Johnny-Come-Lately

Until this season few two-dollar bettors had ever heard of Jockey Johnny Sellers, 23, a deferential, crew-cut kid who looks as out of place among the tough little men of the track as a boy scout in the Mafia. But Sellers is the nation's newest jockey sensation, and at Florida's Gulfstream Park last week he was booting them home at a rate that kept him neck-and-neck in winners with none other than the great Willie Shoemaker. Moreover, Sellers was the rider for two of the year's top horses: Dorchester Farm's Carry Back, a leading candidate for the Kentucky Derby, and Calumet Farm's Yorky, second biggest money winner.

Horses win for whip-swinging jockeys like Bill Hartack because they are afraid of them. The experts like to say that horses win for a handful of riders because they enjoy running for them. Shoemaker is one of these select few and so, this year, is Johnny Sellers.

Up from the Bushes. Raised on a farm outside of Tulsa, Sellers quit school at 16 to learn to handle thoroughbreds in Ken tucky, won his first race a year later at Florida's Sunshine Park. But after a fast start as an apprentice, Sellers became an also-ran who found mounts as best he could on the bush league rings of the Midwest. Then, three years ago, he married Janice Lyons, a trainer's daughter, and the two sat down to figure out what he was doing wrong.

"We knew he had the ability to make the big time," says Janice. "The only thing we could see that was standing in his way was his lack of .concentration. He was going to school at night, we had a farm out in Oklahoma, and he was interested in other sports. We agreed when he went to the track, he should put everything else out of his mind except getting on a horse and winning. After he'd left the track, he could think about other things."

To build up his store of horse sense, Sellers began studying leading jockeys, starting with Eddie Arcaro. While other jockeys were still snoring in bed, Sellers showed up for the dawn workouts to talk shop with the trainers.

Out to Win. By last year Sellers had improved enough to finish creditably in the jockey standings. This year there are no flashy tricks behind his success. "I like to help a horse come out of the gate and settle on his own stride," says Sellers. "He's bred for that. Of course there comes a time when we have to get up and run." Instead of going to the whip, Sellers can usually get his horse running by clucking gently in his ear and by pumping his arms and legs in rhythm with the animal's stride.

Rival jockeys may crowd each other out or charge down the track as though leading a cavalry attack, but Sellers coolly threads his way through the field with a politeness suited to a bridle path in Central Park. "I'm afraid if I got in a lot of hassles with the other jocks, I'd get so I wouldn't enjoy riding any more," says Sellers. "I just can't see the advantage of taking risks. If a jock lands in a hospital or is set down for illegal riding, why those are days in which he can't win a race.'' This season Jockey Johnny Sellers is out to win.

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