Valenzuela Set for March Debut

Longtime horseman Martin Valenzuela, Jr., who presented his first sales consignment at last year's Barretts May Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training, will make his March Select Sale debut with a

12-horse consignment when the auction company returns to Del Mar next Wednesday.

“It was something I always wanted to do throughout my career as a trainer, I wanted to venture off and have a consignment–to buy and sell horses,” Valenzuela said while fighting California traffic on the way back to Los Angeles after training at Del Mar Tuesday. “And this looked like a good time because I think the market on horses is going back up. There was a period where everything went down and I just think it's on the upswing again.”

“I have a business partner, Mr. Bob Grayson, and we're on the same page as to what we want to do,” Valenzuela added.

Valenzuela and Grayson, also a trainer, operate out of a farm in Bakersfield, California.

“We both hold trainer's licenses, but we run a lot of horses under his name,” Valenzuela explained of the partnership. “We went to Keeneland for the first time a few years ago and we did really well at the races. Then we bought to pinhook two years ago and we basically sold everything we bought last May. So last year, we bought about 18-20 yearlings to pinhook.”

The consignment's Barretts juveniles were bought for prices from $10,000 to $60,000 and Valenzuela thinks there is plenty of quality to find in that moderate price range.

“I think when you get into the six-figure price range, if anything goes wrong, it's tough to recoup your money in that range,” Valenzuela said. “I think there are very good horses that come in the mid-level range and that's what we are trying to do. We are trying to buy athletes with some pedigree and that's what we like to sell.”

Among the consignment's highlights is hip 77, a daughter of Colonel John out of Peggarty (Speightstown).

“I am really excited about the Colonel John filly,” Valenzuela said of the $20,000 OBS August yearling. “She is a really precocious filly and very athletic. She is very keen–she has a notion of what she wants to do and what she is supposed to do.”

Also catalogued is hip 22, a son of Malibu Moon, who cost $50,000 at Keeneland September, and hip 41, a filly by Kitten's Joy who sold for $60,000 last fall at Keeneland.

While Valenzuela's name might be a new addition to the catalogue, the horseman brings a lifetime of experience to the role. Coming from a family chock full of riders and trainers, the Californian started his racing career at an early age.

“I started actually at Agua Caliente Racetrack in Tijuana,” Valenzuela recalled. “You grew up being a horseman down there because it was lower-tier horses that we had–you had to be a good leg man.”

“I galloped for 30 years,” he continued. “And I started working with my father as an assistant trainer from the time I was 16. I took out my trainer's license when I was 18. I've had a small stable and I've worked for countless trainers here in Southern California.”

His early experiences working for his father, Martin Valenzuela, Sr., would seem to make Valenzuela a natural for the pinhooking game.

“I was born and raised here in the States, but we lived close to the international border and we went to Mexico every day,” Valenzuela said. “Through all my father's career, he made it a business of picking out reasonably priced horses and we would break them and train them. And we'd either race them or resell them. My dad would get them ready, work them a half-mile and he would sell. They were an easy sell in those days and a lot of them turned out to be really nice horses in Southern California. I think that experience, getting an eye for those type of horses, the athlete maybe with a little less pedigree, works to my advantage.”

Valenzuela has already passed on his racing savvy to the next generation.

“My son Adrian is galloping my horses here at the sale,” Valenzuela revealed. “He's not going to preview them because he has other engagements, but he works almost everything I have in L.A. at our racing stable. He is planning on riding races this summer. I have another son, his name is Martin Valenzuela, III and he has a couple of horses in training himself and he also works with us and assists with our barn.”

Valenzuela will again offer horses at the May sale this year.

Of future consignments, he said, “Right now, I would say I would like to keep our numbers concentrated, so it's still manageable because we're really hands-on. I'd like to keep my numbers between 15-20, maybe 25 max, in the future. We are concentrating on California right now.”

The training preview for the Barretts March sale will be held Monday, beginning at 10 a.m. The auction will be held Wednesday, starting at 2 p.m.