THE MAKING OF A JOCKEY ONLY THE DETERMINED REACH THE TRACK, WHERE BIG PURSES OR DEATH MAY AWAIT.

Byline: Story by Eric Leach Daily News

SOMIS - Amelia Williams grew up loving horses. Then she found a boyfriend who loves horse racing. So, about a year ago, the 27-year-old from New Mexico decided she wanted to become a jockey.

Noting that racing Hall of Fame jockey Julie Krone was one of the most successful of all time, male or female, Williams figured it was a sport in which women could compete against men on an equal basis.

"I don't really look at sex as an obstacle," she said. "A 100-pound woman can be as strong as a man. There is no advantage. It's all a matter of how much you want to try."

Five months ago, Williams enrolled in the Frank Garza Jockey School, situated on 10 acres with a half-mile race track in Ventura County's rural hill country near Camarillo.

"It's thrilling," she said. "I'm flabbergasted people will pay you to enjoy yourself like this."

The school is owned by Garza, 59, of Newbury Park, who grew up riding horses and learned to race from his brother and uncle.

In 1968, he weighed only 105 pounds when his horse, Spaceman II, won a $100,000 purse at Hollywood Park. Since then, he said, purses have gone up about 10 times, allowing winning jockeys who get a cut to make a good living.

Garza continued to race through the 1970s but decided to retire in 1980 to spend more time with his family. Around 1990, he started his jockey school in Newbury Park and eventually moved to the current site he leases at a ranch on Donlan Road.

One of his most famous students was J.C. Gonzalez, who won 181 races with purses totaling $4.1 million before he was killed when his horse, Wolfhunt, collapsed in a race at Fairplex Park in Pomona in 1999.

Garza said it can take three months to two years before one of his students is ready to race, but most take about six or seven months of training. The first 30 days of the program they are on probation until Garza determines whether they have what it takes.

Eventually he tries to help them get jobs exercising horses at Hollywood Park or Santa Anita, which can lead to jockey positions. The people who exercise the horses can wind up making more than the least successful jockeys -- but the most successful jockeys can make millions.

Since the days when he was racing in the 1960s, the number of female jockeys has changed dramatically, Garza said.

"Back in the '60s, you wouldn't see a woman on the backside," he said. "Now they are everywhere you look. It's growing every day. They are getting into it, big-time."

Williams hopes to be one of them. Her goal is to graduate next month and start exercising horses at Santa Anita, eventually moving into a jockey position.

But as much as she loves it, she says it can be tough.

"Your legs get tired, your arms get tired. I fell in December and dislocated my hip and sprained my back, but I'm back riding. I work out at the gym every day," she said. "You've got to want it, or it's not going to happen."

Garza has been riding horses since he was 10 and started racing professionally at 19. He said he has broken his legs and his arms riding, but still feels good at nearly 60 years of age.

"The horses can bump into each other, go down or jump over the rail," he said. "But if you like it, you're not scared. You can't be afraid."

Another one of his students is Mike Acosta, 30, of Las Vegas, who is training to be an exercise rider rather than a jockey.

"I grew up kind of poor and I'd never really been on a horse," he said. "But I got interested in racing from my mom and grandmother, who liked going to the racetrack. I grew up with this dream of riding horses, like some kids grow up dreaming of (playing) baseball."

Another of Garza's students is Laurie Kole, 50, who brought her 2-year-old thoroughbred, Needle Colony, to Garza for training.

Needle Colony's great-grandfather on his mother's side was a famous horse named Needles that won the Kentucky Derby in 1956, and his grandfather on his father's side was Pleasant Colony, which won the Derby in 1981.

"Hopefully we'll go to (Hollywood Park) in June and his first race will be in July," she said of her 2-year-old stallion.

If her dreams come true, Needle Colony might even run in the Derby some day.

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The jockey and exercise rider training programs offered at the Frank Garza Jockey School include everything from grooming and tacking to techniques of working with young horses, galloping horses in company, breaking from the starting gate and riding styles and tactics.

The fees for learning to be a jockey or exercise rider are about $1,200 a month, with higher fees for housing arrangements for students from other areas. Details about rates and exact curricula are available at www.thejockeyschool.com.

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(1 -- 2 -- color in Simi edition only; 2 -- ran in Simi edition only) Above, jockey student Amelia Williams, 27, of New Mexico, has suffered a dislocated hip and a sprained back since starting school some five months ago. "You've got to want it, or it's not going to happen," she says. Top, Williams trains early Wednesday at Frank Garza's jockey school.

(3 -- color in Simi edition only) Jockey school instructor Frank Garza, 59, shows off a wall of photographs taken in the 1960s and '70s, when he was still racing. Garza now teaches aspiring jockeys.

(4 -- raniin Simi edition only) Jockey school student Mike Acosta of Las Vegas, right, gets a lesson on horse riding from instructor Frank Garza. The mock horse is a 2004 Euicizer machine.

(5 -- 6 -- ran in Simi edition only) Left, jockey school instructor Frank Garza studies Amelia Williams' technique on a thoroughbred during training. Garza says women jockeys didn't exist in the 1960s, when he raced horses, but now they're not unusual. At right is tack at Garza's Somis school, which offers a course that may take two years.

(7 -- ran in Simi edition only) Jockey school instructor Frank Garza is shown in 1967, weighing in at Los Alamitos Race Track at the age of 20. Garza says he's seen purses go up 10 times since those days.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer

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