Hair Is Focal Point of Valenzuela Hearing

Whether Pat Valenzuela shaved his groin area, supposedly to avoid a hair-follicle test for drugs, became the focal point on the second day of a hearing regarding the embattled jockey’s bid for license reinstatement.

Mike Kilpack, supervising investigator for the California Horse Racing Board, who testified before the Del Mar stewards on Friday, said that Valenzuela didn’t have any pubic hair on July 1 at Hollywood Park, where he was going to be asked to submit samples for the hair test. Hair analyses, the stewards were told Thursday, go back further than urine samples in testing for drug use.

Kilpack said that he reported to the Hollywood Park stewards that the head-shaven Valenzuela did not have sufficient strands on his body to do a hair test. The next day, the stewards suspended Valenzuela, who has appealed the ruling. Valenzuela’s urine was tested for drugs three times on July 1. Two results were negative, the third inconclusive.

In an attempt to rebut Kilpack’s testimony, Neil Papiano, Valenzuela’s attorney, submitted a photo, taken on July 7, that showed the jockey with hair in the groin area. The hearing is to resume Sunday morning at Del Mar. The stewards are expected to issue a new ruling regarding Valenzuela.

Jockeys Danny Sorenson and Tyler Baze testified Friday that before May 26, they had seen Valenzuela in the jockeys’ room with pubic and underarm hair.

David Stark, the jockeys’ room masseur on the Southern California circuit, testified that he had seen pubic and underarm hair on Valenzuela during the Santa Anita meet, which ended in April. Valenzuela, whose sometimes brilliant career has been often interrupted by drug-related violations, was said to have had no hair for the scheduled test on July 1.

Under questioning from Papiano, Stark said that Corey Nakatani, another jockey, had also completely shaved his body. “I asked him about it, and he said that it was a Japanese custom to get rid of bad luck,� Stark said.

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Pleasantly Perfect, who hasn’t run since winning the Dubai World Cup four months ago, will carry high weight of 124 pounds in Sunday’s $250,000 San Diego Handicap. The field, with weights, in post-position order: Choctaw Nation, 114 pounds; During, 118; Taste Of Paradise, 115; Night Patrol, 112; Nose The Trade, 114; Decorador, 110; Pleasantly Perfect, 124; and Reba’s Gold, 114.

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Baze said that he would appeal a seven-day suspension that stems from the stewards’ disqualification of We All Love Aleyna in Wednesday’s sixth race.