Badilla Cashes In on His Hard Work

Joe Badilla came West from Tucson, a teenager looking to make a name for himself.

Fresh off riding on the Arizona fair circuit and just out of high school, Badilla would show up every morning at Los Alamitos Race Course to ride workouts and maybe pick up a ride here or there.

With hard work, grit and determination, Badilla, now 23, has become the leading jockey at the track and is ranked third nationally. Now, people stand in line to ask him to ride.

“He’s a winner,” trainer Paul Jones said of Badilla. “He’s got extra ambition and a really good attitude. He works hard and everyone likes him.”

When Jones sends out Hitarun, the fastest qualifier for Friday’s $325,000 Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Assn. Breeder’s Futurity, Badilla, the hottest jockey at the track, will be aboard.

Badilla simply calls his fortune “being in the right place at the right time.” But those who know him say he creates his own opportunities. His first stakes victory in 1993 was aboard a 23-to-1 shot, but Badilla found a way to get into the winner’s circle.

“He’s a good horseman,” said trainer Blane Schvaneveldt. “He’s always under control. There’s not anything that bothers him on a horse, and he has a very steady hand.”

Badilla won six consecutive races over a two-day period in August. He was aboard the Double Bar S Ranch’s Strawflyin Buds Sept. 5 when the colt won the $137,000 California Sires Cup Futurity. A week later, he won seven races in a single day while riding mounts at Los Alamitos and the Fairplex at Pomona.

When 1995 Champion quarter horse Winalota Cash’s regular rider, Billy Peterson, retired at the end of last season, Badilla replaced him. Winalota Cash, a gelding that has won three of its five starts and finished second twice, is ranked the nation’s best horse in the the American Quarter Horse Assn. Racing Poll.

Badilla has 123 victories this season and he has no preferences what he rides or who he rides for.

“I don’t like to settle down in just one barn,” he said. “You can get carried away riding for just one guy. It’s better to ride for everyone.”

So he shows up early each morning, talks to trainers and works out their horses.

He also downplays his success.

“I’ve been pretty lucky so far,” he said.

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Another purse increase, this one 14%, went into effect Friday, marking the fourth purse increase of the meet at Los Alamitos. The increase was somewhat of a surprise, considering that the on-track handle at the course is down more than 3% and the average nightly handle, including satellite feeds, trails last year’s totals by more than 9%.

Last year, the track posted a record average nightly handle of $1,198,790.68, which included all revenue from satellite betting. This year’s average per night has dropped to $1,090,588.50.

A large part of the decline stems from a pending lawsuit in Nevada, where Los Alamitos no longer transmits its racing card to casinos via satellite. Los Alamitos General Manager Rick Henson also said Illinois, the largest customer in the world for the Los Alamitos signal outside of California, has beefed up its racing menus with signals from competing tracks.

But Henson said the track is offsetting some of those losses by running fewer quarter horse races with bigger fields. That makes for bigger purses and, the theory goes, helps attract better horses. The better the field, he said, the larger the wagering usually is.

Additionally, next month Los Alamitos’ races will be sent via satellite to off-track betting locations in New York for the first time.

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A total of 157 horses are expected to go on sale Sunday when the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Assn. Yearling and Mixed Stock sale returns to the track after being held elsewhere for several years.

The sale, which begins at 10 a.m. in the barn area adjacent to the grandstands, is expected to feature 96 yearlings sired by some of the track’s most well-known stallions.

The mixed stock offering is supposed to include 24 horses of racing age, 31 broodmares, of which 26 are in foal, three weanlings and two stallions. Last year the sale, which has been held at various sites for the last 20 years, had an average sale price of $5,899 for yearlings and $4,947 for mixed stock.

The sale will be carried via satellite and phone bids will be accepted. For more information call Mike Fones at (714) 236-1755.

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An hour before the main sale, track majority owner Edward C. Allred will auction off 17 appaloosa he has bred, including seven yearlings. Nine broodmares, all of whom are in foal, also will be on the auction block. Allred ranks second in the nation among breeders of quarter horses, with earnings of $769,264 this year.

Notes

Trainer John Cooper recently became the third person in history to win 900 quarter horse races. Only Blane Schvaneveldt (3,269) and Caesar Dominguez (907), who is now conditioning thoroughbreds, have won more. . . . Jockey Frank Quesada, 31, has returned to racing after a two-year break because of problems making weight. He was the track’s leading Arabian rider in 1992. . .Allred announced that beginning in 1998 the track will pay a $1 million bonus to the owner of any horse that can win all three futurities, the Kindergarten, Ed Burke and Los Alamitos Million. . . . An equine care seminar sponsored by the American Quarter Horse Assn. will be held Saturday from 8 to 10 a.m. in the Lower Club House at Los Alamitos. Quarter horse trainers, experts on nutrition, feeding and grooming are expected to take part. For information call (800) 831-4447.