Sonny León, winner of the Kentucky Derby with an impressive ride aboard Rich Strike, is serving a four-day suspension this week for careless riding, a Louisville, Ky., newspaper reported.
The Courier Journal reported that this is León's third careless riding suspension in the last nine months. He also was sanctioned for presenting false and altered documents from a physical examination to West Virginia stewards and for inflicting visible injuries on one of his mounts through misuse of the crop.
León's agent, Jeff Perrin, told the Courier Journal that "you do have to be aggressive to win."
The latest suspension was for an April 27 ride at Thistledown, where León's filly, Glamorous Gal, was ruled to have "deliberately and aggressively steered in towards the rail to block oncoming horses on the inside," according to the report.
Perrin told the Courier Journal that León will ride in seven races at Belterra on Friday and then will pick up weekend mounts at Churchill Downs.
