Horses trained by Jorge Navarro have been scratched from today’s races and future cards at Delaware Park on the order of the state’s racing commission, the general manager of the track said on Wednesday.
John Mooney, the executive director of racing for Delaware Park, said that the Delaware Racing Commission had ordered the track to stop tacking entries from Navarro earlier this week, citing a fine recently levied by the New Jersey Racing Commission for “conduct extremely detrimental to racing.” Two horses trained by Navarro were scratched from the Wednesday card, according to the track’s racing changes. Delaware takes entries five days in advance.
The ban by Delaware adds to the troubles facing Navarro since a video was posted on Youtube of the trainer and a horse owner, Randal Gindi, using foul language at Monmouth Park in New Jersey while rooting on a horse at Gulfstream Park trained by Jorge’s brother Marcial. Both were fined $5,000 by the Monmouth stewards, the maximum fine that the stewards can levy.
The Monmouth stewards’ order recommended that the New Jersey Racing Commission levy an additional fine of $15,000 to Gindi and $5,000 to Navarro. The racing commission began a meeting at 1 p.m. to consider the stewards’ order.
Mooney said that Delaware Park had planned to ban Navarro’s horses but were beaten to the punch by the Delaware commission. He also said that the track does expect the ban to be lifted following the resolution of the New Jersey case.
“I don’t know if that will be changed, to be frank,” Mooney said. “They see this is as being extremely detrimental to racing, and we agree.”