Columnist: Del Mar, Saratoga put in successful seasons

Monday, Sept. 9, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

SUMMER officially comes to an end on Wednesday.

I know that Labor Day was a week ago, the kids are back in school and the NFL season is already two weeks old, but race fans have their own calendars, and the summer isn't officially over until Saratoga and Del Mar come to an end.

For the East Coast rackies, summer ended with the last race on Labor Day Monday at the upstate spa with the close of a successful and competitive Saratoga meeting.

The left coast turfers got an extra week at the beach, as the 57th Del Mar seaside session rolls out to tide with the Wednesday closer.

At Saratoga, jockey Jerry Bailey defended his title with 45 winners, just two victories shy of last year's single-season record, while taking the spa championship for the third consecutive year. Trainer Bill Mott, likewise, garnered his third consecutive Saratoga hardware, taking the conditioning title with 20 victories. So, although Cigar trained but did not perform at Saratoga this year, his team took the top honors. Saratoga posted gains in handle while total attendance for the meet was a new record.

Great season

While the Del Mar season still has a pair of matinees to go, it seems that, if there are new watermarks at the end of the session, Cigar and an expanded simulcast network will certainly share in that success.

Although this meeting will forever be remembered for Cigar's stunning defeat in the Pacific Classic, it may also be remembered for the resurrection of jockey Patrick Valenzuela -- maybe.

Last year, in the final races of the meet, it was veteran rider Chris McCarron who relived the glory days of Del Mar to clinch a fifth Del Mar title at the ripe old age of 40. It had been 10 seasons since McCarron had registered his fourth title back in 1985 and 14 since his first in 1980.

This year, it's Pat Valenzuela who finds himself on the threshold of a significant comeback at the beach.

For Valenzuela, the fall from grace had been chronicled many times with his notorious and harmful substance-abuse problem, but there is no doubt of his natural talents and abilities to make horses run and to get them running right from the blocks. Pat can reflect on a more recent heyday when he captured his last, and third, Del Mar title four seasons ago in 1991.

So the fountain of youth may not be in the springs of Saratoga but, instead, the sea air of Del Mar. Or maybe it's the change of scenery, the beach, the tank tops or the bill for the experience. Whatever it is, it stirs up the competitive juices of both young and not-so-young and has added a heavyweight fight-type atmosphere to each race in the closing days of yet another Del Mar meeting.

Pine time

This year can be labeled the season of careless riding and suspensions -- and appeals and stays. Each of the three riders who occupied the top spot in the jockey standings this season has overcome time on the bench (and beach?).

Until Saturday's seventh race, Corey Nakatani, who had the top perch for the longest stretch of time, was sitting on top with 40 winners through 40 days of the 43-day meet. Unfortunately, Nakatani started serving a five-day suspension after an Aug. 29 riding infraction that began on the 38th day of the meet. Nakatani comes back on closing day with five mounts and too much work left to do.

In the meantime, P. Val. has been methodically chipping away at the lead, gaining his best stride with a Del Mar Handicap win aboard Dernier Empereur on the final day of August. Valenzuela tied Nakatani on Saturday with the seventh race win on Costly Frosty. But Friday was the turning point of the Valenzuela quest when the 33-year-old rider rolled a four-bagger. It was not, however, the four winners that produced the highest emotions of the day, but the win that got away -- and, as a result, a subsequent suspension -- that has Valenzuela filing for a stay. While riding Fearless Pirate in the Friday feature, P. Val. urged his leading steed with left-handed whipping in the final stages that resulted in an impeded path to the second-place finisher, and eventual winner, Bagshot. The stewards (which are the ruling body for such matters) slapped Mr. V. with a five-day vacation that would have started on Wednesday, but Pat has been granted a stay for the suspension while in the battle for the title.

Ironically, Alex Solis, who himself was benched for careless riding at the beginning of the session and was the rider of Bagshot, has joined the seaside slugfest by grinding out 41 of his own winners at the stand.

And if that's not enough, last year's Cinderella winner, Chris McCarron, who had three wins on Sunday's card, looms in the mix with 38 victories.

Here's the score

So, going into today's program, the score reads like this: Pat Valenzuela and Alex Solis tied in first with 41 wins, Corey Nakatani with 40 and Chris McCarron at 38.

McCarron did not accept any mounts today, Nakatani is still on the bench with Solis scheduled for eight rides and Valenzuela for seven. Closing day Wednesday, McCarron has five rides, Nakatani comes back with six, Valenzuela also with six and Solis rides the rack with 10.

Valenzuela is risking a 10-day suspension, to be served at the start of Oak Tree, for the chance to prove he's back. Patrick feels the trade-off is a bargain and, for now, he's high on the seaside air -- or maybe it's the tank tops.