Paco Lopez is not a sympathetic character. He sometimes acts as if the rules, particularly when it comes to the use of the whip, don't apply to him. He never seems to learn from his mistakes. That he struck a horse across the neck after a race at Parx in January of last year was ugly and egregious. No jockey in modern times has been suspended more than him.So his every move is watched intently by the stewards and HISA. He's brought that upon himself. But that doesn't mean there should be an inherent bias when dealing with Lopez. The rules shouldn't be different for him because he is, well, Paco.Apparently, they are. Lopez did not deserve a 30-day suspension for his actions aboard I Love Giraffes (Charlatan), who was part of that four-horse spill in the July 3 Wild Applause Stakes. On the outside as four horses were across the track near the top of the stretch, I Love Giraffes clipped heels with Pillar of Beauty (Caracaro), which began a chain reaction in which four horses went down.Was Lopez to blame? He could have been, but the video footage is not conclusive. The four horses were in tight and it's hard to tell exactly what happened. Chad Summers, who trains I Love Giraffes, believes the spill was caused by Junior Alvarado, who was sitting just inside Lopez on Pillar of Beauty, who regained her balance and finished second.“Watching what I watched, I felt as though Junior instigated the whole thing.” Summers said. “I felt like we had a good conversation about it with the stewards, but at the end of the day, there was a difference of opinion on how I saw the race and how they saw the race.”To its credit, NYRA brings the stewards in front of the camera to discuss why they took the actions they did when it comes to controversial calls and disqualifications. (How come New York State Gaming Commission Steward Braulio Baeza Jr. never takes part in these segments?) In this segment, hosted by Andy Serling, they showed a drone shot of the incident. Again, it was hard to tell exactly who did what.Summers argued that a 30-day suspension should not be handed down when the contact is incidental. And that's a major point here.“If you're going to suspend somebody for 30 days or longer, there needs to be intent, they need to be targeting someone,” he said. “Unfortunately, those horses got tangled up, we took the worst of it, we go down and then obviously the horses went down behind us. But it didn't seem like Paco had put in some crazy erratic ride where he shut you off or he's riding dangerously. To me, that's what a 30-day suspension would warrant.”Summers pointed to Kendrick Carmouche's ride in the 2025 GI Jockey Club Gold Cup aboard Phileas Fogg (Astern {({Aus}). Phileas Fogg cut in sharply in the opening strides of the race causing a chain reaction inside of him. Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. was knocked off balance while riding Mindframe (Constitution), who was never again the same. Carmouche was given just five days.Of course, this wasn't a first for Lopez. In March 2022, he received a 14-day suspension and was placed on probation for careless riding that caused a multi-horse spill in the GII Fountain of Youth Stakes. Also at Gulfstream in 2019, Lopez was also issued two separate 30-day suspensions for careless riding infractions within just a few months of each other.But had the jockey on I Love Giraffes been someone with a good reputation like John Velazquez or Javier Castellano, would they even have been suspended? At the worst, Lopez maybe should have gotten 10 days. But the stewards are obviously now penalizing him for past transgressions and factoring that in whenever he gets into trouble.You don't have to like Lopez. You don't have to like his antics. But this was not something that warranted a 30-day suspension. But that's what happens when you're under a microscope. Fair or not. Keep an Eye On PowerlineOwned by West Point Thoroughbreds, John Oxley, Summer Wind Farm and Sarah S. Farish, the word is out on Powerline (Flightline). Apparently, the $1.8 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga purchase is a runner. For trainer Steve Asmussen, he worked four furlongs in :48.95 on Thursday and has been entered in a Saturday maiden at Saratoga, which will go as the first race. He had been entered in a maiden race on June 27 at Churchill but scratched due to track conditions.“So far, he's really got our adrenaline pumping,” said West Point's Terry Finley. “He's shown he has a lot of talent. We sent him to Steve Asmussen in April and his first work was really, really good. Steve became a quick believer and a quick fan of this horse. With the hype around Flightline, which is legitimate hype, we think he's got a shot to get people talking in even better terms about Flightline. As is always the case, there will be some very talented two-year-olds in there, especially considering it's the first six-furlong race. There are people who didn't want to go short. We're excited, but understand we're going to have to have our running shoes on.”Ironically, the horse to beat could be another Flightline. Greenwell (Flightline) is returning off a sharp second in his debut for trainer Mark Casse.The post Is there One Set of Rules for Paco Lopez and Another for Everyone Else? appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.