by Pete Denk

Derek Bell, one of seven jockeys Tampa Bay Downs banned from its grounds last December, said the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau questioned him about Tampa’s third race on January 29, 2006: a $12,500 maiden claiming race for three-year-olds.

Bell’s mount, Greatest Creation, contested the pace for three furlongs and tired, finishing seventh at 8-to-1 odds. The only other banned jockey who rode in that race was Ricardo Valdes, who finished second on CoCoa Beach Rocket at 4.30-to-1.

“A couple days before they made me leave Tampa, they took me in an office and asked me about a race that was run here last January. They asked me if I had seen anybody do anything wrong in the race or if anybody approached me about how my horse was gonna run,” Bell said. “I told them there was nothing weird in the race that I knew of, and people ask me if I like my horses every single day, everywhere. The grooms and the other trainers want to know if that first-timer can run or can this one run, but it’s just shop talk.”

The TRPB also asked Bell if he knew Valdes.

“Of course I said I did know him, because we’re in the same jockey colony and in the same jock’s room together, but I don’t know him as a person. We’re not good friends,” Bell said. “They kept going in circles, trying to get me to confess or give them whatever they were looking for. I think they were trying to get me to say someone I knew fixed a race, which is bull…”

Ten jockeys were banned last December, including the Tampa seven: Bell, Valdes, Jorge G. Bracho, Luis A. Castillo, Jose H. Delgado, Terry Houghton, and Joe Judice. Tampa Bay Downs General Manager Peter Berube has said the bans are the results of on an ongoing investigation by the TRPB, but he has refused any further comment. TRPB President Frank Fabian did not return a call seeking comment.

In the race in question, the 3.10-to-1 second choice, Barkeeper, was shut off at the start, and jockey Juan Umana lost his irons and finished last, according to the race chart. The 2.20-to-1 favorite, Westcoasteastcoast, finished fifth. Bell’s mount, Greatest Creation, eventually won a race on August 25, 2006, at Mountaineer Park in his 13th career start.

Bell, who lives in Oldsmar, Florida, with his wife Brandy and their four-year-old daughter, said he has been trying to find a new place to ride, but tracks in Florida, Kentucky, and Arkansas have turned him down.

“I’m contemplating on selling my house,” Bell said. “If I can’t ride here, I can’t make a living, so I have to go someplace else. I’ve done a few small jobs for neighbor friends of mine, like putting up some privacy fence to make a little extra money, but other than that, nothing. I have a four-year-old daughter that goes to school everyday, and I have a mortgage payment and a truck payment, and I’m not making any money.”

Bell, 36, started his career in the mid-1990s while living in a tack room at River Downs for two years while he learned to gallop horses. He won his first race at the Cincinnati track in 1996 and has since won four riding titles at Canterbury Park and one at Tampa.

Bell won his 1,000th career race last summer at Canterbury. For his career, he has won 1,038 races from 6,622 mounts that have earned $12,454,405.

“Financially, this was going to be the best meet I’ve ever had at Tampa because I had so many horses to ride. I’m so frustrated about this. I don’t know what to do,” Bell said. “Every trainer on the backside has called me and asked what I’m doing or if they could help me or if I need money. They’ve offered to sign a letter saying I would never do anything like this.

“I worked my [butt] off to get where I am, and they just took it away with no rights. They’re saying, ‘Sorry, you can’t ride anymore.’ They’re trying to end my career after I work 15 years without any help to get where I’m at. There’s got to be some kind of law being broke somewhere here.”

Valdes could not be reached for comment for this story.

Pete Denk is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer