On the comeback trail

Jockey Valenzuela battling struggles with substance abuse

Saturday afternoon in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct Park in Queens, a 20-1 shot named Laissezaller will try to earn an unlikely ticket to the Kentucky Derby. There's an even more unlikely story on his back, where 39-year-old jockey Patrick Valenzuela is flying in from California to ride.

Even in this uncertain 3-year-old season, where we still await the emergence of a truly great horse, Laissezaller will have a tough time getting to Churchill Downs. The Run for the Roses is not for everyone (in fact, it is for very few). But the very idea that Valenzuela is in contention for a Kentucky Derby mount (he also rode superfast Mayakovsky to a fourth-place finish last week in the Santa Anita Derby, but the Kentucky Derby looks too long for Mayakovsky) is cause for a reality check.

Consider: P-Val (as he has long been known in SoCal) began riding again when the Santa Anita winter meet started on the day after Christmas. This is the 11th time Valenzuela has returned from a suspension -- most related to drug or alcohol -- a record of rise and fall that makes seven-time baseball offender Steve Howe look rock solid by comparison.

Valenzuela's most recent suspension was in February 2000, when he tested positive for amphetamines. He previously has been suspended by the California Horse Racing Board for using cocaine and he has admitted to alcohol abuse as well. He lives now in a rented home 5.9 miles from Santa Anita -- P-Val knows the distance because he's run it many times, getting his weight down -- with the oldest of his four daughters, 18-year-old Michelle. He has boiled his life down to riding races, working horses in the morning and keeping a relationship with his family. Because his driver's license is suspended, his agent must drive him to the track (sometimes his mother is the one to drive him home). "To come back from what I've come back from, it's a privilege to be riding again," he says. "Beyond that, I'm just trying to focus on sobriety."

It is axiomatic to call this Valenzuela's last chance. His last chance was five suspensions ago. The CHRB allows Valenzuela onto its grounds under a set of Draconian testing rules that P-Val embraces. He is randomly drug-tested a minimum of eight times each month. They can come to his home, to the jockeys' room, to the backstretch. They can take his urine, even his saliva, on a moment's notice. "They haven't asked to take blood, but I would say yes if they asked," says Valenzuela. Under these rules, he cannot possibly use drugs and escape another suspension.

What is most remarkable is that Valenzuela's skills have scarcely eroded. As a teenager in the late '70s and early '80s, he was one of the most gifted riders in the world. Many of those gifts remain. "He was made to be a jockey," says fellow rider Chris McCarron. "He gets such good run out of horses." Valenzuela can smile like a child, but his face has the deep lines of age. He, too, wonders each time what will be left. "I always pray to God, 'Please let my talent be there,'" says Valenzuela, who rode Sunday Silence to victories in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness in 1989. "It's a gift that I've had since I was a kid and it's amazing that it's still there. Really amazing."

Valenzuela worked his way into the good graces of top trainers by grinding out early-morning workouts at Santa Anita. Patrick Biancone, who put the jockey on Mayakovsky, said, "He's got the fire in his eyes again." Mayakovsky will be a very good miler and Valenzuela may keep the mount.

Of course the public -- and the media -- is quick to seize on a story of redemption and run it into the ground. We shouldn't do that here, and Valenzuela doesn't want us to. "I'm sober today," he said last week in California. That's 12-step talk, and that's good, too. The 12 steps have saved a lot of lives. He knows that his comeback is a daily struggle and, so far, a daily triumph. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Tim Layden is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send him a question or comment.

 

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