HOLLYWOOD PARK QUARTER HORSE RACING : Garcia Didn’t Want to Try Bullring

When Eddie Garcia was growing up near Guadalajara, Mexico, it didn’t take the future jockey very long to realize he preferred horses to bull riding, his family’s other sporting interest.

Garcia’s father and uncle worked with horses and bulls, but his three older brothers concentrated on horses. The younger Garcia followed in their footsteps and today is one of the nation’s leading quarter horse riders.

Last year, he won the riding title at the Los Alamitos fall-winter meeting and finished fifth in the nation in races won and fourth in earnings.

This year he was second in the rider standings at the Los Alamitos spring-summer meeting, finishing 12 winners behind Kip Didericksen despite sitting out three weeks after suffering a broken collarbone and riding 97 fewer times than Didericksen.

“There’s not enough money to get me into a bullring,” Garcia said. “I never tried riding a bull. I liked the racehorses.”

Garcia is among the leaders in the Hollywood Park standings and will ride Beinbetter in Sunday’s Ed Burke Memorial Futurity. Beinbetter had a much better chance in the futurity than Garcia’s mount, Dash Down First, will have in Saturday’s Southern California Derby. Corona Chick, seeking her 14th consecutive victory, is running in that derby.

Beinbetter was claimed on Aug. 7 for $10,000 by his current owner and trainer, Carlos Lopez. The 2-year-old gelding won a qualifying trial from the outside post position on Aug. 30 by a nose and has the fourth-fastest time for Sunday’s final, which carries a purse of $190,000--the richest for a 2-year-old stakes in California this year.

“He has a real good chance,” Garcia said. “The trials went well, but the outside was slow. He still broke in front. He’s impressed me a lot since Carlos claimed the horse.”

Garcia left Mexico in 1980 at 15 and rode for two years at a small non-parimutuel track near Salt Lake City. He moved to California in 1984, achieving a dream of riding alongside Bobby Adair, Danny Cardoza and Steve Treasure. Eight years later, he is among the leading riders.

“My favorite moment was when I got to be leading rider at Los Alamitos,” he said. “I always wanted to be around those guys. So far my dreams have come true.”

The Ed Burke Futurity will be Beinbetter’s first stakes. He has won two of six starts and finished second three times. In the finals, he will face nine others, including Mega Dash and Easily A Secret, two of the top geldings at Los Alamitos.

Mega Dash won the Kindergarten and finished second in the Dash For Cash. Easily A Secret was second in the Governor’s Cup and third in the Kindergarten.

Mega Dash suffered a hoof injury in the Dash For Cash and then contracted a virus.

“I couldn’t train him because he was sick, fighting a virus,” trainer Jesse Maldonado said. “He’ll run better (on Sunday) because he needed this race.

“It hasn’t been easy. We’ve done a lot of vet work to keep him healthy.”

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Hollywood Park Notes

Dash Ta Fame won the $21,750 Vandy’s Flash Handicap on Saturday, his first victory since January. Trainer Blane Schvaneveldt mentioned the Breeders Classic on Oct. 3 for Dash Ta Fame’s next start. . . . Trainer Bob Gilbert won Sunday’s Denim N Diamonds Handicap with Ima Lark. Gilbert trained four horses in the race and also finished third with Isaws Sugar Bear, the champion aged mare of 1991.