LOS ALAMITOS : At 53, Jockey Lambert Isn’t About to Quit Competing Any Time Soon

After jockey Jerry Lambert suffered a serious back injury, few thought he would race again. But Friday night at Los Alamitos, Lambert returned to the races after three years.

A thoroughbred rider who guided Native Diver to stakes victory after stakes victory, Lambert came back aboard an Arabian trained by L. Yancey Carter Jr.

Lambert failed to hit the board with his first attempt, but returned Saturday night and rode a winner and a second-place finisher, both trained by Carter.

Lambert began riding in 1958, and few things have kept him away--not the Army, injuries or his 53rd birthday.

“I’d only been galloping horses two weeks when I rode my first race,” Lambert said. “It was in Shelby, Mont., and the dust was so thick I couldn’t even see the turns.”

Lambert rode in Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon and Washington before trying Southern California in 1962. Almost immediately, he found both success and complications. M.E. (Buster) Millerick gave him the mount on Native Diver, who went on to earn more than $1 million and retired with 34 stakes victories. But almost before Lambert got started, his draft board called.

“The first day I ever rode Native Diver I got a draft notice in the jockeys’ room,” Lambert said.

So for two years, he soldiered during the week and rode on weekends.

Twenty years later, Lambert was still riding, taking mounts at Golden Gate, Bay Meadows and the Northern California fair circuit. The bit broke during a race at Pleasanton in 1987 and Lambert went “out the tailgate,” as he put it. He suffered broken ribs, a broken cheek bone and a broken ankle. Eight weeks later, he was back in the saddle.

At Golden Gate in 1990, Lambert’s mount ducked the whip and threw Lambert to the inside rail. The back injury, a compressed disk, required a year’s therapy and appeared to have ended his riding career.

Trainer Larry Sterling hired Lambert as an assistant manager of his West Coast Training Center. But the desire to ride remained, and Lambert started exercising horses. Sterling moved to Oklahoma and Lambert moved his tack to Emerald Meadows Ranch in Riverside, where he met Arabian trainers Yancey and Ruthie Carter.

“We were aware of his reputation, but had never seen him ride,” Yancey Carter said. “He’s a great talent and once he started riding, it became apparent.”

Lambert asked Carter if he could ride races and Carter believed it was worth a shot.

After more than 30 years of riding thoroughbreds and only a few months aboard the Arabians, Lambert says he still is getting used to the new breed.

“They’re not as fast and the conformation and the fractions are different,” he said.

Still, Lambert plans to continue with Arabians unless Carter decides to train thoroughbreds.

“There are trainers and there are horsemen,” Lambert said. “And he’s a horseman.”

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Jockeys Carlos Bautista, Eddie Butler and Brian Long each fell--Long twice--in races during the weekend. Bautista suffered a strained shoulder, but the others escaped serious injury.

Bautista, who rode 39 winners and finished eighth in the 1993 jockey standings, was aboard La Donna Blanca in Friday’s fourth race. He was thrown after crossing the finish line in a dead heat for second. He was taken to Los Alamitos Medical Center and X-rays revealed the shoulder injury and a bruised neck.

Bautista took off the rest of his mounts for the weekend, but hopes to ride Thursday night.

Long first fell in Thursday’s sixth race. He was leading with Y-O Gold Tack coming out of the turn when the gelding bolted to the outside. Mike Burgess, riding Ringdangdoo and running second, barely avoided Long, who came back to ride the next race.

In Saturday’s sixth race, Long again had the lead when he fell. Riding Lovely Fashion in a 4 1/2-furlong thoroughbred race, Long lost his balance on the backstretch and bobbled along a couple of strides before being thrown into traffic. Another horse clipped him in the back of the thigh.

“That one got me. I’m done here,” he said, walking off the track and favoring his right leg. “I ride thoroughbreds at Santa Anita, and that’s it for this track. They can keep this.”

Long rode three races on Santa Anita’s final card Monday and finished that meeting with three victories, five seconds and four thirds in 78 mounts.

Butler fell in Saturday’s third race and rode again in the fifth.

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Beginning Thursday night, Los Alamitos will increase the purses on thoroughbred races. Purses between $4,000 and $7,500 will increase $1,000. Purses of less than $4,000 will add $500.

“We did it to encourage more thoroughbreds to race here at Los Alamitos,” racing secretary Ron Church said.

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Trainer Barbara Jagoda would like to start her record-setting Arabian, Magna Terra Smoky, in the Equest International California Open on May 13, but she’s not counting on it.

The one-eyed gelding defeated four others in winning the Sierra Knights Handicap on Friday, becoming the first Arabian to win 33 races.

“He only runs in stakes races now and there’s one a month (for Arabians),” she said. “But we’re having trouble filling our races, so I don’t know if that one will go.”