Gonzalez’s Parents File Lawsuit

The parents of J.C. Gonzalez, the jockey who was killed last year in a spill on opening day of the Los Angeles County Fair meet at Fairplex Park in Pomona, have filed a wrongful-death suit against three veterinarians and the owners and trainer of the last horse that Gonzalez rode.

Named by Daniel and Maria Gonzalez in Los Angeles Superior Court were John Araujo and Hector Prida, private veterinarians; Harvey Stein, the veterinarian for Fairplex Park, and trainer Sandy Shulman and three other owners of Wolfhunt, the 4-year-old colt whose front legs snapped about a quarter of mile before the finish of a 1 1/16-mile race.

J.C. Gonzalez, who was 23, was struck by at least one trailing horse after he went down. He was pronounced dead of massive head trauma at the track’s first-aid station. Wolfhunt was euthanized on the track.

Reached at Del Mar, where his horses are currently stabled, Shulman said he owned Wolfhunt in partnership with Tony Ciotti, Carl Goldstein and Dwight King.

In the suit, which seeks general, special and punitive damages, the Gonzalezes say that the defendants were negligent in reporting the condition of Wolfhunt to racing officials at the track. The Gonzalezes, charging that California Horse Racing Board rules were broken regarding the use and required reporting of medication for the horse, say that their son would not have ridden the colt had he known the horse’s condition.

Stein defended his pre-race examinations of Wolfhunt and other horses at the track.

“My [pre-race] exams were the same for every horse during the four years I was at Fairplex,” Stein said from his home in Los Alamitos. “I was consistent, day in and day out. Every horse was brought out of his stall, without bandages. They trotted and jogged, and I felt their legs. If they were sound, they were allowed to run. I would say that my pre-race exams were as thorough as anybody else’s, if not more so.”

Two weeks before he died, Gonzalez escaped serious injury in a spill at Del Mar.

“There are some striking things that I remember about [the day Gonzalez died],” Stein said. “Earlier on the card, J.C. scratched a horse going to the post, because the horse didn’t feel right. I remember sitting with him on a golf cart between races. He talked about why he scratched that horse, about how he almost got hurt at Del Mar and wasn’t going to take any chances anymore.

“Then he went out and rode [Wolfhunt], and he put him on the lead, where a jockey is vulnerable to other horses if his mount goes down. I don’t believe he would have scratched that earlier horse, then talked the way he talked and then not scratched [Wolfhunt] if he thought there would be any trouble with the horse.”

Racing board records showed that Wolfhunt had been legally treated with cortisone 48 hours before the race. Araujo was fined $200 by the state for failing to list the medication on a routine report to racing officials.

“The whole report from [the racing board] will solve this,” said Shulman, referring to the suit. He declined to comment further about the suit.