HORSE RACING / LOS ALAMITOS : Her Arabian Nights Paying Off

At 22, jockey Roxane Losey has started and stopped her riding career as many times as the average heavyweight boxer. But unlike George Foreman or Evander Holyfield, Losey has stopped changing her mind. She plans to stay in the saddle.

Losey leads the Arabian jockey standings at Los Alamitos this summer, the first time she has led in her four-year riding career. Through Sunday, Losey had 12 victories from 45 mounts, five more victories than second-placed Richard Pfau. It’s quite a switch from last winter, her first at Los Alamitos, when she won one race in 24 attempts.

At the end of last winter, Losey finished third on a horse for leading trainer Lynnett Ashby. Ashby had one of the top stables last winter and eventually tied for the winter training title with her mother, Lynn. “I rode third (for Lynnett) and you wouldn’t believe the pressure,” Losey said. “I felt if I messed up, there wasn’t a second chance.”

Ashby hired Losey for galloping, and the two have worked closely since. Ashby leads the Arabian trainers with 12 victories from 51 starters. Losey is one of the busiest jockeys.

“I’m on a lot better horses here (than last winter),” Losey said. “Lynnett gave me the shot I needed. You get a hot stable, get on a few good horses and you’re on a roll.”

Losey, who grew up near Bakersfield in Tehachapi, kept a horse on her parents’ ranch as a teen-ager, but didn’t become involved in racing until she was 17. A year later, she moved to Oklahoma and galloped quarter horses, but didn’t receive the stewards’ permission to ride in races because of her inexperience.

During the summer of 1989, she moved to Omaha and rode thoroughbreds at AKsarben. She won a few races before moving back to Oklahoma to ride thoroughbreds that fall. As it is for many riders, however, weight was beginning to be a problem. Apprentice riders get a five-pound weight break, meaning their horses often carry between 109 and 115 pounds. Losey was able to make the weight, thanks to the hot Nebraska summers, but when she returned to Oklahoma the weight didn’t come off as easily.

By Christmas, she was home and enrolled at Bakersfield College. Her first season as a jockey had been a disappointment. “I guess I had this lifelong dream, and it wasn’t everything it was cracked up to be,” she said.

Losey stayed in school, and with the exception of her parents’ ranch, stayed away from horses. She climbed back into the saddle last summer.

“I rode one quarter horse last summer (in Oklahoma) and came back (to California) and said, ‘I don’t want to have anything to do with it,’ ” she said. “I went 1,300 miles to see if I could gallop a racehorse.”

Once again, she moved home and again became restless. The retirement was once again short-lived.

“I was sitting around and I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” she said. “I went back to what I knew, and that’s galloping. I almost sold my tack several times, but every time I say that, I know I’ll ride again.”

Losey galloped quarter horses at Hollywood Park last fall. Last November, after quarter horse racing had ended there, she moved to Del Mar, where the Arabians were preparing for the Los Alamitos winter meeting. Losey had galloped Arabians at Hollywood Park and believed there might be a future there. Trainer Les Roberts persuaded her to give riding another try.

“I got to looking at the amount of riders, and I didn’t feel there was a whole bunch of riders,” she said. “The Arabians gave me the distances, the race tactics and the weight that I needed.”

Losey has ridden only a few quarter horse races this summer, and those have been 870-yard races where tactics play a much bigger factor than in 350-yard sprints. Thanks to the size of Ashby’s stable, Losey rides almost every Arabian race, two or three a night. Her 12 victories include a maiden race on June 13 aboard King Shawn, who ran the fastest 4 1/2 furlongs--58 seconds--of the meeting. Losey and Ashby are hopeful King Shawn will develop into a contender for the $175,000 Drinkers Of the Wind Futurity in October.

“My biggest problem was I was always hard on myself,” Losey said. “You can’t win every race, and I was my own worst critic. Now, I put a little more fun back in it, and that’s when things started to happen.”

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The Vessels Maturity on July 3 will be the first major race of the summer for older quarter horses in California and attracted only 12 horses for the trials. The race lacks a horse such as Refrigerator, the winner of last year’s Vessels Maturity and eventual world champion. He is training at Ruidoso Downs, N.M., and is expected to make his first start of the year in July. He isn’t expected in California until the fall.

Without him, the 1993 running of the Vessels features several stakes winners, but none have earned more than $100,000.

Los Alamitos Notes

Four Forty Blast, who finished third in the El Primero Del Ano Derby for 3-year-old quarter horses last month, at 2-5, is the fastest qualifier for the $122,000 Los Alamitos Derby, which will be run on July 2. The 3-year-old gelding won a trial by two lengths on Friday for his eighth victory in 15 starts. Four Forty Blast was also the top qualifier for the El Primero Del Ano Derby, but broke through the gate before the start of the race. After he was reloaded, he finished third, beaten by a half a length by Firstdown Touchdown. In Friday’s trial, he behaved much better, running 400 yards in 19.55 seconds. Trained by Carlos Lopez, Four Forty Blast is owned by Jim Streelman and Dennis Boer.

The Kindergarten and Miss Kindergarten Futurities for 2-year-olds are Friday and Saturday, respectively. Both carry purses of $100,000. . . . Arabian jockey Ingrid Wilhelm won her first career race on Friday, winning an allowance event race with the 5-year-old mare CF Kaleidoscope. Wilhelm, 21, is a former swimsuit model, who has been involved in racing for two years. . . . The average handle through Sunday is $922,534, lower than last summer’s average of $996,482.The meeting has 100 nights remaining and runs through Dec. 12.