Valenzuela Suspended for Day : Jockey: Stewards to decide today if further penalties are necessary for rider who tested positive for cocaine.

Jockey Pat Valenzuela, who tested positive for cocaine in a urine sample collected Oct. 20, was removed from his mounts Thursday at Santa Anita but the board of stewards delayed until this morning their decision on further penalties.

The stewards also are investigating an apparent breakdown in communication between their drug testing laboratory and local racing board investigators. According to several sources, a laboratory representative told a racing board investigator last Sunday that Valenzuela’s Oct. 20 sample had tested clean when, in fact, results of the test had not been confirmed.

As a result of that report--given over the phone--the stewards allowed Valenzuela to be named on horses this week. Then, late Wednesday afternoon, the stewards received formal documentation of Valenzuela’s positive test.

The delay in the ruling also left trainer Charlie Whittingham and majority owner Arthur Hancock without a definite rider on Kentucky Derby winner Sunday Silence for the $3-million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Gulfstream Park Nov. 4.

“It’s my policy to leave any jockey decisions up to the trainer,” Hancock said from his Stone Farm in Lexington, Ky. “Charlie’s got much more experience in these matters than I do.”

Whittingham said: “I won’t make a decision on who rides the colt until the stewards make their decision.”

Whittingham did prepare for Valenzuela’s possible suspension, however, by letting Chris McCarron work Sunday Silence six furlongs Thursday morning. The sleek black colt responded with a clocking of 1:12 1/5, which was the fastest workout of the day at the distance.

“If something should happen that Pat can’t ride, I wanted to make sure Chris had a feel of the horse,” Whittingham said.

After praising Sunday Silence’s workout, McCarron said that he looked forward to the possibility of riding the colt in the Classic.

“You never like to benefit from another person’s misfortune,” said McCarron, who won the 1988 Classic on Alysheba. “But I would be lying if I said I don’t want to ride Sunday Silence.”

Steward Pete Pedersen said he and fellow stewards Hubert S. Jones and Thomas Ward had the option of “suspension, fine or referral of the case to the racing commission” in the Valenzuela matter.

“We realize there is a need to resolve the situation because the Breeders’ Cup is so close,” Pedersen said. “But even though we believe we have all the facts at hand, we felt it best to take a day to consider everything before making a decision.”

The stewards met for more than two hours Thursday morning with Valenzuela, his attorney Steve Schwartz, two members of the local racing board investigative unit, and Jay Weiss, vice president of BPL Toxicology Laboratories in Tarzana.

According to Pedersen, a lab technician at BPL told racing board investigator Jeff Crandall last Sunday that Valenzuela’s Oct. 20 sample had tested negative for a list of controlled substances, among them cocaine.

Pedersen noted further that another of Valenzuela’s samples, collected last Sunday, had tested negative for all substances in a report issued Tuesday. It was not until Wednesday that the stewards received official word on the Oct. 20 test, a delay caused apparently by the necessity to confirm the presence of cocaine.

“We are now satisfied that Pat did test positive,” Pedersen said Thursday after the hearing. “There was obviously a misunderstanding between the lab and the investigator on that telephonic report, and that’s something we are looking into.

“It makes us (the stewards) feel like suckers, to go ahead and let the rider be named on horses,” Pedersen added. “However, in this particular case the miscommunication is a red herring. The only important thing is the test itself. And from the experts we’ve talked to, it is accurate.”

Weiss said Thursday that BPL president and technical supervisor Nissan Pardo would be interviewing the lab technician who issued Sunday’s oral report on Valenzuela’s test, and would pass along his findings to the Santa Anita stewards.

“Beyond that, I don’t think it would appropriate to comment further on the matter,” Weiss said.

Mike Kilpack, the Southern Region supervisor of racing board investigators, was conducting his own inquiry into the incident. He noted that the racing board had been using the BPL drug-testing services for jockeys and other licensed personnel for about 18 months.

“We have received verbal reports from BPL many times in the past, but this is the very first time something has gone wrong,” Kilpack said. “I would imagine there will be some changes in-house in terms of verifying any reports in the future.”

Steve Schwartz, Valenzuela’s attorney, said that the discrepancy in lab reports would be considered in any legal response the jockey might have to the stewards’ ultimate ruling.

“But there are a lot of considerations to be made, and not only regarding the tests,” Schwartz said. “Certainly the human factor must be taken into account, and the well-being of the individual involved.”

Schwartz would not say if Valenzuela would seek an injunction to continue riding in the event a suspension is handed down.

The last time a jockey was suspended because of a positive drug test in Southern California was in February, 1987, when Martin Pedroza got a 20-day suspension.

In March of 1988, Valenzuela was suspended indefinitely for failing to honor riding commitments. He was reinstated six months later after spending the summer competing at Hawthorne Race Course in Chicago. Valenzuela has been tested regularly since his return, but not nearly as often in recent months.

“In 20 to 30 tests, Pat has never had a positive before,” Pedersen said. “But he has been a concern for some time.”

Valenzuela’s struggle with drug dependency received national attention last May when he won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes aboard Sunday Silence, defeating the darling of the East Coast, Easy Goer, in both races.

Easy Goer bounced back to defeat Sunday Silence in the subsequent Belmont Stakes, which set up the ultimate showdown between the two colts in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. The winner figures to be voted horse of the year.

Whittingham, who is also 25% owner of Sunday Silence, was sticking steadfastly by the beleaguered Valenzuela in the midst of the controversy.

“If he’s suspended, then he can’t ride him, can he?” Whittingham said. “But until something happens, Valenzuela is No. 1 and McCarron is No. 2.”