaf, who captured the Hollywood Beach Stakes of turf in her most recent start, will make her debut over Gulfstream's Tapeta racing surface in Sunday's featured Race 7 optional claiming allowance at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.

The 5 ½-furlong sprint for 2-year-old fillies will be highlighted in the Rainbow 6 sequence, which will span Races 4-9. The jackpot pool will be guaranteed at $300,000 Sunday at Gulfstream Park, where the popular multi-race wager went unsolved Saturday for the 11th racing day following a $461,035.47 jackpot payoff Oct. 9.

Last Leaf has an experience edge over her five rivals, having won three of six starts while demonstrating the versatility to win on both dirt and turf. The daughter of Not This Time, who broke her maiden on a fast main track in her second career start, will seek her third straight victory Sunday. She ran away with a six-furlong optional claiming allowance by 10 ¾ lengths over a sealed sloppy track Sept. 4 before scoring a narrow victory in the five-furlong Hollywood Beach on turf three weeks later.

“I asked for this race,” trainer Ronald Spatz said. “It will be fun to find out if she can win on four different surfaces. She's won on dirt, a sloppy track, and turf.”

Miguel Vasquez has the return mount.

“She's a nice little filly. She's got little feet; she's blocky; and she runs hard,” Spatz said. “She's a good little sprinter.”

Trainer Michael Stidham, who will maintain a division at Gulfstream for the first time during the Championship Meet, will be represented by Godolphin's Kit Keller, who is coming off a debut victory in a five-furlong maiden special weight race on turf at Laurel Sept. 9.

Edgard Zayas has the call on the homebred daughter of Ghostzapper.

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Choose Joy Best In Village of Biscayne At Gulfstream

Trainer Steve Dwoskin's Choose Joy, a multiple-stakes winner carrying highweight of 125 pounds, rallied from off the pace to score yet another thoroughly professional victory in Sunday's $60,000 Village of Biscayne Park Handicap at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.

The burgeoning turf-sprint star, who conceded between eight and 11 pounds to her five rivals, is a nose and a neck away from being undefeated in her six starts on turf following her length victory in Sunday's five-furlong overnight handicap for fillies and mares.

“She's a late-bloomer,” Dwoskin said. “She's been a different horse since getting on the turf.”

Choose Joy rated off a swift early pace set by Cat's Astray, who set fractions of :21.87 and :43.98 for a half-mile, before staging a three-wide rally into the stretch and drawing clear under Miguel Vasquez.

The 4-year-old daughter of Munnings ran five furlongs on a firm turf in :55.65. Hey High Pockets closed with a rush to finish second, a neck ahead of a tiring Cat's Astray.

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Gulfstream: My Sassenach Will Try To Double Up In $200,000 FSS Susan’s Girl

David Braddy is no stranger to success in the tradition-rich FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes, far from it.

The veteran South Florida trainer saddled his fifth winner in the series for 2-year-olds sired by accredited stallions standing in Florida on July 31, when Champion Equine LLC's My Sassenach scored a 9 ¼-length triumph in the $100,000 Desert Vixen at Gulfstream. My Sassenach's victory came 30 years after Braddy last enjoyed success in the six-furlong first leg of the FSS series for fillies with Mystic Obsession in 1991.

Saturday, Braddy is slated to saddle My Sassenach for the $200,000 Susan's Girl at Gulfstream in hopes of winning the seven-furlong second leg of the FSS series for fillies for the first time since scoring with Staci's Toy, who won the first two legs in 1989 before finishing second in the third leg, the My Dear Girl.

“It's nice to have a nice horse again, no question,” said Braddy, who has saddled 1055 winners during a career that commenced in 1981.

Braddy saddled Sly Rajab for a victory in the 1998 Affirmed, but his four other FSS triumphs have come with fillies.

“I do like the fillies,” Braddy said. “It just seems like they try harder. I don't know if that's right or wrong, but I do like the fillies.”

There's a lot to like about My Sassenach in Saturday's Susan's Girl. The daughter of Uncaptured broke her maiden in the Desert Vixen with the authority that would seem to make the extra furlong of the Susan's Girl well within her range.

