Rosario and Bejarano battle for Del Mar riding title

Sep 1st, 10
DEL MAR — Joel Rosario and Rafael Bejarano are locked in a battle for Del Mar’s riding title, but the two jockeys nearly collided in the third race Sunday in what could have been a disaster for both of them.

Rosario, the leading jockey of the meeting with 43 wins, saw Bejarano get thrown violently from his mount, Wallstreeter, near the half-mile pole. Rosario, just behind Wallstreeter with his horse, Include Me Out, made the snap judgment to steer his horse around Bejarano. The move cost Rosario any chance to win the race, but it saved Bejarano from being seriously injured or worse.

Bejarano was treated and released from Scripps La Jolla Hospital that day and actually cleared to ride races later in the card. He opted to rest and heal and is expected to be back racing Wednesday, just three days after the accident that looked more horrific than it actually was.

“I just hope he’s OK and that he can make it back,” said Rosario, who won the jockey title here last year and also was leading rider at Hollywood Park this spring. Bejarano won the title here in 2008.

They may be battling for the jockey title, fighting for the bronze trophy that comes with it, but Rosario, 25, and Bejarano, 28, have tremendous respect for each other. They represent the new generation of riders who are all business and as professional as any businessman in a suit and tie.

“We’re both working really hard,” said Rosario, who leads Bejarano by two wins with seven racing days left. “I’m trying to do it again, but I know Rafael is going to be tough to beat.”

Bejarano proved his toughness after a similar spill on opening day at Del Mar last year. But that time, after falling from a horse that broke down, Bejarano was run over by a trailing horse. He was struck in the face and suffered severe facial injuries that required extensive surgery and sidelined him nearly the entire meeting.

“I got off to a slow start here (once trailing Rosario by eight going into Day 13), but I’m very happy with where I am now,” Bejarano said before his spill last week. “I feel like I’m riding well. I’m healthy, and I’m enjoying it. We’re getting good business right now, and I have a lot of motivation to finish the meet strong. It’s so hard to win here with all the competition.”

The competition could have been much tougher, but two accidents involving young jockeys, Tyler Baze and Joe Talamo, resulted in a complete change in the course of Del Mar’s race meet.

Baze suffered severe fractures around his right eye, a bruised retina and a broken nose when he was head-butted by his horse on July 24, and Talamo broke his left wrist Aug. 5 in a spill from a horse that later was euthanized. Baze had won four races in the first four days before getting injured. His agent, Vic Stauffer, said Baze is pointing for the Oak Tree meeting starting Sept. 29.

Talamo was off to a blazing start, winning 12 races in the first 11 days and was tied for second with Bejarano, seven behind Rosario. He also is pointing for the Oak Tree meeting for his return to riding.

Talamo’s agent, Scott McClellan, can list six stakes races, 30 races total, that Talamo, who is 20, would have ridden.

“It was devastating because of how well he was doing against all the top riders at Del Mar,” McClellan said.

With those two young stars out, enter veteran jockey Patrick Valenzuela, who most felt had ridden his last race in California. Valenzuela had been racing in Louisiana after the California Horse Racing Board suspended him permanently for alcohol and drug abuse in September 2008. The CHRB reinstated Valenzuela on July 22, opening up Valenzuela’s return for the second week of racing. All Valenzuela has done since then is ride like a 20-something-year-old. He has 23 wins (19 seconds and 18 thirds) from 150 mounts and is third in wins behind Rosario and Bejarano in the jockey standings, two ahead of Victor Espinoza.

“I was pretty confident and pretty optimistic,” Valenzuela said. “I thought it could happen, and I even thought I could get to the top of the standings. But to be third and to compete with these guys half my age and get support from the horsemen means a lot to me. I’m no different than they are. I’m sure they like being No. 1 and work to be that. I know I love being No. 1 at a meet.”

Valenzuela has won five Del Mar riding titles, the last in 2003. He knows what a Del Mar title means to a rider’s career. Even being third will mean more business, more riding opportunities, Valenzuela said.

“To win any riding title it shows you that you and your agent are working together hard and putting business first,” Valenzuela said. “If we would have been here at the start of the meet, who knows, it might have happened. To do as well as we’re doing at this meet is a thrill in itself. It means a lot to me. It opens other doors. It opens doors to stakes horses. It opens people’s eyes.”

Valenzuela has been impressed with Rosario and Bejarano.

“I have a lot of respect for those two individuals on top of the standings,” Valenzuela said. “I don’t know them that well, but they show a lot of class. They work really hard. Bejarano is a great rider, and Joel is really coming into his own right now. I just hope I can get back on top of them”   By Ed Zieralski, UNION-TRIBUNE