Sixy Chick Captures Town Policy

For owner S. David Plummer Saturday’s $25,000-added Town Policy Handicap was a chance to win two of the three opening week featured stakes races at Los Alamitos Race Course--and his fourth stakes win in four weeks.

After scoring an upset over Indigo Illusion in Wednesday’s $35,000-added Miss Princess Handicap with the 4-year-old mare Finely Tuned (in stakes-record time of 17.54), Plummer was going for two wins in a row with the two favorites--Sixy Chick and Miss Mighty Mary.

Sixy Chick, the 1984 Champion 2-year-old filly, proved to be Plummer’s equine lady luck Saturday as she and jockey Jerry Nicodemus went quickly to the front and held onto the lead for a first-place finish in a time of 17.61 seconds for 350 yards.

Sixy Chick paid $3.80. Second-place finisher Prissy Fein paid $2.60 and $3.60, and Alo Nublado paid $2.40, $3.00 and $5.40 to show.

“She’s been training real well and is coming along just fine for the (Los Alamitos) Derby,” said trainer Blane Schvaneveldt of Sixy Chick. Last year’s Town Policy winner, Dashs Dream, went on to win the Derby.

The field from fourth was Ettagos Express, Litas Joy, Real Easy Chick, Miss Mighty Mary, Anitas Feature, Copper Bugs and Liquorice and Lace.

Miss Mighty Mary, an odds-on favorite with Sixy Chick, couldn’t muster the power after a five-month layoff and finished a disappointing seventh.

Saturday night after the race, the maternity watch for Sixy Chick and Miss Mighty Mary began. Plummer, a former corporate tax accountant, is breeding the two through embryo transplants whereby embryos are removed from the fillies and transplanted into other mares.

This method extends the racing careers of multiple-stakes winning horses like Sixy Chick and Miss Mighty Mary, who otherwise might by retired after their third or fourth year for breeding.

“We plan to breed seven fillies this next week including Sixy Chick and Miss Mighty Mary,” Plummer said. “Our vet will be spending the night and will check each horse in the morning.

“I think embryo transplanting will help the industry. With this method, we can build up superstars in quarter horse racing. If we pull an embryo from Sixy Chick every spring, there will be no reason to take her off the track. We could run her and the others until they let us know they don’t want to run anymore.”

Plummer has recently spent more than $1.5 million, purchasing the nation’s top fillies and mares. He has built a $250,000 embryo transplant facility at his Viking Ranch in Apple Valley and will be traveling to London Monday to negotiate a deal with Lloyd’s of London for insuring the embryos.

“Sixy Chick’s embryo, for example, would be worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $300,000,” Plummer said. “We need to get insurance on that type of an investment.”

Sixy Chick’s one-half-length lead was all the insurance he needed Saturday night.

Quarter Horse Notes

The American Quarter Horse Racing Assn.’s top honors for 1984 went to the 3-year-old mare Dashs Dream, who won 9 of her 10 starts last year. Dashs Dream earned her 1984 World Champion and Champion 3-year-old filly titles with victories in the All-American Derby, the Champion of Champions, the Los Alamitos Derby and Saturday night’s feature--the Town Policy Handicap--to name a few. . . . Rise N High, the gelding that deadheated with Dashs Dream in the HQHRA Invitational, won Champion 3-year-old gelding honors. The powerhouse from Texas, Eastex, took the Champion 2-year-old gelding title. Eastex won 10 of 14 starts, including the prestigious All-American Futurity, the Dash For Cash Futurity and the Bay Meadows Futurity. With $1,791,293 in career earnings, Eastex is only $2,425 short of the all-time earnings record set by Mr. Master Bug. Although Eastex won the $404,000 Golden State Derby at Bay Meadows last month, the multiple-stakes winner was not nominated to the $125,000-added Los Alamitos Derby. Evidently, Eastex experienced some difficulty with pulled ligaments and owners H.D. and Margaret Hall have decided to rest him for races later in the season. . . . Until Eastex catches up with him, Mr. Master Bug, the all-time leading money earner in quarter horse history, was selected as 1984 Champion Aged Horse and Champion Aged Stallion. . . . Other honors include: Sixy Chick, Champion 2-year-old filly; Tolltac, Champion 3-year-old colt, Staunchs Velvet, Champion Aged Mare and The Black Alliance, Champion Aged Gelding. . . . Higheasterjet, the fourth-leading money earner in the sport’s history with more than $1.6 million, has been retired. He was the only horse to sweep the All-American Futurity, the All-American Derby and the All-American Gold Cup. . . . Higheasterjet ended his career with thoroughbred jockey Bill Shoemaker in the saddle. The duo was matched up during the HQHRA winter meet at Los Alamitos. . . . R.D. Hubbard may be selling his stock these days, but he has held on to Life Styles, a 2-year-old filly that is unbeaten in three starts. Life Styles is expected to start in Friday’s Leo Handicap, the first stakes opportunity at the meeting for 2-year-olds working toward the Triple Crown.