BENEFITS OF HORSE PLAY; RETIRED JOCKEY WANTS TO CHANGE LIVES BY TEACHING YOUNGSTERS HOW TO RIDE.

Byline: Jarre Fees Daily News Staff Writer

In the end, it all comes down to horse sense.

Retired jockey Frank Garza is trying to pass on his knowledge and love of horses to a new generation of riders at Frank Garza's Jockey School.

And maybe change a few lives along the way.

Garza, 51, learned to ride from his father, Pancho Garza, who trained quarter horses on the King Ranch in Raymondville, Texas.

``When I started riding in 1957 I was 10 years old and weighed 42 pounds,'' Garza said. ``I rode the circuits in Mexico, but in 1966 Hurricane Beulah wiped us out, so we came to California.''

Garza worked with well-known trainer Henry Moreno at Hollywood Park and moved from riding quarter horses to thoroughbreds. He retired in 1980 after more than two decades at Hollywood Park, Los Alamitos and Tijuana.

After retiring, he managed a farm but discovered he missed the daily routine of working with race horses. He also recognized a desire to give something back to racing and the need to train future horsemen.

``Racing needs new faces,'' Garza said. ``There won't be any more Willie Shoemakers, but there's always a need for jockeys, exercise riders and trainers. The sport is growing and the purses are so big.''

Garza opened his school for jockeys just over a year ago at Two Winds Ranch in Newbury Park. His first pupil, J.C. Gonzales, racked up 27 wins in 217 mounts at Hollywood Park this spring, a 12.5 winning percentage that is quite respectable for a beginning jockey. He was voted Apprentice of the Hollywood Park spring/summer meet by the racing media.

Garza hopes to train around 30 Hong Kong apprentices who are tentatively scheduled to arrive this fall.

``They asked me to go to Hong Kong,'' he said, ``but I said they should come here. And now I think they're coming.''

His family - wife Priscilla, grown children Eloisa and Robert, and 14-year-old son David - are the main reasons Garza elected not to go to Hong Kong.

``They've been so supportive,'' said Garza, who admitted he was tempted to make the trip.

``Racing is huge in Hong Kong,'' he said. ``A $30,000 purse here is $100,000 over there. A lot of jockeys go from here to Hong Kong, and now they want to train more of their own.''

In addition to hopeful jockeys and exercisers, Garza also works with Randy Nieto, a groom-in-training whose grandfather trained horses in Chicago.

``I guess it runs in the blood,'' Nieto said. ``When I got the chance to train with Frank, I took it.''

Garza feels Nieto will be ready to work as a groom in just a few months. But not all of Garza's students are destined for the professional circuit.

He is considering the possibility of working with a state program designed to bring delinquent and at-risk youth face-to-face with horses.

``They've had great success with these programs,'' Garza said. ``You bring in these kids and teach them how to work with animals. They learn how to love something, how to take care of something.

``Working with these horses, you can change somebody's life.''

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5 Photos

PHOTO (1--2) Retired jockey Frank Garza gives Tiffany Lappinga, 9, pointers, above, before she boards a horse for a lesson in Newbury Park. Left, Garza helps Lappinga saddle Davey Be Good as trainer Randy Nieto steadies the horse.

Tina Gerson/Daily News

(3--5) TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

Retired jockey Frank Garza is shown winning races atop Weston Bee at Bay Meadows in 1974 (top and middle) and atop Mr. Sue Bar at Santa Rosa in 1968 (above). Garza passes his knowledge of horses on through his school for jockeys at Two Winds Ranch in Newbury Park.