Venezia Wasn’t Greatest Jockey, He Just Went Out, Did His Job

Two stories about Mike Venezia, the 43-year-old jockey who was killed in a spill Thursday at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y.:

--In 1978, Venezia was one of several prominent New York jockeys under investigation for race fixing. Venezia, for failing to report a bribe, was later suspended for 3 months.

While the investigation was going on, I accidentally met Venezia’s accountant in the men’s room of an office building in Lake Success, N.Y. I didn’t know the accountant, but he knew me.

“I’ve got an ax to grind, because I work for Mike,” the accountant said. “But I’d be the most surprised guy in the world if I found out that Mike was involved in any of this. He’s an honest rider who always gives his best. I’m sure he’s innocent, and I just wanted you to know this.”

--The year before, my 10-year-old twin daughters were going to go trick-or-treating at Halloween and they wanted to dress up as jockeys.

I ran into Venezia in the jockeys’ room at Belmont Park and asked him if he could help.

“Sure,” he said, and reached into a steamer trunk that was bigger than he was. Venezia produced two of everything--riding boots, pants, whips, silks, caps and even the dickeys that jockeys wear in cold weather.

“I need most of the stuff back,” Venezia said. “But they can keep the silks. They’re retired colors that don’t belong to anybody anymore.”

The girls put on Venezia’s gear and it fit perfectly. It was a reminder of how small jockeys are, and how vulnerable they can be to the 1,000-pound horses that outweigh them about 10 to 1.

On Thursday, Mike Venezia was doing what he usually did for a living, riding just another horse in just another race at Belmont Park.

When Venezia was 19, he rode more than 175 winners, leading the nation’s apprentices and finishing second to Bobby Ussery at the New York tracks. Venezia rode 6 winners in one day that December, but he seldom had another year to match that one.

Top horses seldom came Venezia’s way. Typical of his career was 1982, when he rode Air Forbes Won to an impressive win in the Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct. For the next race, the Wood Memorial, which would be Air Forbes Won’s final tuneup for the Kentucky Derby, Venezia was replaced by Angel Cordero, one of New York’s marquee riders.

Venezia never rode Air Forbes Won again. He rode in the Kentucky Derby only twice--13 years apart--and both times was put on horses that had no business being there.

For Venezia, a livelihood was carved out riding cheap horses in races like the fifth at Belmont, and that’s how he died, the victim of a 3-year-old New York-bred gelding who broke his right foreleg at the five-eighths pole. Venezia, unable to pull the horse up, bailed out on the left side, where the hoofs of a trailing horse struck him in the face.

He must have been killed instantly. An eye was knocked out and there was heavy bleeding. An ambulance trails every field of horses during races in New York, but by the time it reached Venezia, nothing could be done.

Belmont Park canceled the day’s last four races and a memorial service will be held for Venezia at the track today.

Allen Goldstein, who had been Venezia’s agent for the last 2 1/2 years, said Thursday night that there was no truth to recent reports that the jockey was considering retirment.

“Why would I want to quit something that makes me so happy,” Venezia said to Goldstein recently. “Think about a guy who has to drive an hour to work and hour back, and then isn’t happy with his job once he gets there.”

Goldstein went to the first-aid room at Belmont Thursday, figuring on finding Venezia suffering from bruises at the worst.

“The other horse just trampled him,” Goldstein said. “I can’t believe that I’m not going to meet Mike at the track at 5:30 tomorrow morning to plan the day’s work.”

Venezia’s mount, Mr. Walter K., was destroyed on the track. Robbie Davis, who rode Drums in the Night, the horse that struck Venezia, was taken to a hospital and treated for shock.

“There was no place to go and nothing I could do,” Davis said. “It happened to fast. It was terrible. Mike was my friend.”

Jose Santos rode another horse in the 1 1/16-mile grass race. “I could hear Mike yelling when he went down,” Santos said. “(Jockey) Chris Antley came into the jockeys’ room 2 minutes after the race and said he was dead. I couldn’t believe it.”

Venezia, who lived with his wife on Long Island, had a 15-year-old son and an 8-year-old daughter. He had ridden about 2,300 winners in his career and his mounts earned about $33 million. In 1982, he had one of his best years, winning 11 stakes races in New York.

Venezia rode Mr. Walter K. in his last 3 races, winning with him on Sept. 8 at Belmont. The horse won only one other race, in 14 starts. The horse seemed to bobble leaving the starting gate Thursday, then bobbled again just before he broke down.

“There was no pulse, no respiration, by the time the ambulance technician reached the rider,” said Dr. Leo Silnick, a Belmont Park physician. “The protective helmet wasn’t even cracked. He must have been hit by the other horse, because I don’t see how a fall like that would have been enough to kill him.”

The first day Venezia climbed on a horse, he said that he was dumped to the ground about 10 times.

“By the eighth or ninth time, they stopped coming out to see how I was,” he said.