Year-Old Suspension Will Keep Jose Santos Off Criminal Type in Arlington Challenge

Jose Santos, who has won $1-million races with Criminal Type the last two times he has ridden him, won’t get the chance to win a third when the 5-year-old son of Alydar runs in the Arlington Challenge Cup on Aug. 4.

New York racing authorities have dredged up a five-day suspension that Santos owed them from last year and ordered him to serve the time Aug. 1-5. Those days correspond with the opening week at Saratoga, which is when Santos would have served them last year if he hadn’t unsuccessfully appealed the ruling.

Racing has a reciprocity rule by which states honor a suspension that’s handed out by another jurisdiction.

“(Angel) Cordero messed things up at Saratoga,” said Santos’ agent, Frank Sanabria, who added that he and Santos wouldn’t be seeking a court stay of the Aug. 1-5 suspension.

Last year, Cordero infuriated New York racing officials by appealing a seven-day suspension that would have prevented him from riding the final week of the monthlong meeting at Saratoga. Cordero argued that the suspension should have started at Belmont Park, after Saratoga’s season ended. The stewards at Saratoga added three days to the suspension, saying that Cordero was making a travesty of the system.

Cordero has yet to serve the 10 days, and by getting a court injunction probably won’t miss any of this summer’s season at Saratoga, either.

As a result of the Cordero incident, the New York stewards are determined that jockeys serve Saratoga suspensions at Saratoga, which has led to the unfortunate timing for Santos.

Sanabria said that he and Santos agreed to the August days long before they knew Criminal Type would be running at Arlington International. Under the conditions of the Arlington Cup, the stake will be worth $1-million if Easy Goer, winner of the Suburban Handicap on Wednesday at Belmont Park, and Sunday Silence, second by a head to Criminal Type in the Hollywood Gold Cup, both run, as they are expected to do.

At Hollywood Park on Wednesday, Wayne Lukas, who trains Criminal Type, heard about the finality of Santos’ suspension for the first time.

“You know how I am about riders, there’s always somebody capable who’s available,” Lukas said. “I think what they’re doing at Saratoga is right--that jockeys ought to serve their days at the time they get them. A number of jockeys have ridden Criminal Type, and I don’t see getting a replacement for Santos as any problem. I’ll consider Cordero, for one. And Gary Stevens, he might be available.”

Cordero was Lukas’ first choice to ride Criminal Type in the Pimlico Special, but Cordero’s agent, Drew Mollica, misread his date book and thought they were committed to ride another horse in New York that day. About an hour later, Mollica discovered his error, but by that time Lukas had given the mount to Santos.

Criminal Type worked five-eighths of a mile Wednesday morning in an impressive :59 4/5.

“I wish the (Arlington) race was tomorrow, as good as this horse is now,” Lukas said.

Easy Goer rebounded from his third-place finish, behind Criminal Type and Housebuster, in the Metropolitan Handicap in Wednesday’s $399,000 Suburban Handicap at Belmont, beating De Roche by 3 3/4 lengths in 2:00 for the 1 1/4-miles, three-fifths of a second off the track record.

The Suburban was hardly a test for Easy Goer, who paid $2.40 to win. De Roche, the best of the six others that ran, hasn’t won a stakes race since last year.

“I feel good (about the Arlington race),” said Pat Day, Easy Goer’s jockey. “Bring them on. It should be a good race.”

More about Jose Santos: Sanabria said that the jockey’s debut as a California-based rider will be on Nov. 7, which is the opening day of the winter meeting at Hollywood Park.

“We’ll ride in the Breeders’ Cup (at Belmont on Oct. 27), then I’ll come out to California a week early to start lining up some business,” Sanabria said. “It’s going to be real interesting. Besides all the good riders they’ve already got out there, Laffit (Pincay) is riding real good again, and (Julio) Garcia is making a big impression with Tony Matos as his agent.”

Santos has won the national money title the last four years, which was a consideration when he and Sanabria thought about moving West before.

“We wanted that title, and the best place to win it at the end of the year was on your home grounds,” Sanabria said. “But this time we’ve decided to come, no matter where we are in the national standings.”

Right now, Santos is in a close battle with Gary Stevens for the top spot on the money list.

Corey Black rode Mister Sicy, a French-bred colt making his first American start, to a neck victory over favored Silver Medallion Wednesday in the $100,000 Stars and Stripes Handicap at Arlington. Mister Sicy paid $13 to win.

In other stakes Wednesday, Safely Kept remained undefeated this year with a 2 1/4-length win in the Finger Lakes Budweiser Breeders’ Cup; Fieldy, ridden by Kent Desormeaux, won the River Downs Budweiser Breeders’s Cup; A Penny Is a Penny, ridden by Aaron Gryder, was a one-length winner in the Molly Pitcher Handicap at Monmouth Park; and Scottish Monk scored a seven-length upset in the Poker at Belmont, with Yankee Affair, the 3-5 favorite, running third.

Horse Racing Notes

The sale of the late Gene Klein’s ranch and training center in Rancho Santa Fe has been completed, with Frenchman Jean-Laurent Andreani buying the 150-acre property for a price in the vicinity of $27 million. . . . Hollywood Park’s annual report to shareholders showed that the track lost almost $11 million last year. The track’s debt, which once was around $100 million, is now about $45 million.