HOLLYWOOD PARK : Pat Valenzuela Returns Today
Pat Valenzuela, who hasn’t ridden since Oct. 6, returns from suspension today, named on three horses at Hollywood Park.
Valenzuela, 32, rode the first two days of the Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita, then took off his mounts Oct. 7 and was scheduled to ride Alex The Great in the Turf Classic at Belmont Park on Oct. 8.
The jockey, who has had previous substance-abuse problems, went to New York but called the Belmont Park stewards and said he was ill and couldn’t ride.
That set off a chain of events that ended in Valenzuela’s being suspended indefinitely by the Oak Tree stewards.
Valenzuela is aboard 8-5 favorite Preferred Road in the fourth race. His two other mounts are longshots, 8-1 outsider Snow Major in the sixth and 30-1 shot Ataboy Chad in the ninth.
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