Shortly After Injury, Badilla Gets Right Back on the Horse

Jockey Joe Badilla didn’t wait long to make it known that he had returned to Los Alamitos Race Course.

Thrown from a mount and injured on June 25, Badilla was aboard Liaison With Cash in the fourth race last Saturday and piloted the 5-1 favorite to victory.

Badilla, voted the top jockey in the nation last year by the American Quarter Horse Assn., was expected to be out of action up to six weeks. He was dumped by Lady Strawfly, who suffered a fatal heart attack, at the end of a 300-yard race. Badilla hit the ground hard and suffered convulsions before losing consciousness. Hospital tests revealed no serious injuries.

“I can’t remember what happened in that spill, but it really is a good feeling to be back riding,” Badilla said. “My main concern during my time off was my health. My wife [Roxsann] took great care of me while I was out.”

A native of Tucson, Badilla, 26, also was honored as the nation’s best jockey in 1995 and ’98. Last season he won 147 quarter horse races, including 15 stakes events, for total winnings of $3,647,747.

Despite rupturing his spleen during a fall from a horse as a child, Badilla started racing when he was 13 and kept at it. He was the leading rider at Arizona’s Turf Paradise in 1990 before making Los Alamitos his primary racing venue. Last season, he had 939 quarter horse mounts, 812 of them at Los Alamitos.

HALL OF FAME

Trainer Blane Schvaneveldt is expected to be inducted into the AQHA Hall of Fame at the 2001 convention in New Orleans, according to a Los Alamitos spokesman.

Schvaneveldt, 66, has sent out horses that have won a record 10 Los Alamitos championships and nine Champion of Champions. Although he slipped to ninth place in the track’s trainer standings in 1999, he has won 38 training titles at the track and began the current campaign with 3,340 victories and earnings of more than $46 million.

DEL MAR IMPROVEMENTS

Del Mar opens its 61st season on July 26 with $3.4-million in track improvements, including two large-screen video monitors, six additional will-call windows at the entrance and new landscaping.

The monitors will be placed in the paddock and in the infield near the finish line.

A new irrigation system, which can water the turf course in about four hours, will use reclaimed water. In the past, crews dragging sprinkler hoses took about a week to complete the process.

Lights have been added to the seven-furlong chute for safety reasons during early morning workouts.

NOTABLE

It will be a busy weekend for Los Alamitos jockeys, who are expected to have their hands full with a number of trials tonight for the $191,100 Golden State Derby for 3-year-olds and Saturday for the $450,000 Ed Burke Memorial Futurity for 2-year-olds. . . . Those wishing to participate in the annual handicapping contest at Los Alamitos must register at the track before 7 p.m. tonight. The cost is $10. Rules of the event are available at the track or by calling (714) 236-4413. . . . The AQHA Racing Department in Amarillo, Texas, is offering a fall internship for college students majoring in communications, marketing, business or journalism. Interested persons can call (806) 376-4888, Ext. 362.