SANTA ANITA : Mabee Won’t Hire Valenzuela, Finds Him in Winner’s Circle

Hard feelings by owners toward jockeys seldom last. Mary Bradley took Bill Shoemaker off Cougar II for the 1973 Hollywood Gold Cup that Shoemaker won with Kennedy Road, but Shoemaker returned to ride for Bradley and kept riding for her until he retired in 1990.

Fred Hooper, now 95, still frets about Braulio Baeza not following instructions aboard Crozier, a digression that Hooper says cost him the Kentucky Derby in 1962. But for several years, Hooper penalized blameless Jack Price more than Baeza. Hooper wouldn’t talk to Price, whose only crime was that he owned and trained Carry Back, the narrow winner over Crozier in that Derby.

In 1988, the late Gene Klein announced that Pat Day would never ride for him again. In Klein’s judgment, Day and his mount, Forty Niner, roughhoused Klein’s Kentucky Derby-winning filly, Winning Colors, most of the way around the track in the Preakness, effectively costing both horses the race. Day was back riding Klein’s horses before the summer was over.

In the same tradition, John Mabee, piqued by Pat Valenzuela’s role in Best Pal’s disqualification in the San Pasqual Handicap at Santa Anita on Jan. 24, told Valenzuela that he wouldn’t be riding Mabee’s horses anymore.

Valenzuela, riding Excavate in the San Pasqual, was fouled by Best Pal on the backstretch, and his objection was allowed by the three stewards, resulting in Mabee’s horse being dropped from second to fifth place, one notch behind Excavate. Best Pal’s jockey, Kent Desormeaux, also was given a five-day suspension.

“It wasn’t so much the interference that made me mad,” Mabee said. “It was the theatrics that Pat went through in the race. My horse might have been disqualified, anyway, but Pat jerked his head, and that’s what I think got Kent his five days. So after Pat got Kent suspended, I decided to give Pat a ‘suspension’ of my own.”

Valenzuela rode Best Pal in his first race, helping him break his maiden at Hollywood Park in 1990, and was astride for some of the 5-year-old gelding’s most important early victories, including the Del Mar Futurity, the Norfolk at Santa Anita and the $1-million Pacific Classic at Del Mar.

But when Valenzuela signed a personal contract to ride for Allen Paulson at the start of 1992, it was time for Mabee to hire a substitute jockey, because there would be races in which Paulson’s horses would be running against Best Pal.

“I tried to talk Pat out of making that deal with Paulson,” Mabee said. “I didn’t think it would be the best thing for him in the long run. He was going with a top stable, but he’d be losing some good mounts along the way.”

Valenzuela has renewed his contract with Paulson for 1993.

Like Hooper, Bradley and Klein before him, though, Mabee is already softening his stance toward Valenzuela.

“Pat was named to ride one of my horses not that long ago,” Mabee said. “He was hurt and didn’t ride, but he was still named on the horse. I’ve always liked Pat, and I hope he does well. It’s just what he did, jerking his head in that one race, that got me going.”

Lately, Valenzuela-ridden horses have been crowding Mabee’s stock out of the winner’s circle. Last Saturday, as Best Pal tried to win the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap for the second consecutive year, Mabee’s horse ran fifth while Valenzuela rode Sir Beaufort to victory at 11-1. Because Paulson didn’t have a starter in the race, Valenzuela was able to ride Sir Beaufort for another owner.

The next day, Mabee again had the favorite, Likeable Style, in the Santa Anita Oaks. But Likeable Style ran sixth while Valenzuela rode the Paulson-owned Eliza to victory.

For the weekend, Valenzuela’s mounts earned $762,100. Not even in the top 10 nationally the week before, he moved into third place on the money list with a total of $1.6 million in purses. Only Gary Stevens, with $1.8 million, and Chris McCarron, at $1.7 million, are ahead of him.

Sunday, Mabee’s River Special is expected to be favored in the $200,000 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita. Valenzuela will be riding the lightly regarded Corby for Paulson.

When owners complain about jockeys’ performances, the riders usually accept the criticism tactfully. Rebuttals are not conducive to helping a rider’s business. But there’s nothing to prevent a jockey from riding just a little harder in a big race against the horse of a critic.

Sir Beaufort’s victory in the Santa Anita Handicap didn’t surprise all of the handicappers.

In the Daily Racing Form the day of the race, Ed Fountaine wrote, “When a Hall of Fame trainer (Charlie Whittingham) has won America’s premier handicap race a record eight times, and when that trainer has a sharp horse who’s bred for the distance going in that race again, smart horseplayers don’t head for the window without giving that horse a long look.”

The same day in the same publication, Dave Litfin picked Sir Beaufort and wrote, “Sir Beaufort is a son of Pleasant Colony, whose get usually improve with maturity, and Whittingham has this 6-year-old in the best form of his career.”

The biggest kudos, though, should go to Kelso Sturgeon, whose stake preview in Racing Action had to be written a couple of weeks before the Big ‘Cap.

“(In five years), I have gone out on a limb but twice in big races,” Sturgeon wrote. “My selection in the 1990 Big ‘Cap was 22-1 shot Ruhlmann, and I (had) the 1991 Travers with the 7-1 Corporate Report. . . . I took Ruhlmann . . . because Whittingham was training this horse to be at his absolute best. . . . In short, this was the race he wanted. I feel the same way about Sir Beaufort.”

Horse Racing Notes

With Kent Desormeaux riding River Special, Eddie Delahoussaye will take the mount on Devoted Brass in Sunday’s San Felipe. Desormeaux, who rode Devoted Brass to a surprising victory in the San Rafael, returns Saturday after serving a five-day suspension. . . . The other expected starters in the San Felipe--Personal Hope, Corby and Denmars Dream--may be joined by Big Way, a horse who broke his maiden going 1 1/16 miles on Feb. 14. . . . Stuka, a distant third as the 7-10 favorite in the San Rafael, came out of the race sore and has been sent to owner Allen Paulson’s farm. . . . Exchange, who has won more races at the meeting than her famous stablemate, Paseana, will carry high weight of 120 pounds Saturday in the $150,000 Santa Ana Handicap at 1 1/8 miles on grass. Rounding out the field are Marble Maiden, Battle Quest, Sun and Shade, Villandry, Party Cited and Gold Fleece.