JOCKEY POSES HALL DILEMMA.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI Horse Racing 

If Patrick Valenzuela continues to ride as well as he has since his latest long suspension, horse racing Hall of Fame voters soon will face an awkward question.

Should they bestow the sport's highest honor on a jockey who's as famous for his drug problems and arrests as his on-the-track brilliance?

``The mission of the Official National Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame,'' boasts the Web site for the Saratoga Springs, N.Y., museum, ``is to honor the achievements of those horses, jockeys and trainers whose records and reputations have withstood the difficult test of time.''

But what happens when a record and a reputation collide?

Valenzuela, 40, has won four of the past six riding championships at Southern California's major racetracks and began Thursday tied for the lead at Del Mar, and he is a couple of stakes victories away from being the third jockey in the country to go over $10 million in purses this year.

With each victory, he improves a resume that begins with the then-17- year-old Valenzuela's Santa Anita Derby win with Codex in 1980, is highlighted by his Kentucky Derby and Preakness wins with Sunday Silence in 1989, and includes six Breeders' Cup wins.

Yet the eternally likable Valenzuela remains an example of squandered talent.

He has served more than a half-dozen drug-related suspensions, including an 11-month ban ending in 1999 and a 22-month stretch ending in 2001. He has been arrested twice, most recently in 1999 on armed-robbery charges that were dropped. His off-the-track problems have cost him more than 3 1/2 years of riding.

This, in a profession where reliability is prized.

Valenzuela's record, wrote Sports Illustrated's Tim Layden, makes former Dodgers pitcher Steve Howe ``look rock solid by comparison.''

Although less-than-angelic figures have been elected to the racing Hall of Fame before, none had a career as defined by transgressions as Valenzuela's is.

The fact the racing Hall of Fame is open to active participants - jockeys become eligible after 15 years of competition, trainers after 25 - exposes the sport to the potential for embarrassing headlines if Valenzuela were to be inducted and then relapsed.

``P-Val will be a worthy Hall candidate, but I would offer this caveat,'' said Hall of Fame voter Richard Eng, the Las Vegas Review-Journal racing writer who is a former Santa Anita publicity director. ``I would wait until he retires from riding before inducting him. ... If he can maintain his excellent record on and off the track until he retires, then he deserves to make it.

``Since I'm an original member of the Pete Rose for Hall of Fame club,'' Eng said, ``I can overlook a few warts on a Hall of Fame candidate.''

That makes Eng typical of the handful of Hall of Fame voters I surveyed.

Daily Racing Form national correspondent Jay Privman, a member of the Hall of Fame nominating committee, said he would support Valenzuela if the jockey expands his credentials with ``a few more'' Triple Crown and Breeders' Cup victories.

``I think you have to judge him by what he's accomplished in the time he's ridden,'' Privman said.

Said nominating committee member Ray Paulick, editor in chief of The Blood-Horse magazine, ``As far as I'm concerned, what Valenzuela did off the track shouldn't be an obstacle to his getting in the Hall of Fame if he has the career (accomplishments).''

Said Dave Johnson, the network broadcaster and ``Down the stretch they come'' race-caller: ``I do think he is tainted. But aren't we all, in some degree? Yes, he is more than worthy to be in the Hall of Fame. I do not think he has to win any more big or small races. ... The reality is that if he gets in trouble again, his chances probably go down the drain.''

Said Larry Stumes, the San Francisco Chronicle racing writer: ``If he were up for election right now, I probably wouldn't vote for him, but only because I don't think he would have accomplished enough when looking at his total career. But if he were to ride for the next five or six years like he is riding now, I would vote for him with no hesitation.''

Valenzuela has fewer than 4,000 career wins, putting him several hundred short of Mike Smith, the jockey inducted into the Hall of Fame last week. In the racing Hall's clumsy procedure, three nominees are named each winter and the top vote-getter is elected. P-Val probably is at least a couple of years away from being nominated.

``It's not my immediate goal,'' Valenzuela said. ``It would be nice if they nominated me to the Hall of Fame. Hopefully, it will be on the calendar someday because of what I've accomplished. I would hope they would concentrate on my riding accomplishments rather than my personal life.''

If not for his problems, Valenzuela already might be a Hall of Fame shoo-in. He might have kept his contract with the Paulson stable and been Cigar's regular rider. He might have doubled his Breeders' Cup wins.

In that sense, his transgressions have been their own punishment, and to rule him out of the Hall because of them would unfairly force Valenzuela to pay the price twice.

I'm a voter, and I share a sentiment expressed by the Blood-Horse editor.

``I hope I have the opportunity to consider him,'' Paulick said, ``because that would mean he's stayed straight.''

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- Kevin Modesti