SANTA ANITA : Valenzuela Returns This Weekend, Retains Mounts on Fraise and Eliza

Jockey Pat Valenzuela, who has missed 20 days of the Santa Anita meeting because of illness and injury, will resume riding Saturday when his five-day suspension ends.

However, Valenzuela, 30, won’t ride locally. He will be in Florida to ride Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Fraise in the $300,000 Pan American Handicap at Gulfstream Park. He is scheduled to ride at Santa Anita on Sunday.

The jockey, who was suspended for “failure to follow established procedures for being excuses from mounts” met with stewards Pete Pedersen, Tom Ward and Ingrid Fermin on Wednesday morning. Dick Murray of the Winners Foundation, a substance-abuse counseling organization, was also present for the meeting.

Valenzuela agreed to be tested for drugs three times a week and to follow the Winners Foundation’s 12-step program. “Pat was receptive,” Fermin said. “The agreement is for one year and he’ll be re-evaluated at that point. We termed it as a recommitment to the program he had had last year that seemed to work well for him.”

Suspended on March 18, Valenzuela was tested for drugs twice last week and both were negative.

Although his contract as stable rider for Allen Paulson was ended last weekend, Valenzuela will be aboard Fraise Saturday, and he will ride Eliza when she tries to become the fourth filly to win the Santa Anita Derby on April 3.

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River Special may be entered in the Santa Anita Derby next week, but that doesn’t mean he will be a starter. “We may enter, look at the race and see,” trainer Bob Hess Jr. said

If River Special doesn’t go in the Santa Anita Derby, he will start a week later in the California Derby at Golden Gate Fields. A decision on where River Special starts next could also be made after he works seven furlongs on Monday.

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River Special, who was fifth in the San Felipe Stakes in his 1993 debut on March 14, worked five furlongs in 57 1/5 Tuesday morning, a work Hess said was “way too fast.” River Special drifted out in the drill, which was the fastest of the morning for the distance by a full second.

“We were hoping he’d go in a minute flat or 1:01,” the trainer said. “It’s better that it happened now instead of five or six days before the race. He’ll come back with an easy seven furlongs on Monday.

“Ideally, I’d like to get two more works into him before the Santa Anita Derby. If the race were April 10 (the day of the California Derby), it would be perfect. But, nothing’s ever perfect. But River Special is perfect physically.”

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Entries will be taken this morning for the $100,000 Potrero Grande Handicap on Saturday and the Grade III race is shaping up as the most interesting sprint of the meeting.

Star Of The Crop, who won the opening-day Malibu Stakes, will start under highweight of 119 pounds and among those expected to challenge him are Gray Slewpy, Cardmania, Regal Groom, Music Merci, Apollo, Fabulous Champ, Bag and Wild Harmony.

A winner in seven of 14 starts, Gray Slewpy will be making his first start since Dec. 12 and the 5-year-old has a history of running well fresh.

Coming off nearly a nine-month layoff last year, Gray Slewpy won by five lengths in 1:14 4/5 for 6 1/2 furlongs, which is the same distance as the Potrero Grande.

Gray Slewpy has trained extremely well for his return. He went six furlongs in 1:12 4/5 March 11, a week after he went the same distance in 1:12 2/5. Kent Desormeaux will be aboard after returning from Dubai, where he and Gary Stevens are participants in a riding competition.

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Plans for Santa Anita making up the two programs lost to rain in January won’t be known until the California Horse Racing Board meeting Friday at Emeryville.

Other items on the CHRB’s agenda are the possibility of permitting keno wagering at race tracks and satellite locations, and the plan on how to replace Dennis Hutcheson, the CHRB’s former executive secretary who was fired last month.

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Horse Racing Notes

Jahafil, who finished last in the San Luis Rey Stakes on Sunday, bled in the race and will race on Lasix if he comes back in the San Juan Capistrano on closing day (April 18) . . . Southern Truce, who is scheduled to have a rematch with Paseana in the Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park on April 16, worked a half-mile in 48 4/5 Wednesday morning for trainer Roger Stein. Paseana went six furlongs in 1:13 Monday morning. . . . Diazo, who won his second straight race Sunday for Allen Paulson and trainer Bill Shoemaker, will make his next start in the California Derby . . . Megan’s Interco, who had finished second in five of his first seven starts, easily won the Santa Anita feature Wednesday. With Eddie Delahoussaye aboard for the first time, the 4-year-old Interco gelding won by 3 1/2 lengths in 1:15 2/5 for the 6 1/2 furlongs. He paid $6.80 as the 2-1 second choice. Longshot Bet A Bic was second and heavily favored Skerry was third.