Valdivia almost lost mount on Rail Trip

It was April 4, Santa Anita Derby day, and Rail Trip -- one of the most talked about horses in Southern California up to that point -- brought a 4-0 record into the Santana Mile. He'd won his first four starts by a combined 14 1/4 lengths and he looked like the next super horse.

But a funny thing happened on the way to victory No. 5, which looked like it was going to be another runaway when the 4-year-old gelded son of Jump Start opened another huge lead in the stretch. Suddenly, Dakota Phone began closing ... and closing ... and closing. And jockey Jose Valdivia, Jr., trainer Ron Ellis' main man, went to sleep. He didn't realize Dakota Phone was coming so quickly and he almost cost Rail Trip the win. He won by a nose, but it was much, much closer than it should have been.

"I kind of said, 'You better start thinking of a story and come up with something good.' " Ellis said in the Hollywood Park Gold Cup winner's circle Saturday. "If he had lost that race, he might not have ended up on the horse today. I wouldn't doubt if he would have gotten suspended by the stewards and all sorts of things. That was just cutting it too close. He got a little too confident and fell asleep and he had a ton of horse left. I didn't say much to him. I didn't need to say anything to him."

Valdivia was embarrassed.

"That was a huge mistake on my part," he said in the jockeys' room Saturday after scoring what he called the biggest victory of his 15-year career. "But that's how gracious the connections were, they just didn't give it any thought. Like I said, I just got very lucky that I got the head bob because I've never felt so bad in my life when I pulled up. A big crowd on Santa Anita Derby day, I felt like my heart was going to come out of my throat. I was coming back and I was still sweating it out and I was thinking, 'I can't believe this. All I had to do was just kind of put my hands down and ask him for a little more and instead here I am having to sweat it out when I should never be in this position.' "

Samantha Siegel, who along with her dad Mace owns Rail Trip, doesn't even want to remember the incident.

"That's water under the bridge, and that's not to be talked about anymore because he's now won a Grade 1 on this horse at a mile and a quarter and we need to concentrate on the good things that happen and not look back on the things that are annoying," she said.

Valdivia said Ellis and the Siegels never really got mad at him, that they sort of joked about it, telling him not to make it so close the next time. But because he hung on to win the race, he could also laugh about it.

"I remember telling Sam and Ron, "Geez, you rode Eddie D. (Delahoussaye) for so many years and for him that was a long half a head,' " Valdivia said. "Geez, Eddie D. did it every day."

Delahoussaye was famous during his heyday for rallying from far back on horses and just getting up in the last few jumps to win the race.