THOROUGHBRED RACING : For Versatile Jockey Atkinson, a Horse Is a Horse, of Course

Jockey Paul Atkinson climbed aboard two Appaloosa fillies on opening day at Fairplex Park in Pomona on Thursday, then rode seven thoroughbreds later on the 13-race card.

Atkinson didn’t have any mounts for the two quarter horse races on the program, but before the Los Angeles County Fair’s season ends on Oct. 5, he is bound to be riding that breed as well.

“As long as they’ve got hair on them, I might as well ride them,” Atkinson said. “They pay off no matter what they are. I hadn’t been on any Appies in a year, but they’re easy to ride.”

Last summer on the Northern California fair circuit, Atkinson was the leading rider in Appaloosa races, and he won an Appaloosa stake at Fairplex last year, but his purpose in California is to find a niche on a thoroughbred circuit that is dominated by some of the best jockeys in the country.

The Fairplex meeting will be no yardstick, because the top riders seldom fool with the five-furlong bullring in Pomona, but name trainers sometimes bring horses to the fair races, and that’s where Atkinson and his agent, Jerry Ingordo, can make some inroads.

On Thursday, Atkinson rode seven of the nine seven thoroughbred races, winning three and picking up a second and a third. One of the wins came with Merida, a $28.20 longshot in the $35,0000 Bustles and Bows Stakes.

Atkinson finished eighth with his other stakes mount, Ocean Native, as Prospect For Four continued his love affair with the Fairplex racing strip by scoring a 2 1/2-length win in the $50,000 Foothill.

Longshot has become the 23-year-old Atkinson’s middle name after the season that ended Wednesday at Del Mar, where besides finishing ninth in the standings with 17 wins he earned a reputation for booting home horses that didn’t figure in the Daily Racing Form.

One of Atkinson’s winners, the Charlie Whittingham-trained Gloriousness, paid $44.20, but that was only a warmup. Later in the meet, Empress Eliza, with Atkinson aboard, paid $157 to win, and last week he rode Plus Perfect to victory and the tote board lite up to the tune of $207.60.

“That longshot win for Charlie Whittingham and the $200 winner were the highlights of the season down there for me,” Atkinson said Thursday between races. “The $200 winner turned out to be the biggest payoff for any horse all season.”

Born in Idaho Falls, Ida., and raised in Utah, Atkinson rode at bush tracks while going to high school. By the time he rode his first winner at a recognized parimutuel track, at Wyoming Downs in 1985, he had barely turned the legal riding age of 16, but in reality he was competing with about a year and a half of experience.

Atkinson began riding at Fairplex three years ago, and his other stops have included tracks in Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Northern California. Last year, after winning 120 races at the Northern California fairs and finishing second in the thoroughbred standings, Atkinson was introduced to Jerry Ingordo, who handled Pat Valenzuela’s riding book through much of that jockey’s career.

“He said that he might be interested in having my book, but I just blew it off,” Atkinson said.

Just when Atkinson was planning to do some skiing, go home and see his mother and ride a few races at Turf Paradise in Phoenix, the phone rang. It was Ingordo, asking if Atkinson wanted to go to work before the Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita ended.

“This is where every jockey wants to be,” Atkinson said. “I had saved enough money so that if I didn’t click right away, I wasn’t going to be starving.”

The nest egg came in handy when Atkinson won only two races at Hollywood Park’s fall meeting. Santa Anita’s winter meet wasn’t much better: He won seven times out of 152 races.

But at Hollywood Park this spring and summer, Atkinson began to click, winning 18 races. “Then I reached my goal at Del Mar, which was to finish in the top 10,” he said.

Merida, Atkinson’s stakes winner Thursday, is a 2-year-old filly who had won a $40,000 maiden claiming race at Hollywood Park in July, but otherwise she was winless in five tries. Atkinson moved her to the front early in the 6 1/2-furlong race and they beat Sidepocketsue by one length, with Majestic Guess, the 2-1 favorite, running eighth in a nine-horse field.

Kent Desormeaux, the Del Mar and Hollywood Park riding champion and the leading jockey in the country based on purses, had been riding Merida. Desormeaux is using the break between Del Mar and Santa Anita to ride in Maryland, where he was a star before moving to California a couple of years ago.

While Desormeaux is away, Paul Atkinson will take his Fairplex hand-me- downs, just fine.

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Prospect For Four, a double winner last year at Fairplex as a 2-year-old, outran Tomeric Thursday in the Foothill for a 2 1/2-length victory, with Arp finishing third, another 1 1/2 lengths back.

Prospect For Four won only one other race last year and the 3-year-old gelding was zero for eight this year. Trained by Caesar Dominguez, he was ridden by David Flores, who began his bid for a fourth consecutive riding title at Fairplex with two wins. Flores, feeling nauseous, took off Sunshine Highway, the winner of the last race, and Atkinson picked up the victory.

Dominguez said after the Foothill that he plans to run Prospect For Four in the $100,000 Pomona Derby on Oct. 3.

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Eight horses were entered for Saturday’s $50,000 Phil D. Shepherd Stakes at Fairplex. The field includes Renegotiable, who won the Bel Air Handicap at Hollywood Park in July before finishing fifth in the San Diego Handicap last month.

The field, in post-position order, consists of Treat Tobeatyafeet, Lord Joe, Wine Master, C. Sam Maggio, Blind Play, Doc Of the Day, Renegotiable and Sounds Fabulous. David Flores rides Renegotiable.

Horse Racing Notes

Saturday’s $500,000 Woodward Stakes at Belmont Park drew eight horses, including Sultry Song, Strike The Gold, Pleasant Tap and Thunder Rumble. Others entered are Devil His Due, Chief Honcho, Lost Mountain and Out of Place. The 3-year-olds, Devil His Due and Thunder Rumble, carry 121 pounds, five less than the others. . . . The Belmont card includes three other major races--the $400,000 Man o’War, the $100,000 Futurity and the $100,000 Matron. . . . Dear Doctor, the winner of the Arlington Million, will be challenged by Solar Splendor, Fraise, Colchis Island, Adam Smith, Mio Robertino, Smiling and Dancin and Spinning in the Man o’War. . . .