DATE: Thursday, October 2, 1997             TAG: 9710020723

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Tom Robinson 

DATELINE: PROVIDENCE FORGE, VA.             LENGTH:   71 lines

THIS JOCKEY IS IN A HORSE RACE WITH DESTINY

It was a day like any other day. In fact, it was practically an exact copy of every day that Edgar Prado has awakened to this year.

He rode racehorses. That's what Prado does, any month, any week, any day.

``I just ride, and rest,'' Prado says in his Colonial Downs jockey profile, describing his hobbies, and he's not kidding. It doesn't matter where, and it hardly matters when. Prado rides - at Colonial Downs Wednesdays through Sundays since Sept. 1, and in Delaware on Mondays and Tuesdays when the Downs is dark.

This is one reason - sheer volume - why the 30-year-old Peruvian has won more races this year than any jockey in the country and has an outside shot at the world record for victories in a year: 598.

He's had plenty of chances, certainly. But without the masterful qualities that Prado brings to a ride - the competitiveness, savvy and athleticism - he wouldn't come close to that quantity. And talk of a world record is greater folly than usual.

Entering Wednesday's races, Prado had carded 112 mounts and a track-best 40 victories at Colonial Downs, giving him 408 for the year - more than 100 ahead of five-time defending champion Russell Baze.

Prado bumped that total two wins closer to the 500 mark with victories in the first and fifth races on a day in which he would ride in seven of nine races.

Only three men have cracked 500 victories in a year, and none since Kent Desormeaux posted 598 in 1989. Prado needs to average 64 victories a month the rest of the year to top Desormeaux, which could prompt him to take drastic measures.

If he continues on pace, Prado says he'll start riding at two tracks simultaneously: days at Laurel, Md., and nights at Penn National in Harrisburg, Pa.

``When you're winning, you're hungry,'' says Prado, whose previous best in a year was 351 victories.

Five hundred victories ``is a dream that most riders can't even conceive of,'' says Danny Wright, a former jockey and Colonial Downs' clerk of scales. And when you're as close to the mountaintop as Prado, Wright says, ``You go for it.''

By most accounts, Prado is poised to break into the riding elite. That is, he is neck-and-neck with the best jockeys in New York, California and Kentucky, who ride the biggest races for the biggest stakes.

Although he's started more than 14,000 races in his career, Prado has gotten but three rides in Triple Crown races. He's finished out of the money in the Preakness three times, but winning the '97 victory crown could bring the famous trainers, and very best horses, calling.

Not that his agent's cell phone isn't busy enough as is.

``Business is good,'' Prado says. ``I never say no to people who treat you good. A lot of people want me to ride. But you can only ride one horse at a time.

``I try to keep everybody happy. You never know when they're going to come up with a good horse.''

Prado, whose mounts at Colonial Downs had won $652,000 before Wednesday, will win no cash for finishing first in victories. And, yes, the big-time jockeys will rake in more prize money for less work this year.

But the jockeys, Prado says, know which accomplishment really ranks.

``This achievement is not for the money. It is for the pride,'' Prado says. ``It's one thing that can never be taken away. It goes into the record book. And it stays there.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

Edgar Prado entered Wednesday's action at Colonial Downs with 40

victories, giving him 408 for the year, tops in the country. He's in

pursuit of the world record of 598 in a year and plans to ride

simultaneously at tracks in Maryland and Pennsylvania after Colonial

Downs wraps up on Oct. 12.

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