Jockey

- Now, he's the burgeoning star with a sly smile on his face and steady answer to every question, even as the weight of racing history should be pressing upon him. But when Glen Todd first met Mario Gutierrez six years ago, the owner and jockey communicated through "a sort of sign language and pointing. " "He was shy, in a totally new place, and very embarrassed about not speaking English," said Todd, the top owner of thoroughbred horses in Western Canada. "And he was very tough on himself.

Jockey James Thornton of Edgewood remained unconscious in a Fairfax, Va., hospital last night after suffering a massive head injury in a spill at the Charles Town, W.Va., racetrack Friday night.Thornton's former wife Rosalyn, whom he is engaged to remarry, said she and other family members told doctors not to continue with additional surgery last night after an immediate operation .. Friday.A hospital administrator said Thornton was in extremely critical condition."The first operation relieved some of the pressure on his brain," Mrs. Thornton said.

A year ago, when Barbara Jo Rubin agreed to compete in the first Lady's Legends race at Pimlico Race Course, she discovered how uncomfortable it can be to ride a horse when you haven't done it in 40 years. Afterward, not knowing if there would be another Legends race, which raised $100,000 for the Susan G. Komen cancer fund, she decided to keep training horses and stay in shape. If there was going to be a race, she'd be ready. But the best laid plans, as they say . . . "I was galloping eight or nine horses every morning and I felt wonderful," she said of her post-Preakness week routine.

When Sasscer Hill was growing up, she rode stick horses and plow horses and read "The Black Stallion" novels, a series of books about the friendship between a young boy and a beautiful black Arabian stallion. In the process, she fell in love — with horses and books and, eventually, writing. On April 15, her novel "Racing from Death" is being released by Wildside Press. It is the second in a series about jockey/ assistant trainer Nikki Latrelle, a Laurel Park-based rider, who finds herself caught up in murder.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. -- Jockey Richard Cornwell fractured two fingers and sustained an injury to his left elbow in a one-horse spill yesterday at the Charles Town Races.The mishap occurred in the third race when Cornwell's mount, Amy's Militaire, broke down rounding the far turn in the 4 1/2 -furlong race, throwing the rider to the track.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. -- William "Willie" Clark, who at age 69 is the nation's oldest active thoroughbred jockey, has announced plans to retire after 44 years of riding.Clark said that his final ride could come as soon as Friday, aboard Gama Force.A member of the Charles Town Races Jockey Hall of Fame, Clark began his riding career at Laurel Race Course in 1947 and has amassed a lifetime record of 1,143 wins, 1,171 seconds and 1,207 thirds from 10,629 mounts for earnings of more than $1.8 million.

Nicholas F. Trombero, who as a teen-ager rode in thoroughbred horse races on Maryland tracks, died Wednesday of pneumonia at the care center of the Charlestown Retirement Village in Catonsville, where had lived for 12 years. He was 85. Born in New York, he moved to Baltimore and left school as a boy. Mr. Trombero told his family he was selling newspapers in 1929 on a Pratt Street corner when a neighborhood stockbroker who had just bought two race horses stopped and asked him to become a jockey.

Gregg McCarron, the 44-year-old, Pimlico-based jockey who has won 2,403 races, announced yesterday that he is retiring after a 24-year riding career."I'm proud of what I accomplished," McCarron said. "But it's time to move on. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I plan to spend some time away from the racetrack. I wouldn't rule out pursuing another career in racing, because I love horses."

The hot weather has coincided with torrid races atop the jockey and trainer standings at Pimlico Race Course.After 56 racing days, there is a dead heat for both leading jockey and leading trainer.With a victory yesterday, Mike Luzzi pulled back into a tie with Edgar Prado. Each has ridden 59 winners.Among trainers, Dale Capuano has equaled perennial leader King Leatherbury with 26 winners. Since Jan. 1, Capuano still has a slight margin over Leatherbury.But no Pimlico jockey has been hotter recently than Joe Rocco.

Cecil F. Coffman, a former jockey who owned and trained several thoroughbred horses, died of lung disease July 28 at Longview Nursing Home in Manchester. The longtime Hampstead resident was 87. Mr. Coffman was born and raised in Cumberland, and at 14 left home to work as a jockey in West Virginia. After riding professionally for eight years, he became an exercise rider and trainer at Alfred G. Vanderbilt's Sagamore Farm in Glyndon, where among other horses he exercised was Native Dancer, winner of the Preakness, Belmont and Travers stakes.