Horse Racing : Valenzuela Doesn’t Have to Take Drug Test to Ride in Illinois

Considering his troubled times in recent years, jockey Pat Valenzuela has gravitated to the perfect state for him to continue his career. He is competing in Illinois, where for now, jockeys cannot be tested for drug use.

Valenzuela won three races the other day at Hawthorne, the suburban Chicago track in Cicero, where Al Capone and his mob used to park their spats. Earlier in June, Valenzuela rode Top Corsage, a California-based mare, to victory in a $200,000 stakes race at Hawthorne.

Is Valenzuela, an admitted cocaine user in California and a top jockey who tested positive for the same chemical substance a few weeks ago in New Mexico, finally going to clean up his act?

In Illinois, racing officials aren’t able to tell, because of a class-action lawsuit and a court injunction that prohibits stewards from testing jockeys as well as trainers and all the rest of the backstretch personnel.

They can test the horses in Illinois--in fact, it is one of the few states that tests them before they run--but when random testing of humans was begun several months ago, the constitutionality issue was raised. A similar argument is being presented in Massachusetts, which also has been unable to test horsemen recently.

In New Mexico, Valenzuela’s birthplace and the state where he rode his first winner soon after he turned 16 in 1978, he was able to keep riding this year because of a loophole in the racing rules that says the state can’t test license applicants for drug use. That rule is being rewritten.

Under an agreement with New Mexico racing officials, Valenzuela is on what amounts to a probationary period until Aug. 15. If Valenzuela returns to New Mexico, where he says he is building a home, he must submit to once-a-week testing. Technically, Valenzuela is eligible to ride again in California, where he was suspended in March, but stewards here would impose many more restrictions.

Another part of Valenzuela’s agreement with New Mexico racing authorities is that he submit to periodic testing by the Hawthorne stewards if he rides there regularly.

But the Hawthorne stewards, their hands tied by the courts, can’t test Valenzuela. New Mexico officials weren’t aware of that situation in Illinois when they signed the agreement.

A jockey with a far more insignificant problem is Chris McCarron, who will be able to ride at Hollywood Park the next week because he’s appealing a seven-day suspension from the stewards at Suffolk Downs near Boston.

McCarron left Hollywood last Saturday to ride in the Massachusetts Handicap at Suffolk, which is not far from his birthplace. Waquoit, with McCarron aboard, finished second in the handicap, and in a small stake on the same program, McCarron’s mount was dropped from first to fourth for a bumping incident in the stretch.

The Massachusetts Racing Commission will hear McCarron’s appeal July 18. Although he does not disagree with the disqualification, John Giovanni, the national director of the Jockeys’ Guild, said that McCarron doesn’t deserve the suspension.

Under racing’s reciprocity rule, a suspension in Massachusetts prevents McCarron from riding anywhere. However, at Hollywood Park this week, the stewards weren’t sure whether an out-of-state suspension would ban a jockey from riding in stakes covered by California’s designated-races rule.

Before each race meeting in California, stewards designate a number of stakes in which jockeys may ride, even if they are under suspension. The California Horse Racing Board may want to adopt a policy on the matter before it happens the first time.

Churchill Downs has finally distributed the $12,500 purse from the first race on Kentucky Derby day, which was almost two months ago.

Blairwood won the race in a photo finish over Coach, a 3-year-old owned in part by the Lakers’ Pat Riley. But Blairwood ran under an incorrect name that day, having been listed in the track program and in the Daily Racing Form as Briarwood, and as a result the record of his two races last year--his only previous starts--was not available to the public.

Coach has been ruled the winner and Blairwood has been dropped to last place.

And, finally, Dick Mulhall, Coach’s trainer, knows where he stands.

“Until they made up their minds in Kentucky, I didn’t know whether this horse was a maiden (a non-winner) or not,” Mulhall said at Hollywood Park. “I didn’t want to run him next against winners, and the one time I entered him in a maiden race, they wouldn’t let him run because they weren’t sure he was eligible.

“Kentucky was wrong in waiting as long as they did. I understand the part about them conducting a lengthy criminal investigation, but that had nothing to do with who should have been declared the winner.

“It’s this simple: Kentucky racing rules say that a horse who doesn’t run under his own name should be disqualified, and that was never in doubt. It was cut and dried that this horse ran under another name, and as a result my horse was penalized.”

Horse Racing Notes

Risen Star’s $14-million breeding syndication deal with the Walmac International farm in Kentucky was put together after an offer for $1 million more was made by a New York group. Risen Star’s owners prefer to stand the Preakness-Belmont winner in Kentucky, the country’s breeding capital. The syndication makes it almost a cinch that Risen Star won’t run in California as a 4-year-old, which was the plan. . . . Stalwars will make his first start since a fever knocked him out of the Kentucky Derby, running Sunday in the 1 1/8-mile Silver Screen Handicap at Hollywood Park.

Other stakes at Hollywood over the holiday weekend include two 6-furlong races on grass, the Valkyr on Friday and the Hollywood Budweiser Breeders’ Cup on Saturday, and the 1 1/8-mile American Handicap on the turf Monday. High weighted at 121 pounds for the American is Steinlen, who has won four of his last five starts.

There are three major races in as many days this weekend at Belmont Park--the Dwyer on Saturday, the Coaching Club American Oaks on Sunday and the Suburban Handicap on Monday. Kingpost, Seeking the Gold and Intensive Command will be running in the Dwyer, Goodbye Halo will be heavily favored, probably against only four opponents, in the Oaks, and Bet Twice, at 126 pounds, carries top weight against Personal Flag and Creme Fraiche in the Suburban. Gulch, who was a candidate for the 1-mile Suburban, will instead use the 7-furlong Tom Fool on July 16 as a prep for the Whitney Handicap at Saratoga on Aug. 6.

Winning Colors, the Kentucky Derby winner who finished last in the Belmont, will probably return to action at Saratoga and then run in the fall series for fillies and mares at Belmont. Wayne Lukas, her trainer, discounts Triple Crown fatigue as a reason for Winning Colors’ poor showing in the Belmont. “She was busting down the barn afterwards,” he said. “She had trained up to the race good and there’s nothing wrong with her. I just think it’s that she wasn’t herself on Belmont day.”