LOS ALAMITOS : In Big Race, You Gotta Have Hart

He has been called a legend in the world of quarter horse racing. His mounts have won more than $26 million. His name has long been associated with leading trainers and champion horses. He is jockey Kenny Hart.

Hart reached another milestone when he rode Meter Me Gone to victory in the $36,800 QHBC Far West Futurity last Friday night, winning his 2,200th quarter horse race at Los Alamitos.

Hart is the leading active rider at Los Alamitos, and is second only to former jockey Danny Cardoza in victories there. Cardoza, who now trains at Los Alamitos and, coincidentally, trains Meter Me Gone, won 2,528 Los Alamitos races.

That kind of competition could have led to an intense rivalry, but instead, Hart and Cardoza are good friends, as well as colleagues.

“Danny Cardoza and I have been the best of friends since I came (to Los Alamitos) in 1969,” Hart said. “For years and years we were 1-2 (in the standings), and everybody tried to make it a rivalry between us.

“We did everything together--we hunted together, we fished together . . . we took vacations together.”

With so much riding experience between them, what does trainer Cardoza tell jockey Hart before the race?

“He just laughs,” Hart said. “He tells me how the horse has been doing, and stuff like that. Just like if I was training and I had Cardoza on the horse. I could tell him anything I wanted to, that doesn’t mean he’s going to do it.”

Hart has been doing things his way since he started riding match races at 11. By the time he was 16 and old enough to get his jockey’s license, he knew riding was what he wanted to do. Thanks to an established rider, Hart got his chance in 1968.

“Perry Walker picked me up and took me under his wing and started me in the races at Ruidoso (Downs in New Mexico),” Hart said.

After ending his first season at Ruidoso Downs as the leading apprentice, Hart moved to Los Alamitos, where he rode for, among others, eventual father-in-law and trainer Gene Chambless.

“We saw Kenny when he first got started,” said Chambless’ widow, Gwen. “(Gene) thought he was one of the best jockeys around. We always encouraged him to be in thoroughbreds, but he wanted to be in quarter horses.”

Hart isn’t entirely sure he made the right choice.

“I had a lot of chances to go thoroughbred, and I just wasn’t smart enough,” he said. “There’d have been a lot more money in (thoroughbreds). I wouldn’t have had to do half as good as I have in quarter horses, and I’d have made 50 times the money.”

But Hart has done well enough in quarter horse racing. He led the jockey standings at Los Alamitos 11 times before moving back to Texas in 1988, when the lack of a Bay Meadows quarter horse meeting left California jockeys with six months off.

Hart now lives in Capitan, N.M., near Ruidoso Downs, and works on the cattle ranch of R.D. Hubbard and Don Ferris. He rides at Ruidoso Downs during the summer meeting, then commutes to other tracks the rest of the year.

Hart is the all-time leader in money won, and has ridden such champions as Florentine, Town Policy and Special Leader. He is the leading stakes rider at Los Alamitos with 131 victories, and has influenced dozens of young jockeys.

Hart, who recently turned 47, is often asked about his plans for retirement.

“I don’t know what else I could do that I could have more fun at,” Hart said. “I’ve had a lot of spills, but I still get around good and I still enjoy riding. I’d like to ride another couple of years, as long as I’m doing good.”

And he still has at least one unrealized goal.

“The only big race I haven’t won is the All American (Futurity),” he said. “I rode that son of a buck, like, 16 times, and not won it. I’ve run everywhere you can run in that race, and not won it. I’d like to win the All American before I quit.”

Los Alamitos Notes

Jockey G.R. Carter was involved in a spill in the sixth race Saturday night, then returned and won the 10th race, the QHBC Far West Derby. Carter rode Follow The Sign to victory for owner Patricia Visscher and trainer H.J. Visscher. . . . There is no live racing at Los Alamitos on Thanksgiving. Racing will resume Friday, with a 7:15 p.m. post time.