Rudy Campas, a fixture among California jockeys for 30 years, died on Wednesday after an illness, his friends said. Campas, who resided in Rubidoux, Calif., near Riverside, was 85. Born in Vernon, Texas, Campas had a varied career, and was well known for his success at the Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona. He won 144 races at the bullring track and was among the 10 all-time leading riders at the venue when it closed in 2013. Campas won 14 stakes at Del Mar, 12 at Hollywood Park, and six at Santa Anita. His stakes wins at Del Mar included two runnings of the Del Mar Oaks – aboard Pie Queen in 1959 and Greta in 1968 – a division of the 1963 Del Mar Derby on Big Raff, and the Cabrillo and Eddie Read handicaps on Branford Court in 1976. Among his stakes wins at Hollywood Park, Campas won the 1960 A Gleam Stakes on Liberal Lady, the 1961 Honeymoon Stakes on Bushel-n-Peck, the 1973 American Handicap on Kentuckian, and the 1977 Wilshire Stakes on Now Pending. :: Santa Anita Classic Meet! Get DRF Past Performances, Clocker Reports, and more. At Santa Anita, Campas’s stakes wins included no fewer than three leading races in 1962 – the San Luis Rey Stakes on Vinci, San Vicente Stakes on Black Sheep for Hall of Fame trainer Charles Whittingham, and Santa Monica Stakes on Perizade. In addition, Campas won a division of the 1963 Las Flores Stakes on Shimmering Star at Santa Anita. “The fans liked him because he always tried,” said Dan Landers, a former assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Ron McAnally. “Rudy and I were good friends.” Campas is survived by his wife, Jerri, and six children. Information regarding services and extended survivors was not immediately available. Campas won approximately 1,289 races from 1958 to 1987. In 1970, he rode Rancho Lejos to a 16th-place finish in a field of 17 in the Kentucky Derby, won by Dust Commander. Campas had a career-best 117 wins in 1962, the year he finished 22nd in the nation in money earnings with $780,788. Campas’s career tailed off in the 1980s. He rode his final official mount in 1987. In the 1990s, Campas rode annual exhibition races for retired riders at the Del Mar summer meeting five times, finishing second in 1994. “A lot of people associate him with the Pomona fair,” said John Bucalo, a former jockey’s agent and retired California casino executive. “I was his agent for approximately a year.  He could get a horse out of the gate like nobody could. Trainers would have horses that were slow or getting left, and they’d put Rudy on and they’d break and be three or four in front. “He’d get on anything that anyone would lead out of a stall. He never gave up on his horses.” After his riding career ended, Campas exercised horses at the track and kept horses on his property in Rubidoux. Campas co-owned Intense Moment, the winner of a maiden-claiming race at the evening meeting at Los Alamitos in March, and Gal Up Gal, a five-time winner at Los Alamitos in the 2010s. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.