Beschizza finding success on left side of pond

In England, a race meeting can be as short as one day. Jockeys travel from racecourse to racecourse, and except for those at the top, it’s a struggle to get on enough winners, given the paucity of day-to-day purse money, to make a good living.

Everything is different now for Adam Beschizza, who had his first official rides in England in 2009. Beschizza, 25, rode seven full years in England, but now, rather than bouncing from English racecourse to English racecourse, he takes a short drive every day from an apartment complex in Metairie, La., to Fair Grounds Racecourse in New Orleans. This work routine has more rote than the one back home, but Beschizza’s decision to shift his tack from England to America last fall is paying off.

Beschizza, still an apprentice, notched a career-best 39 winners in 2010, and the most prize money his mounts earned in a single season was about $475,000 in 2010. During the Fair Grounds meet that began Nov. 18, Beschizza, after Thursday’s racing, had 40 winners and purse earnings of just less than $1.1 million.

Last weekend, he rode Snapper Sinclair to an excruciatingly close second-place finish in the Grade 2, $400,000 Risen Star Stakes, and Beschizza is tied with Mitchell Murrill for third in the jockey standings behind Miguel Mena and Shaun Bridgmohan.

“When I came over here, since I’d been over here in the past, I knew the ups and downs. I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy path to slide into,” Beschizza said. “I was under no illusions it was going to go as well as it has.”

On an earlier trip to New Orleans, Beschizza (pronounced bess-KITZ-ah) mainly was a work rider alongside trainer Joe Sharp. Beschizza, whose agent is Liz Morris, shares his Metairie apartment with David Carroll, assistant trainer to Mark Casse, and the two have forged a friendship, but it is Sharp who has made Beschizza’s winter. Sharp encouraged Beschizza to take this chance and has massively backed him: The pair has combined for a record of 98-31-18-15 at the meet.

“That got the ball rolling early,” Beschizza said. “It’s lucky I had a contact in Joe. He was willing, and his owners were willing to take a chance with me. Not being big-headed, but I knew what I could do, and it’s all about being given the opportunity. A lot of us are like that in the jocks’ room. Given a chance, many of us can deliver.”

Twenty-three of Beschizza’s Fair Grounds wins have come on turf, the other 17 on dirt, a surface over which he had little experience.

“Dirt is a completely different ballgame,” he said. “It’s all about finding a rhythm. There’s really not a lot to it – but there is.”

Beschizza has found his rhythm at Fair Grounds, but the meet has only about a month remaining. Beschizza plans to go on to the Kentucky circuit and knows things will be different.

“I still think I have to be humble in what I’ve achieved so far since the next semester is a complete change,” he said.