Emerald Downs -- Retirement Lightens Cooper's Outlook

AUBURN - Geoffrey Cooper is only 20 years old, but he has packed a lifetime of memories into a comparatively short career as a jockey.

Cooper, a former national Junior Olympics karate champion and a Puyallup High athlete in a variety of sports, rode competitively for the last time at Emerald Downs yesterday. He announced his retirement last week after concluding that he no longer could make weight.

"It's been coming for awhile," Cooper said. "Everyone has known I've had a pretty big weight problem the last two or three years. There's just no more weight to lose. So I think it's the right time to go out."

Cooper reached his decision April 24, Opening Day at Emerald Downs.

"I sat in the hotbox for about four hours before the racing," Cooper said. "I couldn't lose that much weight. Usually I lose weight real quick in there, and it just wasn't coming off - there wasn't any more weight to lose."

Cooper, who has grown eight inches to 5 feet 10 since he was 16, got down to 124 pounds on Opening Day, but he realized that wasn't healthy for somebody his height.

Cooper said he has "mixed feelings" about reaching the end at a young age.

"I'm sad that I'm not going to be able to do it because I love riding horses, I love race riding," Cooper said. "But I'm also happy because I know that it had to come to an end sometime and now I've got the rest of my life to eat and live a normal life."

Appropriately, Cooper rode his final race aboard his family's prized 3-year-old colt, Edneator, in the Washington State Legislators Stakes yesterday. But there was no fairy tale finish as Edneator finished third behind Boca Fast and Naab the Win.

Family has been all-important for Cooper.

His father, Bryson Cooper, was a jockey (at 47 he's scheduled for a comeback ride in Thursday's sixth race). His mother, Kay Cooper, assists her father, Jim Penney (Geoffrey's grandfather), in training at Penney's Homestretch Farm, a few miles from Emerald Downs.

No jockey/trainer combination has been more successful at Emerald than Cooper/Penney with 80 wins - 26 in 1996, 20 in 1997, 33 in 1998 and two, including yesterday's first race, this year.

It was a family victory by Kitty's Link in last year's Washington Championship on getaway day at Emerald Downs that Cooper counts as the highlight of his career. The victory gave Penney the Emerald training title by one win over Tim McCanna.

"Kittys Link has to be the highlight - winning that race for the family and putting the family one up for the training title," Cooper said. "I think that had to be the shining moment."

He talked about winning a race on turf at Belmont when he was a 16-year-old apprentice and had veteran jockeys Jerry Bailey on his right and Mike Smith on his left.

"I thought that was a nice win," Cooper said.

He's ridden at Santa Anita, Hollywood Park, Bay Meadows, Golden Gate and Saratoga, the picturesque throwback to another era in upstate New York.

A favorite?

"I'd have to say here," Cooper said of Emerald Downs. "Just because I've had most of my success here."

Cooper exits with a record of 449-488-486 from 3,879 mounts. His Emerald Downs record was 261-260-249 from 1,924 mounts.

Cooper said he plans to continue galloping horses in training and would like to be employed in a marketing or publicity endeavor at Emerald Downs before enrolling at Western Washington University. He has maintained academic progress while taking classes through Central Washington's branch campus at Southcenter.

"I've always known that this was coming, so I've kept up with my schooling," Cooper said. "I've always taken at least two classes a quarter. So I'm really not that far behind the rest of my schoolmates. I think I've got a pretty good start on life compared to most kids who go to school."

Cooper was honored in front of the Emerald fans after yesterday's fifth race - the Geoffrey Cooper Purse. Among other things, he was presented with an ice-cream sundae and a pizza.

And for the first time in a long time he could actually enjoy them.

Boca Fast is fast

Boca Fast lived up to his name by roaring out of the gate (he completed the first quarter in 21 seconds flat) and never trailing in winning the State Legislators Stakes for 3-year-old colts and geldings.

"He came out of the gate as one of the fastest I have ever been on," jockey Vicky Baze said after earning her third victory of the day and the lead in the rider standings.

It was the second stakes victory of the meeting for Baze.

Runner-up Naab the Win, ridden by Nathan Chaves, closed fast to finish second after being involved in a backstretch bumping incident believed precipitated by Its a Cinch and his jockey, Leslie Mawing. It resulted in a steward's inquiry, but no change in the final standings.

Boca Fast completed the six furlongs over a track rated sloppy in 1:09 4/5 and paid $12, $5.60 and $4.60.

Notes

-- Before winning aboard Boca Fast, Baze won on Dronefal in the third and Taxie Service in the fifth. No trainer saddled more than one winner.

-- The handle from all sources was $1,284,196 - an increase of $68,063 over the same post-Kentucky Derby day of 1998.

-- Anndownthestretch, a 6-year-old mare owned by Rolland Fergason, was put down as the result of a leg injury suffered midway through the turn of the six-furlong third race.