Hearing Begins on Valenzuela

Jockey Pat Valenzuela’s latest hearing before racetrack stewards is about drugs, but more basic than that it is about hair. So for the greater part of two hours Thursday, Valenzuela, his attorneys and Del Mar stewards heard probably more than they needed to know about hair-follicle testing for drugs.

When the California Horse Racing Board’s expert witness, a toxicologist from Las Vegas, had finished, Valenzuela’s lead attorney, Neil Papiano, thought that the testimony had helped his client move forward in trying to overturn yet another suspension. Valenzuela, 41, has won some of the sport’s biggest races, including the Kentucky Derby and seven Breeders’ Cup stakes. But he has missed years of competition because of drug-related problems.

“I was very satisfied with the witness,” said Papiano, referring to Dan Berkavile, founder and president of the American Toxicology Institute. “He was very truthful, and I thought he helped our cause immeasurably. I think he showed that the stewards and the board don’t know what they’re doing. Somebody had some preconceived notions about all this. It’s as though they’ve changed the rules. Like playing the game with three strikes, but using a different kind of ball.”

Valenzuela has sat out about five months this year. He refused to take a urine test for drugs in January, and was suspended July 2 after he was unable to give samples for the hair test because he had reportedly shaved his body.

Berkavile said the hair test could detect drug use up to three months before, while urine tests generally cover three to five days before they are taken.

Papiano contends that the suspension has interrupted Valenzuela’s ability to earn a living, and violated his constitutional rights.

“Pat received no notice about what length of hair was required for the test,” Papiano said. “It’s not true that he shaved his entire body.”

According to Jim Ahern, a deputy attorney general representing the racing board, when Valenzuela was asked by state investigators to submit to a hair test, he said: “I can’t give you what I don’t have.”

There were some sharp exchanges between Ahern and Papiano on Thursday.

“The length of hair is a false issue, and [Papiano] knows it,” Ahern told stewards George Slender, Ingrid Fermin and Tom Ward. “There was an administrative order that [Valenzuela] was supposed to provide hair samples. He was supposed to produce the samples, and he didn’t do it.”

The hearing will continue today, and after Saturday off, may resume Sunday. Valenzuela, Papiano said, would not testify, but he was present Thursday. At one point, Berkavile, who was asked to look at Valenzuela’s closely shaved head, said he still didn’t have enough hair to provide a sufficient sample, which usually consists of between 50 and 100 strands.

Berkavile, who said that his company has run 1 million tests in the last 10 years, said that when males don’t have enough head hair, there usually is enough hair under their arms to complete a test.

Berkavile said that ideally, he would like strands 1 1/2 inches long to test, but he has completed tests with half-inch and even quarter-inch strands of hair.

Answering a question from Adam Burke, another of Valenzuela’s attorneys, Berkavile said: “[Valenzuela] may not have known that 1 1/2 inches is ideal, but he would know that he needed to have some hair in order to test. It would be common sense that he would need a measurable amount of hair.”

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It is not known how long jockey Alex Solis, injured in a spill last Friday, will be sidelined after having back surgery Tuesday night at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla. Solis also broke three ribs in the spill. This year his mounts have earned $11.5 million, which ranks him first nationally.