Dashs Dream Set to Meet Rise N High at Los Alamitos

Tonight’s $100,000 Go Man Go Handicap at Los Alamitos Race Course features one of quarter-horse racing’s top deadheat duos in one of the only summer races that offers an invitation to December’s prestigious Champion of Champions.

Dashs Dream, the 1984 world champion quarter horse, will meet Rise N High, the 1984 champion 3-year-old gelding, for the first time since the two raced to a deadheat for a win in the Horseman’s QHRA Invitational last January.

The favorites, Dashs Dream and Rise N High, have met four times, including their HQHRA deadheat. Dashs Dream defeated Rise N High in the 1984 Champion of Champions and the 1984 Los Alamitos Derby. Rise N High was the odds-on favorite in the Champions, but couldn’t handle the muddy track and fell back in the pack to finish eighth. In the 1983 Faberge Futurity, Rise N High was second and Dashs Dream was third, her lowest career finish.

If Dashs Dream or Rise N High wins tonight’s 400-yard contest, it will be interesting to see what happens to the Go Man Go invite to the Champion of Champions. Dashs Dream earned her invitation to the 1985 Champion of Champions with her win in the 1984 Champion of Champions. Thus, when she and Rise N High raced to a deadheat in the HQHRA, the Champions’ invite from that race went to Rise N High.

Rounding out the field to tonight’s 400-yard contest are: Man In the Money with jockey Bruce Pilkenton; Cash Rate with Jim Lackey; Kingdom Jet with Lawerence Young; Scott Lewis with John Ward; Finely Tuned with Roman Figueroa; defending champion The Black Alliance with Kenny Hart, Indigo Illusion with Jerry Nicodemus and Striding Miss with John Creager.

Although Dashs Dream made her summer meeting debut in an allowance race earlier this month, tonight’s feature will be her first stakes race of the meeting. Dashs Dream, trained by Mike Robbins and ridden by Danny Cardoza, was the first horse ever to win both the $1 million All-American Derby and the $140,000 Los Alamitos Derby.

In addition to world champion honors, Dashs Dream also was named 1984 champion 3-year-old and champion 3-year-old filly. She has numerous stakes wins to her record, including the Town Policy Handicap and 1984 Champion of Champions. With more than $881,000 in career earnings, Dashs Dream is the richest horse in tonight’s race.

Rise N High, trained by Jim Brookfield and ridden by Steve Tresure, has earnings of more than $462,000. The 4-year-old gelding has been competitive in the longer races (400 and 440 yards) because he tends to make late charges to the wire. In the 1984 Los Alamitos Championship, he bested Dash For Cash’s 21:53 stakes record with a 21:46 seconds run in 440 yards.

With the highly competitive grudge match between Dashs Dream and Rise N High, another stakes record may be set tonight.