NEWS
Valenzuela to ride Cannonball in Lightning Stakes
Posted: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 4:19 PM
Racing Victoria Ltd. has granted a license to Louisiana-based jockey Patrick Valenzuela to ride Ken and Sarah Ramsey’s homebred Cannonball in the Coolmore Lightning Stakes (Aus-G1) on Saturday at Flemington.
Victorian regulators cleared the way for Valenzuela, whose career in the past has been frequently interrupted by substance abuse, after conferring with racing authorities in Louisiana and in Southern California, where in September 2008 the California Horse Racing Board ruled Valenzuela permanently ineligible to reapply for or hold a jockey license in the state. For the past 18 months, however, Valenzuela has been riding in Louisiana, where his license was in good standing prior to being revoked in California.
Once approved to ride at Flemington, Valenzuela was scheduled to arrive in Melbourne on Wednesday morning.
Trained by Wesley Ward, Cannonball is set to become the first U.S.-trained horse to compete in Australia when he starts in the Lightning Stakes, the first leg of the eight-race Global Sprint Challenge. Valenzuela will be riding Cannonball for the first time.
The multiple stakes-winning Catienus gelding will kick off his five-year-old campaign in 1,000-meter (5.97-furlong) race. The Global Sprint Challenge features races in Australia, England, Japan, and Hong Kong.
Cannonball finished tenth, beaten by four lengths, in the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Sprint (HK-G1) on December 13 in his most recent start. The Hong Kong Sprint was the final leg of the 2009 Global Sprint Challenge. He also competed in two of the three 2009 challenge races in England, finishing sixth in the King’s Stand Stakes (Eng-G1) and second in the Golden Jubilee Stakes (Eng-G1), both at Royal Ascot.
Valenzuela, whose resume includes winning the 1989 Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness Stakes (G1) aboard Sunday Silence, has won more than 4,000 races in his career.
