FORMER JOCKEY CARLOS AQUINO PASSES AWAY

      Carlos Aquino, a multiple stake winning rider on the California Fairs circuit and the father of Los Alamitos Race Course-based trainers Elena Andrade and Angela Aquino, passed away on August 24. He was 64.

       Aquino began riding during the Fresno racing meet in 1971 and during his career won 120 Thoroughbred races from 1,236 mounts according to Equibase.com. His best year came in 1978 when he piloted 27 winners from 231 mounts. He won with 20% of his mounts in 1982, a year in which he guided 15 horses to appearances in the winner’s circle. He also won races aboard Quarter Horses and Arabians during his career.

          “Carlos made friends no matter where he went,” said Betsy Mora, a well-known former racehorse trainer who was married to Aquino from the early 1970s until the early 1990s. “Carlos was a good friend of Chuck Robertson, who was John Wayne’s stuntman in many of his movies. Carlos and I had Elena and Angie. He did good with those girls They were always around the horses but they were never forced to do it. They were involved in a lot of activities growing up but they ended loving the horses the most.”

          Betsy credited trainer Harry Huey for introducing Aquino to horse racing. Scott Craigmyle, then just 19-years-old, was Aquino’s jockey agent during those early years. Aquino’s family shared the above photo of one Carlos’ riding victories during the Orange County Fair Meet at Los Alamitos in the early 1990s.  

       “One of my favorite (photos),” Angela Aquino said. “He looks so happy doing what he loved.”

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