Valdivia storms back to the top of the jockey standings

Jockeys for the most part are only as good as their mounts. Riding professionally differs from other athletic pursuits in part because extra effort won’t necessarily get you very far.

Yet one wonders if Jose Valdivia Jr. came into the most recent racing week at Arlington with an added layer of motivation. Valdivia has been leading rider at Arlington every season since he arrived in Chicago just before the 2015 meet following an ice-cold winter and spring riding in Florida. In 2018, he won the jockey’s title by 30 wins over Mitchell Murrill. Yet this year, when Valdivia came back to Arlington to ride Aug. 17 following a two-day trip to Colonial Downs, Murrill had gotten hot and overhauled Valdivia atop the 2019 Arlington standings.

That didn’t last long. During the four-day Arlington week spanning Aug. 15-18, Valdivia went 14-4-1 from 25 mounts. He rode three winners Thursday, four each Friday and Saturday, and three more Sunday.

“Hey, it’s my track,” Valdivia, 44, said with a laugh. “Sometimes everything comes together. When I ride, I believe I can win every race; that’s my mentality.”

It’s worth noting that Valdivia, who gets the lion’s share of mounts for runaway leading trainer Larry Rivelli, was well mounted last week. Nine of his winners were favorites, several of them odds-on, but Valdivia did get home four non-favored runners at odds between 5-2 and 4-1 and on Sunday rode a 15-1 longshot. Rivelli played a key role, but agent Steve Leving found some other choice mounts, and Valdivia got into a zone.

So deep was his groove that two of his winners succeeded after breaking through the starting gate and having to be reloaded, which nearly always leads to defeat. Valdivia said that during his entire career before last week he could only recall winning on one such horse. One of the horses that broke through the gate tried to break Valdivia’s foot, jamming it into the stall door before the trigger popped. Valdivia said his foot was numb and that his “pinkie toe looks like my big toe.” Pain’s easier to take when you’re winning at a 57 percent clip.

“I thought I had a great week but now a new week starts,” Valdivia said Tuesday. “There’s never time to sit, enjoy it, and relax.”