Pat Valenzuela

Pat Valenzuela's checkered riding career took another reverse turn Thursday when the Del Mar stewards suspended him indefinitely, pending a hearing before the California Horse Racing Board. Valenzuela, 32, whose sometimes spectacular achievements have been dimmed by several drug-related suspensions and no-shows on big race days, was suspended this time when he failed to appear before the three stewards at 10 a.m.

The stewards at Santa Anita are expected to issue a ruling today that will suspend troubled jockey Pat Valenzuela indefinitely. Under racing's reciprocity rule, Valenzuela will be prohibited from riding at any track in the United States. Valenzuela, one of the leading jockeys at Santa Anita this season, didn't show up to ride March 2 without notifying his agent or the stewards, and hasn't ridden since. The stewards ordered Valenzuela to meet with them Thursday.

Jockey Patrick Valenzuela, 28, is hospitalized at an undisclosed location in San Diego County, according to his attorneys, Sam Silverstein and Nicholas Micelli. The attorneys told Hollywood Park stewards that they will offer "clear and convincing proof" Wednesday that the troubled jockey's problems aren't drug-related. However, Hollywood Park steward Thomas Ward said: "They don't even know really what the proof is going to be. They hope to have the reports Tuesday or early Wednesday.

The New Mexico Racing Commission said Tuesday that Pat Valenzuela has been denied a jockey's license because he tested positive for cocaine. The ruling against Valenzuela is also expected to prevent him from riding in California, where he has enjoyed enormous success since making his debut in 1980. Valenzuela has been on probation in California because of repeated absences from riding and for refusing to be tested by track stewards for drug use.

Pat Valenzuela, the leading California jockey whose career has been punctuated by unexplained absences from the track and reported drug use, tested positive for an unnamed chemical substance last week in New Mexico and was not allowed to ride in four races at the Downs at Albuquerque on Saturday. Although this is the first time after hundreds of tests that Valenzuela has ever tested positive at a track, California officials have long suspected that the 25-year-old rider had a problem.

A horse who has been away from the winner's circle everyplace else and a jockey who had been away from California combined to win the $150,000 Pomona Handicap Sunday as the Los Angeles County Fair ended its 18-day run at Fairplex Park.

Pat Valenzuela was saying last week that one day in jail felt like a year. Ten years ago, when he won the Kentucky Derby with Sunday Silence, must seem like a lifetime. Before Sunday Silence, when Valenzuela was 16 and several months away from riding his first winner, he watched raptly on television as Steve Cauthen, another teenager, rode Affirmed to a Derby win and a Triple Crown sweep in 1978.

ON RACQUETBALL COURT NO. 5 AT THE Arcadia All-Pro Athletic Club, jockey Patrick Valenzuela fusses with a turquoise cap turned backward on his head, swats the air with his racket, then taps the bleached hardwood, signaling his impatience for the next shot. His opponent, Richard Duggan, lofts a lazy serve to Valenzuela's right. Valenzuela bulls his way to the ball and blasts it high off the front wall. Duggan deftly intercepts the ball and deadens it in the corner to go up 14-13.

Don't expect to see jockey Pat Valenzuela around the race track for quite some time. During a phone conversation with Dr. Neal Fisher, Valenzuela, who has had substance abuse problems, said he was going to "take off for three months to straighten out his life," according to Fisher. In a statement released by Fisher through Santa Anita, Valenzuela, 28, also told the doctor he was sick, but would refuse to be tested for drugs.

Jockey Pat Valenzuela, who hasn't ridden since Nov. 2 and who was suspended indefinitely Nov. 15, was set down for six months by the Hollywood Park Board of Stewards Saturday. Valenzuela, 28, was punished for "repeated violations of California Horse Racing Board Rule 1872 (failure to fulfill jockey agreement) and for failure to honor the conditions and terms of probation in the rulings of April 17, 1988, and Oct. 27, 1989." The suspension was retroactive to Nov.