Jockey Stimpson Killed in Auto Accident

Jockey Dusty Stimpson, who scored the biggest win of his career less than a month ago aboard Your First Moon in the $1,256,600 Los Alamitos Million, was killed early Tuesday morning in a single-car accident.

The cause of the accident, which occurred as Stimpson and his girlfriend, Jody Behunin, were returning home from a New Year’s Eve concert in Bakersfield, is under investigation.

Stimpson, 29, was the passenger in a car driven by Behunin when it struck a guard rail, then a bridge abutment at the intersection of the 5 and 60 freeways entering Los Angeles.

Stimpson and Behunin were ejected from the vehicle. He was killed instantly while Behunin, who works as an assistant trainer to Santiago Rodriguez at Los Alamitos, was taken to County-USC Medical Center.

According to veteran trainer Arthur “Curley” Ortiz, a longtime friend of Stimpson who had also attended the concert in Bakersfield, Behunin was in critical but stable condition late Tuesday afternoon with multiple injuries.

“He was like my son,” Ortiz said. “We were very, very close. He was one of the best people I’ve ever known. He was a good rider and a good person. He never had a bad thing to say about anybody.

“We had gotten rooms in Bakersfield, but Dusty wanted to get home early because he said he had some personal things he needed to take care of.”

A native of Ogden, Utah, Stimpson has been riding at Los Alamitos since 1994 and his 44 career stakes victories put him 15th on the all-time list at the track. He began his career at Wyoming Downs in the middle of 1990.

In 2001, he was the second-leading rider in terms of earnings with nearly $1.8 million and was seventh in victories with 78, including 12 in stakes races.

His win on Your First Moon, who is trained by former star rider Danny Cardoza, was his second in a row in the Million. He won the race for the same connections on Dashing Knud in 2000. It was one of three lucrative wins for Dashing Knud that year and he was named the champion 2-year-old.

In 1999, Stimpson won the All American and Los Alamitos Derbies with 3-year-old champion Old Habits and the Bull Raustus, MCI World Com Challenge Championship and Pat Hyland Handicaps with Hateful Hanna, the top distance quarter horse of the year.

“I think Dusty’s one of the best and most underrated jockeys in the country,” Cardoza once said. Attempts to reach the trainer Tuesday were unsuccessful.

“We’re all in complete shock and we would like to extend our sincere condolences to his family,” said H. Rick Henson, Los Alamitos president and general manager. “Dusty was a gentleman on and off the track and we will miss the class and talent that he brought to this sport.”

Los Alamitos has had its share of tragedy in recent months. Last March, trainer Bob Gilbert was critically injured when he was beaten and robbed of $4,000 early one morning in a remote area of the track. Gilbert, who is hoping to return to training this year, had been at the Pechanga casino in Temecula and was returning to his barn when he was attacked.

Three months ago, talented jockey Oscar Andrade, 21, was left paralyzed when involved in a spill and last weekend jockey Iggy Puglisi, a regular on the thoroughbred circuit in Southern California, suffered three fractured vertebrae and a broken right knee in a spill and probably will be sidelined for several months.

Ortiz said a memorial service is planned for Stimpson in Southern California and said the rider will be buried in Utah. Stimpson is survived by his parents, two brothers and a sister.