Photo:

Jason Moran / Eclipse Sportswire

Luan Machado, who had a big lead before easing his horse at
the wrong finish line Wednesday at Keeneland, was suspended three days and fined
$2,500 by the Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation.

Agent Cory Prewitt said Machado would not appeal.

“We accepted,” Prewitt wrote in a text message Friday. “It’s
all good. Time to move on.”

Flatter: Machado mistake exposes bigger worry.

The ruling was posted on the KHRGC website Friday, the day
after Machado’s mistake was addressed by stewards.

“After a hearing before the board of stewards, Luan Machado,
who rode Ultimate Strike in the eighth race at Keeneland on (Wednesday), is hereby
suspended three racing days, Oct. 27, Oct. 30 and Oct. 31, and fined $2,500 for
his error in judgment, easing up on his mount approaching the finish, that resulted
in the horse not obtaining his best placing,” the ruling said.

Ultimate Strike carried odds of 13-1 and had a 5 1/2-length
lead at the stretch call of the $48,000 optional-claiming race for maidens.
That was when Machado stood in the irons to ease the 3-year-old gelding trained
by Carlos Santamaria. It happened just past the sixteenth pole, which is the
alternate finish line for 1 1/16-mile races. This race was 1 1/8 miles, and
Ultimate Strike was overtaken in the final stride by Gotta Have Dreams, a 19-1
long shot who won by a neck.

The suspension does not affect any of the 28 rides Machado
had booked during the next week at Keeneland. They include graded-stakes
assignments on Brunacini on Saturday in the Perryville (G3), Haulin Ice on
Saturday in the Raven Run (G2), Chop Chop on Sunday in the Dowager (G3) and
Whiskey Decision next Friday in the Valley View (G2).