Bay Meadows Jockey Had Past Weight Trouble

Ricky Frazier, the jockey whose incorrect postrace weight resulted in the disqualification of a horse finishing first in a $250,000 race last Sunday at Bay Meadows, has been fined by stewards on two previous occasions in the last 13 months for violations related to weight.

In September, 1989, the stewards at Bay Meadows fined Frazier $100 because of two weight problems.

Bob Novelli, clerk of scales at the track in San Mateo, Calif., reported to the stewards that Frazier attempted to be weighed before a race without holding all of the required riding equipment while on the scale.

Later the same day, Frazier was weighed before another race and was more than two pounds over the weight assigned his horse. The trainer of the horse, who is entitled to change jockeys if a rider is more than two pounds over, did not consent to Frazier riding his horse.

During an interview with Frazier, the stewards pointed out that he could have made the weight by using a smaller saddle. The weight a horse carries in a race consists of the jockey’s weight, the weight of the equipment--about four or five pounds--and lead weights that can be added if the combined weight of the jockey and the equipment is less than the assigned weight. Weights for horses are either arbitrarily assigned by the racing secretary, in the case of a handicap, or by the conditions of a race, which can be related to past performances and the age and sex of the horses.

In fining Frazier, the stewards warned him about future weight violations, and last May they fined him another $100 “for not doing (making) the reported weight.”

Frazier was using a larger saddle Sunday when he and Allijeba won the $250,000 Final Fourteen Stakes by a nose over Tex’s Zing. Allijeba was supposed to carry 126 pounds, but after the race, Novelli reported that the jockey’s weight was only 123 1/2. California rules say that after a race, a jockey and his equipment can’t be more than one pound under what the horse was assigned.

The stewards disqualified Allijeba from winning the $125,000 first-place purse, making Tex’s Zing the winner, and ordered the mutuel department to refund all money bet on Allijeba. Robert Allensworth, the owner of Allijeba, has appealed the stewards’ decision to the California Horse Racing Boad.

Frazier, 27, told Larry Robideaux Jr., Allijeba’s trainer, that he uses the larger saddle because the lead weights can be inserted into the top, near the horse’s withers. The standard place for the lead weights is in saddle pads on both sides of the horse. Some jockeys think that carrying the weight at the withers is better for a horse because of the center of gravity.

Robideaux said that, according to Frazier, the jockey has room for four pounds of lead underneath his saddle top, and he was carrying two pounds of lead in the Allijeba race.

Neither Frazier nor Novelli could be reached for comment Wednesday. Bay Meadows stewards said the race is still under investigation.