Trainer Velasquez ponders future after selling home near Santa Anita

ARCADIA, Calif. - Danny Velasquez is a trainer on the move.

Recently, Velasquez and his wife Sharon sold their home near Santa Anita and bought one in Carlsbad, Calif., just north of Del Mar. The move will take place in March, and Velasquez said he will spend the next several weeks thinking about his future . He said on Sunday he is considering keeping a few stalls at the San Luis Rey Downs training center in San Diego County, not far from Carlsbad.

Velasquez has one horse in training at Santa Anita, Stealth Drone, who finished sixth in the Kalookan Queen Stakes on Dec. 30.

“I don’t know what I’ll do,” he said. “I’ve got two months. I could pick up a horse or two for trainers who want to send their horses down there.”

Danny and Sharon Velasquez have been married for more than 50 years. Sharon Velasquez recently retired from an office job she held for 20 years, Danny Velasquez said.

Velasquez, 71, has had a small stable at Santa Anita in recent years. He won the Las Madrinas Stakes at Los Alamitos in 2014 with Irish Presence, who was third in the Grade 3 Adoration Stakes at Santa Anita earlier in that season.

Velasquez rode through the 1960s and 70s and began training in 1981, the year he retired from riding.