Monday, July 22, 2002 | 8:27 a.m.
Ralph Siraco's horse racing column appears Monday and his Southern California selections run Tuesday-Sunday.
The spring/summer racing meet at Hollywood Park ended Sunday, and the riding title belongs to comeback kid Patrick Valenzuela.
Valenzuela could never have dreamed that one year removed from stacking cases of beer for a beverage company miles from Hollywood Park, he would be the only one not toasting a tall cool one in celebration of his title at the Inglewood track.
You see, Valenzuela is a substance abuser. P. Val, as his moniker goes, has had his remarkable riding career interrupted at least eight times by suspensions and license revocations stemming from his addiction to drugs and alcohol.
If not for those "demons, as he calls them, many racing observers believe Valenzuela could've been one of the greatest riders of all-time. There are few who would question his talents in the saddle.
It was yet another lapse to the demons that led the Southern California stewards to revoke Valenzuela's jockey license in February 2000. After being AWOL for days, Santa Anita stewards demanded a mandatory drug test before he could resume riding. Knowing he would fail the test, Valenzuela refused and was banned from the track for good.
P. Val had always been a favorite of horsemen and fans, whom he had infused with fond memories of major victories throughout his career. He won 12 of 14 races aboard Sunday Silence, the 1989 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner and Horse of the Year. He was the first jockey to win two Breeders' Cup races on the same card, doing it twice -- in 1991 with Arazi and Opening Verse and '92 with Eliza and Fraise.
But it was owners Bob and Beverly Lewis who reached out to help the Montrose, Colo., native get his life back on track.
The Lewises, who enjoyed the fruits of racing with 1997 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Silver Charm, own Foothill Beverage Co., the largest Budweiser distributorship in Southern California. While drying out and lobbying for reinstatement, Valenzuela worked at the Lewis' plant loading trucks. It was better than his previous landscaping job, Valenzuela reasoned.
Diligently attending rehab, Valenzuela maintained the support of some high-profile racing personalities, who helped his bid for relicensing 22 months after his lifetime ban.
Under a stringent one-last-chance policy, the California stewards allowed the 39-year-old to return. Mandatory testing, continued rehab and constant supervision were the conditions.
After getting back in riding shape through working horses in the mornings, Valenzuela's comeback was on course for Santa Anita. On opening day, December 26, 2001, Valenzuela got back in the saddle. Now it would be his rapport with the equine that ultimately determined success.
The answer was quick and decisive: P. Val was back.
His innate talent of sending horses from the starting gate and getting them to surpass their past performances put Valenzuela back in the winner's circle and back on the Southern California racing map. By the end of the Santa Anita meet, the 5-foot-5 dynamo was ready to return to Hollywood Park, where he led all apprentices with 25 victories in 1979.
Valenzuela had the Hollywood Park riding title clinched by Friday. He completed the meet with a four-bagger Sunday to reach 70 victories out of 382 mounts. When he wasn't winning, he was often part of the exotics results, accompanying 71 horses to complete exactas and another 66 to finish trifectas.
Valenzuela will be the first to tell anyone that fighting substance abuse is a day-to-day proposition. He thinks he will make it this time, because he has his family around him when he isn't at the track doing what he does best. And he likes it that way.
He comes from a family of horsemen. His father A.C. was a jockey. His uncles Ismael (Milo), Angel, Santiago and Mario were familiar names on the program in the 1950s, '60s and '70s in Southern California. Ismael was the regular rider of the great Kelso. His cousin Fernando rides the circuit and brother Fabian rides in Arizona and New Mexico.
Patrick has lived and breathed racing all his life. He has come a long way from that first career victory at Sunland Park, N.M., on November 10, 1978, but not nearly as long as the journey from Foothill Beverage Co. to the riding title at Hollywood Park.
P. Val might just be here to stay this time. And Del Mar is next on the comeback trail.
archive
