Valenzuela Barred From Santa Anita

Pat Valenzuela’s often interrupted riding career took another alarming turn Friday when the three Santa Anita stewards suspended him for failing to take a drug test.

The stewards said in their ruling that, pending a hearing, Valenzuela would not be able to ride. He is also barred from the track, which prohibits him from working horses during training hours.

Valenzuela did not return phone calls seeking comment. His attorney, Donald Calabria, also did not return a call. There were unconfirmed reports at Santa Anita that Calabria, who has represented Valenzuela during much of his troubled career, is no longer the jockey’s lawyer.

This is the ninth time that the career of Valenzuela, one of racing’s best riders, has been interrupted by drug-related suspensions and license revocations. He has tested positive at least four times for cocaine and amphetamines. It is unlikely that the California Horse Racing Board will re-license him if he tests positive again.

Friday’s suspension comes on the heels of Valenzuela’s best year. In 2003, he led all five race meets at Santa Anita, Hollywood Park and Del Mar in wins, which no other jockey had accomplished in 20 years. Valenzuela won 287 races last year. His horses earned $15.6 million, which ranked him fourth nationally, and he is one of three finalists, along with Jerry Bailey and Edgar Prado, for the 2003 Eclipse Award for riding. The winner will be announced Monday.

In late October, a week after his 41st birthday, Valenzuela added his seventh Breeders’ Cup win with a victory aboard Adoration in the $1-million Distaff at Santa Anita. Since breaking in at Sunland Park in New Mexico in 1978, Valenzuela has ridden 3,435 winners, including Sunday Silence, winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness in 1989. Valenzuela was unable to ride Sunday Silence in his 1989 Breeders’ Cup Classic victory because of a cocaine positive.

It had been an eventful week for Valenzuela even before his suspension. Sunday, he fired his agent, Nick Cosato, and Thursday, after Valenzuela had hired ex-jockey Corey Black to book his mounts, the rider was a no-show at Santa Anita. He told the stewards that he had sprained an ankle at his home, just before he was scheduled to leave for the track.

Under an extensive drug-testing agreement that Valenzuela had with the racing board, the stewards asked Valenzuela to report for a test Thursday afternoon. Valenzuela, the stewards said, did not show up, and did not respond to repeated phone messages that were left Thursday and Friday morning.

Before Friday, Valenzuela’s last drug-related suspension came in February 2000. At the end of 2001, Valenzuela was re-licensed, and resumed riding at Santa Anita on Dec. 26. He won 221 races in 2002, leading the Southern California circuit, and ranked seventh nationally in purses.

Despite all his continued success last year, Valenzuela was hit with a series of suspensions for riding infractions. He missed a week of riding in December at Hollywood Park, saying that he had flu. His appeals of the riding suspensions exhausted, he was prevented from riding, except for a handful of stakes races, for the first 13 days of the Santa Anita meet. He had won 10 races since his return.

Cosato, Valenzuela’s agent for the last two years, had also worked for him twice before. Valenzuela said that he objected to Cosato’s desire to work for another jockey, Corey Nakatani, while he also booked Valenzuela’s mounts.

Contacted Friday, Cosato declined to comment when asked if his firing was related to Valenzuela’s ensuing problems with the stewards. Cosato said he would continue as Nakatani’s agent.

Valenzuela would have had four live mounts in today’s Sunshine Millions stakes at Santa Anita, including Continental Red in the $1-million Classic. Valenzuela was also scheduled to ride Valentine Dancer in the Filly & Mare Turf, Madame Pietra in the Filly & Mare Sprint and Don’tsellmeshort in the Dash. Valenzuela traveled to Gulfstream Park last year to win the Filly & Mare Sprint with Madame Pietra.

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Sightseek, one of the finalists, along with Azeri and Adoration, for the Eclipse Award for best filly or mare, is the 122-pound high weight in Sunday’s $250,000 Santa Monica Handicap. Sightseek, who’ll be ridden by Jerry Bailey, finished second to Affluent in the stake last year. Island Fashion will carry 120 pounds Sunday, Got Koko 119. Others entered are Buffythecenterfold, Princess V., Sparkling Ava and Star Parade.