“There's always concern. We're hoping she can do it,” Braddy said. “This is a nice filly. I think she can handle the seven-eighths, but you never know until you run the seven-eighths. She has been doing good, so hopefully she does OK.”

My Sassenach launched her career with a second-place finish in a 5 ½-furlong maiden special weight race, after which it was determined that she raced with an undetected lung infection. The Florida-bred filly was obviously in perfect health for the Desert Vixen, in which she rated off the early pace before she made a three-wide sweep to the lead on the turn into the homestretch and drew away for a comfortable victory.

“She came out of the race good, and she's been training good here for this next race,” Braddy said.

Miguel Vasquez has the return call aboard My Sassenach in the Susan's Girl, which will co-headline Saturday's FSS program at Gulfstream with the $200,000 Affirmed, the seven-furlong open division.

Jacks or Better Farm Inc's Rachel Rock is scheduled to make her official debut in the Susan's Girl, although she came very close to making her first start in the Desert Vixen, only to run off riderless before the race and be scratched by the stewards.

“She's a half-way first-time starter. She's been saddled; she's been with the pony; and then she decided she didn't want to participate,” Nicks said. “We've been working with her in the morning. Hopefully, her little quirks are behind her. She seems to have quite a bit of talent. It's just timing. We'd like to have a race in her early on. Pedigree wise and this-and-that, we haven't gotten started as early this year.”

The daughter of Jess's Dream came back to register a five-furlong 'bullet' workout in 59.08 seconds.

“We're just trying to figure out what causes her little moments,” Nicks said. “She's very professional and laidback in general but then something sets her off. We're trying to figure out what that is.”

Samy Camacho has the call on Rachel's Rock, whose owner/breeder, Jacks or Better Farm, has a record 19 Florida Sire Stakes victories.

Trainer Roger Laurin's Demurely, who finished a distant second behind My Sassenach following a five-wide rally in the Desert Vixen, is set to return in the Susan's Girl. The daughter of Uncaptured entered the first leg of the FSS series off an impressive debut victory May 28.

Laurin homebred Veiled Prophet, a daughter of Uncaptured who has finished second in both of her career starts, will accompany Demurely in the starting gate.

Chantal Sutherland has the return mount aboard Demurely, while Luca Panici is scheduled to ride Veiled Prophet for the first time.

Shooting Star Thoroughbreds LLC's Noble Dreamer will return in the Susan's Girl after disappointing in the Desert Vixen with a troubled-but-distant fourth-place finish as the 7-5 favorite. The daughter of Noble Bird had previously broken her maiden impressively by 7 ¼ lengths at Gulfstream June 18 after a second-place finish behind Demurely in her debut.

Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. will also be represented in the Susan's Girl by Stefania Farms LLC's Spectacular Gal, a one-start maiden by Jess's Dream.

J.C. Diaz Jr. has the call on Noble Dreamer, while Edwin Gonzalez has been named on Spectacular Gal.

Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott has sent LNJ Foxwoods' Outfoxed to Gulfstream for the Susan's Girl. The daughter of Valiant Minister finished a distant third in a July 15 maiden special weight race at Saratoga in her only start.

Edgard Zayas has accepted the mount aboard the Florida-bred filly, who was purchased for $360,000 at the OBS April 2-year-olds-in-training sale.

CCF Racing Stable LLC's Dear Mama Mia and trainer Daniel Pita's Devilette will enter the Susan's Girl off strong second-out maiden scores.

Carlos David-trained Dear Mama Mia, a daughter of Chitu, withstood stretch-long pressure to prevail by a neck in an Aug. 1 six-furlong maiden special weight race at Gulfstream. Romero Maragh is scheduled to ride Dear Mama Mia for the first time.

Devilette romped to a 5 ¼-length score on August 13 for Pita, who saddled Princess Secret for victories in the Susan's Girl and My Dear Girl last year. Cristian Torres has the call aboard the daughter of Khozan.

Wendell Yates and Ronald Brown's Sequin Lady, a daughter of He's Had Enough who finished a close third behind My Dear Girl in her debut; and Angel Ruiz-Lozano's Lluvia, a five-race maiden by Handsome Mike; round out the field.

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