A veteran jockey - Roman Chapa - of Big Spring, Texas has today been accused of using an electric device to force his horse to run faster and win in Texas, though he now claims that "someone was trying to frame him."
With a track record of cheating, he's now being charged with unlawful influence on racing after being allegedly caught in the act, photographed using the device near the finish line of a recent race.
Running in fifth place on January 17 in the ninth race at Sam Houston Race Park, his mouth Quiet Acceleration suddenly pressed on to the front of the pack and won by half a length.
A photo of Chapa was taken by track photographer Jack Coady just before the finish of the race, and according to a probably cause complaint the day after the race, Coady was contacted by Chapa to take down the photo from his website because "it was a bad picture".
Then being confronted by Texas Department of Public Safety Investigator Jeff Green, Chapa denied even seeing the photo at first before going on to claim it was "photo-shopped and someone was trying to frame him".
Chapa was suspended two days following the race by Texas Racing Commission stewards pending an investigation and hearing.
ESPN now reports that the jockey is facing a felony charge and that a warrant for his arrest was issued on Tuesday, with authorities so far unable to locate him.
1994 saw Chapa sanctioned by officials in Texas for using a nail to spur on his horse Silver Sixes at the Gillespie County Fair.
That incident saw him suspended from racing for nine months and fined $2,500 at the time.
He was further suspended for five years by New Mexico racing officials after reportedly being caught using an electrical device back in 2007, and Chapa was also suspected of using a device in 2014 after a Peta investigation caught assistant trainer Scott Blasi on-tape talking about the jockey using a buzzer.
Chapa received a sentence of 10 days in 2002 for a plea deal on cruelty to animals when police claimed he "torture[d] an animal, namely a dog, by beating it with a strap."