Jockey

Miss Josh, a Maryland-based mare, would have been at Hollywood Park for today's $200,000 Beverly Hills Handicap, but after she won the Grade I Gamely Handicap at Hollywood in her most recent start, jockey Laffit Pincay Jr. told trainer Barclay Tagg he didn't recommend running her again over the hard grass course."

Two spills marred the Timonium Race Course program yesterday, but neither the jockeys nor the horses were injured seriously.North Round Table fell at the sixteenth pole in the fifth race, unseating jockey Douglas La France Jr., who was run over by a trailing horse. La France was removed from the track by ambulance and the horse finished the race riderless.La France, who was alert but complaining of pain in his right shoulder, was taken to Greater Baltimore Medical Center where tests revealed no serious injuries.

Local jockey Rick Wilson remained in critical condition yesterday at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, but he improved dramatically since being kicked in the head by a horse in a race Saturday at Pimlico Race Course. "He is awake and responsive," said John Salzman Jr., Wilson's agent. "He answers you with a head shake. He's not over the hump yet, but the nurse told me he's doing remarkably well." Wilson was injured when his mount, Advance to Go, stumbled out of the gate, tossed Wilson head over heels to the ground and then inadvertently kicked him in the head.

It was evident to Carol Seefeldt, a professor of early childhood education who has written 17 books on the subject, that her daughter, Andrea, loved horses, almost from the beginning."

The International Turf Festival at Laurel Race Course ended yesterday the same way it began a week ago -- the winning jockeys were more international than the horses.Jean Cruguet, a 54-year-old Frenchman, and Peruvian-born Edgar Prado completed Festival doubles yesterday on two horses that originally had been entered in New York stakes, but were scratched and ran here.Cruguet, who won the Washington D.C. International with Buckhar on Saturday, rallied from off the pace with Rokeby Stable's Home of the Free and defeated Canadian entrant Strike A Gold Mine in the $200,000 Laurel Dash.

HALLANDALE, Fla. -- Polished and lined up like soldiers in their ranks, the size-4 racing boots belonging to Earlie Fires are the epitome of the attention a good valet shows for his jockey's equipment.Unlike the expensive boots, Fires' whips sit atop his shelves, in no particular order.Each pair of boots costs about five times as much a whip and gets considerably more care.But veteran valet Buddy Hasher knows which piece of equipment a jockey treasures more."One day, I left a pair of Earlie's boots in the dryer and forgot about them," Hasher says.

STANTON, Del. -- Rosie Napravnik is not one to gamble. Her money goes into the bank, not the stock market. But when it came time to decide where she wanted to ride this summer, the Maryland apprentice jockey took what could be considered a big risk. In her eyes, though, it looked much more like an investment in her future. Laurel Park meet opener Today, post time 3:30 p.m. (Preview, PG 5E)

Frank Douglas, a 37-year-old jockey injured Sunday during a race at Timonium, has improved since being transported by MedEvac helicopter to Maryland Shock Trauma Center and is now listed in serious condition.He suffered a fractured skull and brain injuries after being thrown by his mount in a vicious spill on the backstretch."He's doing much better," his wife, Pamela, said yesterday. "He's feeding himself. He's remembering more."She said that his long-term prognosis is undetermined, but that he will require rehabilitation.

Edgar Prado can merely shake his head."I thought I was dreaming," he said.On Monday, closing day at Saratoga, Prado won the last race aboard Olive Flu to edge Jorge Chavez for second place in the jockey standings. Prado won 36 races, one more than Chavez, New York's winningest rider the past five years. Jerry Bailey, a three-time Eclipse Award winner, finished on top with 47.After dominating Maryland racing for a decade, Prado moved his tack to Saratoga for the prestigious six-week meet billed as perhaps the toughest in the country.