Desormeaux Has Big Day; Valenzuela Injured in Spill

Kent Desormeaux became the third jockey at Hollywood Park to ride six winners on one card and Pat Valenzuela escaped serious injury in a spill that killed two horses as the Inglewood track ran 13 races Friday night.

On a program that started at 4 p.m. and ended about six hours later, Desormeaux joined Bill Shoemaker and Laffit Pincay among the six-victory jockeys by winning the first race, races five through eight, and finally the 10th. Shoemaker won six races in 1953 and 1970 and Pincay did it in 1968.

In the fifth race, Valenzuela’s mount, Interwit, was three lengths ahead with about a sixteenth of a mile to run when he lugged in to the inside fence, sending the jockey over the rail. A trailing horse, Buchanan Hollow, tripped over the fallen Interwit, spilling his jockey, David Flores.

Both horses were destroyed. Flores returned to ride while Valenzuela, suffering a bruised rib cage, was kept overnight in a hospital.