HOBBS, NM—NOVEMBER 5, 2020—According to an article by T.D. Thornton published Thursday on the Thoroughbred Daily News website an assistant starter has been ruled off by Zia Park's track’s stewards for six months after slapping a filly while she was locked in the starting gate prior to Race 4 on October 20th.

Assistant starter Ramon Alvarez has not appealed the ban, which went into effect Monday (Nov. 2) and runs through May 1, 2021, according to Izzy Trejo, the executive director of the New Mexico Racing Commission.

The incident occurred during New Mexico racetrack's current mixed-meet card of Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses.

Alvarez was in the outermost stall attempting to control the 3-year-old First Moonflash filly Javys Brown Sugar in a 400-yard New Mexico Quarter Horse Cup Futurity (RG2) trial.

The filly dropped her head several times and Alvarez’s reaction was to correct her with four open-handed slaps to the head, Trejo told TDN.

The incident is difficult to see on the pan and head-on replays, but stewards utilized a cross-view gate angle from the outside post pointing toward the inside to get a definitive look at Alvarez slapping Javys Brown Sugar.

Javys Brown Sugar was allowed to start and ran third in her trial at 39-1 odds.