Valenzuela Receives 60-Day Suspension

Jockey Pat Valenzuela was suspended for 60 days Friday by the Santa Anita stewards after having tested positive for cocaine in a urine sample collected on Oct. 20.

The ruling runs through Dec. 24, but it essentially means that the 27-year-old Valenzuela will not be able to compete until the opening of Santa Anita’s winter meeting on Dec. 26.

Of more immediate impact is Valenzuela’s loss of the mount on Kentucky Derby winner Sunday Silence in the $3-million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Fla., next Saturday. Trainer Charlie Whittingham has replaced Valenzuela with Chris McCarron.

Steve Schwartz, Valenzuela’s attorney, said Friday that the jockey would not appeal the suspension nor seek an injunction to delay the ruling. Neither did Valenzuela request a retest of the urine sample in question by an independent lab.

“Of course, we considered all possible avenues before arriving at this decision,” Schwartz said. “But I would emphasize that this is not to be construed as an admission of any rule violation.”

From his home in Arcadia, Valenzuela reiterated the statement of his attorney and said that he was “sober and clean.”

“Other than that, I’d really rather not say anything else right now,” Valenzuela said.

With $8.1 million in purses, Valenzuela ranks seventh among North American jockeys in money won by his mounts in 1989.

During the suspension--which is honored in other states--Valenzuela will be denied access to the race track grounds and stable area of any meet operating in California.

Steward Pete Pedersen described the length of the suspension as “not too punitive but certainly severe enough.”

The last California jockey to be suspended after testing positive for cocaine was Martin Pedroza, who was grounded for 20 days in early 1987. Pedroza, who won the Santa Anita Handicap last March, has maintained a clean record in random testing since then.

“We don’t have a lot of precedent for the penalty in a case like this,” Pedersen said. “And, yes, this was Pat’s first positive test for us. But there was no question that in our previous discussions with him he knew he was on a form of probation.”

Valenzuela received an open-ended suspension in March of 1988 for failing to honor riding commitments, then was reinstated six months later after a successful comeback in Chicago. He was required to undergo counseling for substance abuse from the race track-sponsored Winners’ Foundation to remain in good standing.

Valenzuela said he is still in the Winners’ Foundation program and regularly attends meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous.