By Dick Jerardi
Paco Lopez won his 300th race this year on Sept. 22 at Parx. It was then and remains now the nation’s most wins in 2025. He was then and remains now the second leading rider at Parx this year with 89 wins.
Lopez has not ridden since that race because he was suspended for six months by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) as the result of an interpretation by HISA from an agreement signed in January stemming from a very serious incident at Parx last December.
On Dec. 3, 2004, Lopez wound up and struck his mount National Law on the neck 20 seconds after the horse crossed the wire first in race 5. Lopez was upset because the horse had swerved near the outside fence during the stretch run. But that certainly did not excuse his post race action, which just about everybody in the sport and beyond condemned.
The jockey was immediately suspended. Eventually, an agreement was drawn up that was signed by, among others, Lopez and his attorney, Drew Mollica. Lopez’s suspension, which began on Dec. 4, 2024, was to go through Jan. 22, 2025.
It was “ordered” that Lopez “shall” make an $8,000 donation to the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund (PDJF) and another $8,000 donation to a nonprofit dedicated to Thoroughbred aftercare. He was also to complete an anger management program.
And, finally and most controversially now, Lopez was essentially put on two years’ probation and could ride as long as he did not commit “another violation of HISA rules that involves conduct similar to the conduct at issue.”
That conduct was the National Law incident. The keyword is “similar” and its interpretation. The agreement also stated that if Lopez committed another “similar” violation of HISA rules during the probation period, he would be suspended for six months.
According to HISA Chief Executive Officer Lisa Lazarus, Lopez has been cited this year by stewards at three tracks (Parx, Saratoga, Monmouth Park) for raising the whip with his wrist above his helmet during a race, a violation of HISA rules.
Lazarus sent Mollica an email on May 14 detailing six violations from February to May, saying in part “this is too many violations,” suggesting it: “meets that standard” of “similar” conduct. There were several more whip violations later in the year. HISA, citing the January agreement, suspended Lopez for six months in late September.
“The agreement is not breached by 10 ministerial minor violations,” Mollica contended.
The attorney looks at the agreement as Lopez “won’t strike a horse in anger, won’t put a horse in danger of death or serious injury, won’t strike a horse in the head, won’t strike him after the wire. That’s the agreement I believe I entered into.”
Which is where “similar” comes back into the conversation. These whip violation incidents during a race would not really appear “similar” to the Dec. 3 post race incident, which was the reason for the original suspension.
“You’re reading it like you have to slap the horse again after a race,” Lazarus said. “Obviously, it was never meant to be that narrowly construed.”
Lazarus looks at all of it in a bigger picture sense.
“The way I would define it is conduct using a crop that puts horse racing in a negative light,” she said.
Various whip violations are commonplace under the HISA rules. What, in Lazarus’s mind, are the most severe are the “ones where you raise your wrist above the helmet…We really don’t like that. We’ve only had 25 wrist over the helmet violations in 2025 to date, and Paco was eight of them.’’
Mollica acknowledges getting the emails from Lazarus, but “I didn’t take that as a warning that you’re breaching the contract that we entered into. It was public information.”
Lazarus thinks her emails about the whip violations were quite clear as to what could happen.
Whatever anybody thought might happen, the bottom line is the six-month suspension has happened. And Mollica thinks it’s wrong.
“They want to turn 10 apples into one orange,” he said.
According to Lazarus, there has been a hearing before a three-judge panel of the HISA board on the issue, with a decision expected fairly soon.
Mollica presented Affidavits “from all 10 of the trainers (of the horses that Lopez rode). No cuts, no welts, no bruises” from Lopez’s whip violations.
Lazarus is looking at whips as a major issue with the general public in a world where perception is reality. And she’s not wrong. Mollica is looking at it from his client’s perspective and the “similar” language in the agreement. And he’s not wrong either.
