Junior Alvarado was given a $62,000 fine and suspended for two upcoming racing days for striking Sovereignty eight times with his riding crop during the Kentucky Derby.

Junior Alvarado, the jockey who rode Sovereignty to victory at the 2025 Kentucky Derby, was fined $62,000 on Friday after the Horse Integrity and Safety Authority ruled he had whipped his horse too many times.

The 2025 Derby was won by a true closer in Sovereignty, but the race had an influx of early pace courtesy of Bob Baffert’s Citizen Bull, who set the opening quarter-mile in 22.81 seconds and the opening half-mile in 46.23 seconds. t was 1:10.78 for the first three-fourths of a mile.