About this time a year ago, Edgar Prado was packing his bags and heading to New York to ride during the cold-weather months at Aqueduct.
But this winter, Prado is staying in Maryland, content to ride at Laurel Park and sit out a possible nationwide jockeys' strike on Jan. 1.
Prado has been the state's leading rider for the past three years, and is just a few wins off Mark Johnston's total in the race for the 1994 title.
"That's pretty good, considering we didn't ride here during the first two months of the year," said Steve Rushing, his agent.
Prado led all jockeys during the summer and now ranks third at Laurel, two wins behind Johnston and one in back of Larry Reynolds.
Yesterday, Prado, who recently returned from four days of international competition in his native Peru, teamed with trainer Dale Capuano to win three races, including the $15,000 feature on Lewis Richardson's Lucky Sargeant.
"I'm doing pretty good here, so why leave?" Prado said. "And, who knows what's going to happen if there's a strike?" Added Rushing: "Why pay rent to live and compete somewhere else and not be able to ride?"
So far, representatives of the Jockeys' Guild, who want increased insurance and pension benefits for their members, have made little progress in talks with the Thoroughbred Racing Associations, which represents the bulk of North American racetracks.
At issue is how to fund the riders' benefits package. The current contract between the guild and the TRA ends Dec. 31.
This week, guild members are holding a three-day meeting, which ends tomorrow, in Las Vegas. Joe Rocco, Reynolds and Donnie Miller Jr. are representing the Maryland riders in Nevada.
Capuano's other wins yesterday came with Dance With Luck and Got Another Won, horses he had claimed, respectively, for owners Malcolm Barr of the Hampshire Racing Partnership and the Fortunate Stable of Lou Ulhman and Costas Triantafilos.
On Sunday, Capuano will start the 3-year-old gelding Foxie G. in the $30,000-added Snow King Stakes.
Capuano offered both Foxie G. and another stakes-winning 3-year-old, Honorable Flight, for sale over the weekend in the December bloodstock auction at Timonium. Both horses failed to meet their reserve bids, Foxie G. being bought back for $48,000 and Honorable Flight for $50,000, about half of their assessed value.
X-rays taken at the sale revealed an old bone chip in a knee of each horse. The announcement by sales officials of the chips, which is standard policy, affected the price, "even though both horses have been racing with those chips and are completely sound," Capuano said.
NOTES: Of the 346 thoroughbreds sold over the weekend at Timonium, Don Litz of Butler received the top price, selling his homebred weanling Star De Naskra filly to Wayne Harrison of Rockville. Harrison hopes to resell the horse next summer at Saratoga. . . . Laurel racing official Howard "Gelo" Hall represented the Maryland Jockey Club in New York recently at a memorial service for Cab Calloway, the entertainer who also was a devoted racing fan. Track officials sent a large blanket of white carnations, a Calloway trademark, which was draped over the altar of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, site of the service. . . . Officials of Colonial Downs, Virginia's first racetrack, are offering helicopter rides to media members today to show progress made in construction of the track, near Richmond.