Jockey Mike Smith, who won the opening-day stakes at Del Mar, was arrested hours later in Torrey Highlands, Calif., on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, according to local news reports.
San Diego police arrested Mike Earl Smith, 45, shortly before 11:30 p.m. PDT July 20, police told news outlets.
The Pasadena resident’s 2011 Land Rover allegedly was weaving while passing through the area at a very slow speed, prompting a patrol officer to pull Smith over on suspicion of DUI, a police spokesman said. The jockey said he had left a restaurant a short time earlier.
Smith was booked early July 21, then released after posting $2,500 bail several hours later, according to sheriff’s officials. His initial court date is scheduled for Sept. 1. Smith was among 15 arrested by a special DUI task force in an opening-day crackdown.
“I was driving on my home road down here, which is dark, and I got pulled over, and I blew a little over,” Smith told Daily Racing Form. “It wasn’t like I was going 100 miles per hour, or being reckless. I was going a little over the limit on my home road.”
Smith rode favorite Mr. Commons to victory in the featured $112,100 Oceanside Stakes in front of a record opening-day crowd.
Smith, a 2003 inductee into racing's Hall of Fame, is best known in recent years as the rider of 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta.