Better than a 62-1 payoff

Johnny Taboada is a man with a horse and a cause.

Right now, neither are in great shape. But, oh my, what might have been.

The Kentucky Derby is a month away. Taboada never dreamed he’d be anywhere near it, especially as an owner of one of the horses. Then there are the Preakness and the Belmont, completing racing’s Triple Crown, but also not on Taboada’s radar.

Generally, the blue bloods of horse racing, the prominent people with prominent trainers and jockeys, occupy the owners’ boxes at Louisville, Ky.; Baltimore; and Elmont, N.Y. Taboada, of Pleasanton in Northern California, recently shifted from a job in the mortgage business -- “I don’t have to explain why these days,” he says -- to a post as director of operations for a nonprofit data information company in the Silicon Valley, KnowledgePlex Inc.

Taboada and his family live fine, but not exactly Overbrook Farm fine.

But then, for about three magical days, anything looked possible.

They ran the El Camino Real Derby at Bay Meadows on March 8. It is a $150,000 race. Also, a prep race for the Kentucky Derby, meaning that the winning horse, and possibly a strong finisher or two, might be looked at as an entry this May 3.

It certainly isn’t the Santa Anita Derby, nor the Wood Memorial, but the $90,000 paycheck to the winner is a nice start toward eligibility, since those going to the Derby starting gate are those with the most earnings.

Taboada had a horse he bought for $1,000. Yes, $1,000. That’s tip money for any Kentucky Derby trainer.

The horse already had run 11 times as a 2-year-old, twice more as a 3-year-old, and Taboada and trainer Genaro Vallejo were looking for another race. The horse had, after all, finally won, getting home first over a mile at Golden Gate Fields on Jan. 21.

Nothing in February seemed to fit and Taboada decided to let him run with the big boys, the Derby hopefuls, in the El Camino Real. The entry fee was $1,500, or $500 more than he paid for the horse.

So when Taboada’s horse made a strong move at the end and won the race, it was quite a story. It had gone off at 62-1, paying $126, $46.40 and $17.60 and, as veteran race expert Bill Christine wrote in Horse- RaceInsider.com, it was underpriced.

“Should have gone off at a minimum of 100-1,” Christine wrote.

Oh, yes. The horse was named Autism Awareness, which is the real story.

Taboada has two sons, Marcel, 9, and Renzo, 8.

Marcel is heavily into the horse race business.

“He reads everything,” Taboada says. “He wants to know about stallions, about fees. He asks me how many hands a horse is.”

Renzo is autistic.

“He is likable, charismatic, a wonderful boy,” Taboada says. “He goes everywhere with us. He can’t be left alone.

“He loves being at the races because he is with us. He was there in the winner’s circle that day. But he has no concept of what it means to win or lose. He just wants to be there.”

The developmental disability called autism is difficult to define because there are so many forms of it. It is often characterized by repetitious and inappropriate behavior. It also can carry with it measures of near genius, such as the Dustin Hoffman character in the movie “Rain Man.”

Part of the chance to buy race horses for Taboada, and his wife, Hedieh, was that they could name them in a way that might bring more awareness to the disability.

That will work pretty well when you win a Grade III race, going off at 62-1, no matter where it is.

“I was on top of the world, overwhelmed,” Taboada says. “That day, and the day after the race, it just never stopped. Phone calls, reporters. I was on a cloud.”

That burst three days later, when it was found that Autism Awareness had injured a left foreleg, probably in the race, and would need to sit out for at least a couple of months.

“No, no chance for the Preakness or Belmont,” Taboada says. “We’ll let him sit for three or four months. We’ll listen to the horse. If he needs six months, he’ll get six months.”

Taboada says he was more than willing to dig into the proceeds of the El Camino Real race to pay the Derby entry fee, which would have been $6,000 if paid by March 29. There was no guarantee that Autism Awareness’ total purses would have added up to enough to get in, anyway. But even having a chance was more than Taboada could have ever imagined.

“The way I felt those days,” he says, “you just cannot imagine.”

Nor can it be imagined what sort of boost in autism awareness would have come from an entry in the Kentucky Derby by Autism Awareness.

Need a story angle to sell your editor? Looking for something that feels real good? How about pictures of Renzo, sipping an alcohol-free mint julep?

All is not lost, Taboada says. He says Autism Awareness might just turn out to be a prominent 4-year-old. He also says he purchased the full sister of Autism Awareness, and though she hasn’t raced yet, she could turn out to be special.

Her name is also a request, one that comes from a man with a huge wish, for a boy with a huge need.

Johnny Taboada named the filly Cure Autism.

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Bill Dwyre can be reached at bill.dwyre@latimes.com. To read previous columns by dwyre, go to latimes.com/dwyre.