LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Jockey Junior Alvarado is considering appealing a fine and suspension for using his whip eight times on Sovereignty in winning the Kentucky Derby on May 3.
Alvarado was fined $62,000 and suspended two days by the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Authority, whose rules allow a rider to use a whip six times in a race.
He has 10 days to inform HISA if he plans to appeal.
"I would like to just get it over with and put it behind me, I don’t want to carry this one extra day, but at the same time I don’t want to give up that easily like they were right,” Alvarado told the Daily Racing Form last weekend. “I would like to move forward and fix something. As everybody can see, it’s unfair the penalties we’re facing. Maybe (by appealing) we can get something good out of this.”
On Dec. 1, Alvarado was found to have used his whip seven times in winning the $250,000 Cherokee Mile, also at Churchill Downs.
He met with Churchill Downs stewards via video last week to discuss the Derby.
“I didn’t abuse the horse,” Alvarado told DRF. “Nobody can tell me, even if they can prove that I hit the horse two extra times, it was in an abusing way, it’s just ridiculous. The punishment doesn’t fit the crime and I don’t think there was any crime.”
If Alvarado does not appeal, he will serve the two day suspension May 29-30. He is based in New York, which isn't racing those days.
AP horse racing: https://apnews.com/hub/horse-racing
Sovereignty, right, ridden by Junior Alvarado, crosses the finish line to win the 151st running of the Kentucky Derby horse race followed by Journalism, ridden by Umberto Rispoli, at Churchill Downs Saturday, May 3, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Jockey Junior Alvarado celebrates after riding Sovereignty to victory in the 151st running of the Kentucky Derby horse race at Churchill Downs Saturday, May 3, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
A Ukrainian drone strike killed one person and wounded three others in the Russian city of Voronezh, local officials said Sunday.
A young woman died overnight in a hospital intensive care unit after debris from a drone fell on a house during the attack on Saturday, regional Gov. Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.
Three other people were wounded and more than 10 apartment buildings, private houses and a high school were damaged, he said, adding that air defenses shot down 17 drones over Voronezh. The city is home to just over 1 million people and lies some 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
The attack came the day after Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles overnight into Friday, killing at least four people in the capital Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials.
For only the second time in the nearly four-year war, Russia used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv and NATO.
The intense barrage and the launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile followed reports of major progress in talks between Ukraine and its allies on how to defend the country from further aggression by Moscow if a U.S.-led peace deal is struck.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday in his nightly address that Ukrainian negotiators “continue to communicate with the American side.”
Chief negotiator Rustem Umerov was in contact with U.S. partners Saturday, he said.
Separately, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia targeted Ukraine with 154 drones overnight into Sunday and 125 were shot down.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
This photo provided by the Ukrainian Security Service on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, shows a fragment believed to be a part of a Russian Oreshnik intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile that hit the Lviv region. (Ukrainian Security Service via AP)
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, second left, listens to British Defense Secretary John Healey during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
