Ismael Valenzuela

American jockey and horse trainer

• Born: December 24, 1934
• Birthplace: McNary, Texas
• Died: September 2, 2009
• Place of death: Arcadia, California

Valenzuela, a Hall of Fame Jockey, led some of the top thoroughbreds to victories in major competitions. He won both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes in 1958 and 1968, but he lost the Belmont Stakes, and the Triple Crown, in both years.

Early Life

Ismael Valenzuela (ees-mah-EHL vah-lehn-SAY-lah) was born December 24, 1934, in McNary, Texas. He was one of twenty-two children born to Angel Valenzuela and Mari de Jesus RiosValenzuela, who had immigrated to the United States from Mexico. Shortly after Valenzuela’s birth, the family returned to Mexico, where he was raised on a farm and herded sheep and cattle. His took his first ride when he was three and his father put him on a horse. Valenzuela discovered that he liked riding, and he later realized that he also enjoyed racing and competing.

At the age of twelve, Valenzuela traveled to El Paso, Texas, where he found a job exercising horses and cleaning stalls. In 1947, Valenzuela moved to Tucson, Arizona, where he raced quarter horses before switching to thoroughbreds. He won his first race on April 8, 1951, at Rillito Park in Tucson. He went on to compete in thoroughbred races at tracks in Colorado, California, and on the East Coast.

Life’s Work

In 1958, Valenzuela was the top rider in Jamaica, New York, which enabled him to ride in that year’s Kentucky Derby. He won this race while riding Tim Tam, a colt. The day after the race, he went to New York City for a television appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. Two weeks later, Valenzuela and Tim Tam won the Preakness Stakes. Tim Tam was favored to win that year’s Belmont Stakes. As the horses were heading home, Valenzuela had perfectly positioned Tim Tam a length and a half off the lead of Cavan, the eventual winner. Valenzuela felt Tim Tam take a bad step; the horse fractured his right foreleg and hobbled to the finish line. Valenzuela recalled that, “I tried to ease him up, but he still wanted to run. He finished second, and I couldn’t pull him up until the clubhouse turn. Then I felt the tears start to come.” Valenzuela saved Tim Tam’s life by dismounting and keeping the injured leg off the ground until medical help arrived. Tim Tam never raced again, although he lived for another twenty-four years.

In the early 1960’s,Valenzuela regularly rode Kelso, one of the best race horses of the twentieth century, and it was on this horse that Valenzuela experienced his greatest success. He rode Kelso to twenty-two wins in thirty-five important races. He and the horse set other records. Kelso eventually won more money than any horse in thoroughbred history to that date, and he was named Horse of the Year for five consecutive years beginning in 1960. Valenzuela also was honored for his performance. In 1963, he was the recipient of the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, which is presented to a top thoroughbred jockey in North America who demonstrates high standards of personal and professional conduct, on and off the racetrack.

In 1966, Valenzuela won the Canadian International Stakes. Two years later, Valenzuela and the horse Forward Pass finished second to Dancer’s Image in the Kentucky Derby. Dancer’s Image, however, was later disqualified after this horse tested positively for drugs—the only disqualification in the history of the Kentucky Derby. As a result, Forward Pass was declared the victor. Valenzeula and Forward Pass went on to win the Preakness Stakes, but the horse failed to capture the Triple Crown when it finished second in the Belmont Stakes.

After winning 2,545 races, Valenzuela retired in 1980, living with his family in a home near Santa Anita Park racetrack in Arcadia, California. He became a horse trainer and then began teaching yearlings how to race. In December, 1999, Rose Delia, his wife of forty-five years, died suddenly of liver failure. She had been taking the doctor-prescribed drug Rezulin for her diabetes. A few months after her death, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration pulled Rezulin off the market, concluding that its use had caused ninety cases of liver failure, sixty-three deaths, and seven nonfatal organ transplants.

In 2008, Valenzuela was elected to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. In poor health because of complications from diabetes, he could not travel to Saratoga Springs, New York, for the induction ceremony on August 4, 2008. Instead, he was inducted in a special ceremony at Santa Anita Park on June 22, 2008.

Valenzuela died on September 2, 2009, at the age of seventy-four, and was buried in the Live Oak Memorial Park Cemetery in Monrovia, California.

Significance

Ismael Valenzuela won more than 130 major horse races, earning purses of more than $20 million. He rode with a powerful yet smooth style that was often compared to that of the legendary jockey Eddie Arcaro, and he was especially good at racing two-year-old horses to victory.

Bibliography

Blood-Horse Publications. “Kelso’s Five Horse of the Year Titles.” In Horse Racing’s Top One Hundred Moments. Lexington, Ky.: Author, 2006. Recounts Kelso’s illustrious racing history, including information about Valenzuela and a photograph of him atop this champion horse.

Toby, Milton C. Dancer’s Image: The Forgotten Story of the 1968 Kentucky Derby. Charleston, S.C.: The History Press, 2011. This history of the 1968 Kentucky Derby includes information about Valenzuela’s ride on Forward Pass, the horse who was eventually declared the winner.