By Jonathan Murrietta
The racetrack community is coming together to support exercise rider Adrian Valenzuela, who sustained a spinal-cord injury in an accident during morning workouts March 31. Santa Anita will be hosting a pancake breakfast and raffle at Clockers' Corner April 19 at 10 a.m. as a fundraiser to support Adrian and his family.
Adrian is 21 years old and was attending Pasadena City College in the afternoons after riding and working in the mornings, with his father, Martin Valenzuela. Adrian also rode at the Los Alamitos nighttime meeting in 2016, winning one race from eight mounts. He was injured on the morning of March 31 when one of the bandages on the front legs of a horse he was working became unraveled, causing the horse to fall. Adrian will be undergoing rehabilitation in the coming days.
“I've met [Adrian] a few times,” said Santa Anita Vice President of racing Rick Hammerle, who helped spearhead the pancake breakfast. “He's a good, happy-go-lucky kid, well-liked around the racetrack and the Valenzuela name is so synonymous with Southern California racing; they are racetrack family.
Added Hammerle, “The family is so appreciative that the racetrack community is coming together to do this [breakfast and raffle]. I talked to his dad yesterday, and he said, 'Thanks so much.' He was just happy to hear people were thinking about his son.”
Tickets to the breakfast are $10 each, with 100% of the proceeds going to Adrian. Tickets are available at Clockers' Corner, Santa Anita's track kitchen, the Santa Anita racing office, Los Alamitos Racetrack, and San Luis Rey Downs. Tickets will also be available during the morning of the breakfast. In addition, Santa Anita will host a raffle and silent auction at the event. Raffle tickets are $5 each and will be offered in advance as well. Del Mar and Santa Anita have already donated one of their suites for a day for the auction; other raffle items include a trip to Lake Tahoe, a TV, golf clubs, a drone, racetrack memorabilia and much more.
“Everybody's invited, come after training, it's casual, we made it simple,” Hammerle said. “We printed 3,000 pancake tickets and we will be raffling off a lot of stuff; it's planned on a non-racing day so there's really no rush for people [from Santa Anita] to go home, and it's late enough for everyone at Los Alamitos to finish their chores early and get over here and be a part of it too, all can be involved to help support Adrian.”
If you're local and want to donate an item to be auctioned off, stop by the racing office or call Ami Atkinson at 626-574-6471.
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