Judge Overrules Stewards’ Suspension of Valenzuela

In a rebuke of the California Horse Racing Board’s actions against Pat Valenzuela, an administrative law judge has paved the way for the talented but troubled jockey to ride horses again.

Splitting hairs, saying a follicle is not the same as a strand, the judge, H. Stuart Waxman, overruled last year’s stewards’ suspension of Valenzuela and vacated the ruling.

The racing board will meet today at Santa Anita to consider the opinion, which was issued Nov. 23 but not made public until Thursday. The seven-member board has the option of accepting Waxman’s decision, rejecting it or modifying it.

On Aug. 6, Valenzuela, long troubled by drug abuse, was suspended for the rest of the year by the Del Mar stewards, who also ruled that he “not be considered for future licensing by the (board) in any capacity.”

That ruling stemmed from an incident in early July at Hollywood Park, where Valenzuela, in the opinion of a board investigator, didn’t have enough hair on his body for a hair-follicle drug test. Hair analysis, which is thought to be more thorough than urine tests, had been ordered by the board as part of a suspension it had issued against Valenzuela in May.

“(Valenzuela) was required to provide one or more follicles beneath the surface of his skin,” Waxman wrote in his opinion. “He was not, however, required to produce hair from above the skin surface.”

Later, Waxman said, the board did not require Valenzuela “to maintain any of his hair at a specified minimum length.... Hair strand or hair shaft testing requires a minimum length of hair. Hair follicle testing does not.... (The stewards’ decision) to uphold Valenzuela’s summary suspension, for maintaining his hair at a length insufficient for hair strand or hair shaft testing, is deemed arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion.”

Those familiar with the ruling suggested that the racing board might be liable for earnings lost by Valenzuela, who hasn’t ridden since July 1.

Neil Papiano, Valenzuela’s attorney, declined to discuss the opinion.

Papiano said, however, that Valenzuela should have been allowed to be relicensed Jan. 1 and that the jockey and Papiano have been frustrated in pursuing that process.

Should the racing board allow Valenzuela to ride, it would be the second time in less than a year that the panel has over-ruled its own stewards.

On April 22, stewards at Santa Anita suspended Valenzuela for the rest of the year, after he had failed to appear for a drug test in January, but John Harris, chairman of the racing board, granted the rider a stay pending an appeal.

At a hearing before the board in May, the board suspended Valenzuela for four months, but gave him credit for the three months he served earlier in the year.

Eighteen jockeys, citing safety concerns, wrote a letter to the racing board, protesting Valenzuela’s stay.

“I am reluctant to comment, because the case could come back before us,” Santa Anita steward George Slender said recently. “I wouldn’t want anything I say now to affect that.”

Slender was one of the three Del Mar stewards who gave Valenzuela what appeared to be a lifetime suspension.

Valenzuela seems to be positioning himself for a quick return.

He has hired Ron Ebanks to book his mounts. Ebanks, a garrulous former jockey who has long been associated with top riders -- Shane Sellers, Jorge Chavez, John Velazquez and the late Chris Antley among them -- and has worked mainly in the Midwest in recent years.

“Pat’s ready to go,” Papiano said. “And he hasn’t shaved any hair off since July.”

Valenzuela, 42, won the 1989 Kentucky Derby with Sunday Silence and has ridden seven Breeders’ Cup winners.

In 2003, when his mounts earned $15.6 million to place him fifth nationally, he swept all five major Southern California meets -- two at Santa Anita, two at Hollywood Park and Del Mar -- in pushing his career win total over the 3,500 mark.