A TRAGIC SPILL : Venezia, Not a Great Jockey, Died While Doing 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 conducted, I accidentally met Venezia’s accountant. 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 twin daughters, then 10, wanted to dress up as jockeys for Halloween.

I ran into Venezia in the jockeys’ room at Belmont Park and asked 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.”

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 on 1,000-pound horses that outweigh them about 10 to 1.

Thursday, 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 Venezia never became a star and top horses seldom came his way.

Venezia, who lived with his wife, 15-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son on Long Island, rode 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.

But that year was typical of his career. He rode Air Forbes Won to an impressive victory in the Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct. For the next race, the Wood Memorial, 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 forged by riding in races such as Thursday’s fifth at Belmont, and that’s how he died, the victim of a 3-year-old New York-bred gelding, Mr. Walter K., 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, Drums In The Night, struck him in the face.

The Brooklyn-born Venezia used to say that he got into race riding because he couldn’t pass Latin in high school.

“I had the option of going to summer school to take the Latin course over again, or spending the summer on the race track with my uncle, who was a trainer,” Venezia said. “I went from living in Brooklyn to living on a plantation in South Carolina. It made me realize that riding was what I wanted to do.”

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.

Allen Goldstein, who had been Venezia’s agent for the last 2 1/2 years, said that recent rumors of Venezia’s imminent retirement were untrue.

According to Goldstein, Venezia told him recently: “ ‘Why would I want to quit something that makes me so happy? 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 said he went to the first-aid room at Belmont Thursday, figuring to find 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.”