Indigo Illusion Leads a 10-Horse Field for Saturday’s Vessels Maturity at Los Al

Indigo Illusion leads a field of 10 quarter horses in the Grade I $137,200 Vessels Maturity on Saturday at Los Alamitos.

An automatic trip to the Champion of Champions in December is at stake in the 14th running of the 440-yard event for 4-year-olds. Indigo Illusion and Rise N High, finalists in last year’s Champion of Champions, will compete. Man In The Money and Speed Galore, who finished first in a dead heat in their Vessels Maturity trial June 12, will run also.

Indigo Illusion turned in the fastest qualifying time with a clocking of 21.72. The mare held off a late surge by Rise N High to win by a neck. Indigo Illusion can put her career earnings over the $800,000 mark by scoring in the Vessels.

In the recent Go Man Go Handicap at Los Alamitos, Indigo Illusion came back to finish third, while Dashs Dream was the winner. Dashs Dream, the 1984 World Champion, was scheduled to run for her 11th consecutive victory in the Vessels Maturity trials, but was scratched.

Rise N High is the only horse in Saturday’s race already to have received an invitation to the Champion of Champions. He was timed in 21.76 in the trials. Both Man In The Money and Speed Galore were timed in 21.74. First post is at 7:45 p.m., with the Vessels Maturity, the ninth of 10 races, expected to start at about 11.

UC Irvine freshman Darren Yates was selected for a tryout with the Junior Davis Cup tennis team at Sonoma State.

Yates, of Torrance, was 24-15 in singles for the Anteaters this season, playing in the Nos. 3, 4 and 5 slots. He was 32-13 in doubles.

UCI Coach Greg Patton is head coach for the Junior Davis Cup team this summer. Former UCI player Mike Edles, the coach at Chapman College, will be Patton’s assistant.

Two other Orange County players, Mike Briggs of Corona del Mar High School and George Paulsen of University High in Irvine, also have been invited to try out for the team. Ten players will be chosen for the team, which will play in 10 tournaments.

UC Irvine volleyball player Cindy Rohrig and former player Nancy Westbrook will be members of the Athletes in Action team that tours South America this summer.

Rohrig, of Mission Viejo, has been a three-year starter for the Anteaters and played with the AIA team that traveled to China and Japan in the summer of 1983.

Westbrook, of Pico Rivera, was a four-year starter for UCI. She played last summer with AIA in China and Japan.

The team will compete in Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru.

Bantamweight boxer Robert Shannon, a member of the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, will fight on Monday’s card at the Irvine Marriott Hotel.

Shannon, of Edmunds, Wash., will fight Ralph Gutierrez of East Los Angeles in a six-round bout at 122 pounds. In last summer’s Olympic Games, Shannon lost to Korea’s Sung Kil Moon in a second-round match. He has a professional record of 4-0.

Two 10-round main events are scheduled. Hedgemon Robertson of Huntington Beach will fight Eddie Nuno of Pomona in a junior welterweight elimination contest and Santa Ana’s Georgie Garcia will go against Maruo Tadiashi of Japan at 121 pounds in the second fight.

Nick DeLong of Belmont Shore will fight Keith Moore of Long Beach in a six-round heavyweight bout. Seven fights are scheduled, with the first one starting at 8 p.m.

The U.S. National Junior Racquetball Championships start Saturday at Newport Beach and will continue through Wednesday.

The event, which will be held this year at the Newport Beach Sporting House at 3601 Jamboree Road, is considered one of the most prestigious racquetball events in the nation. Competitors advanced to the championships from 15 regional tournaments held throughout the country. They will compete in 24 singles and 22 doubles divisions ranging from 8 years old and under to 18 years old.

The national champion in both the boys’ and girls’ 18-and-under divisions will receive an automatic spot on the U.S. national racquetball team, which competes in Tokyo later this year.

Dodger shortstop Mariano Duncan, relief pitcher Carlos Diaz and bullpen coach Mark Cresse will be featured in a baseball clinic Saturday at Peak Park in Buena Park.

The event, sponsored by the Buena Park Recreation Department, begins at noon. The Dodger players will be on hand from noon until 2 p.m. to lecture and demonstrate on the fundamentals of hitting, pitching and fielding. The clinic also will will include a question-and-answer period and an autograph session.

Admission is free.

The Southern California Junior Sectional Tennis Championships begin Saturday and continue through June 30 at the Los Caballeros Racquet and Sports Club in Fountain Valley.

The championships are the largest junior event of their kind in the nation. Past winners include Tracy Austin, Stan Smith, Jack Kramer and Scott Davis.

The first session of the Anteater Baseball Camp at UC Irvine begins Monday.

California Angels Bob Boone, Doug DeCinces, Ron Romanick and Ruppert Jones are expected to appear at the camp. UCI baseball Coach Mike Gerakos is camp director.

The second week-long session will begin on July 8.

For more information, call 856-6745 or 786-4495.

The opening session of the Boys Club Basketball Camp begins Monday at the East Bluff Boys and Girls Club in Newport Beach.

The camp’s first session, for boys going into the seventh and eighth grades, will be June 24-28 and July 8-12. Some sixth graders will be accepted.

The next session, for boys entering the fifth and sixth grades, will be July 15-19 and July 22-26. Some fourth graders will be accepted.

For more information, call Donald Laidlaw at 640-6650.

The Oakwood Tennis Clubs in Newport Beach are offering summer tennis camps for juniors age 10-18 and adults.

Week-long sessions from 9 until noon daily start on Monday and continue until the last week of August. Weekend clinics for adults begin Saturday and finish Aug. 26.

For additional information, call the North Club at 650-3142 or the South Club at 650-5325.

The North Orange County YMCA begins a series of summer activities on Monday in Fullerton.

Activities that will be offered are adult summer basketball and volleyball leagues, youth tee baseball, preschool soccer and “gym and swim” lessons, coed cardiovascular fitness, summer swimming lessons and aerobic fitness.

For more information, call Gary Vangen at 879-9622.

A golf tournament for the Orange County American/Italian Renaissance Foundation will be July 1 at the Irvine Coast Country Club.

Proceeds from the tournament will go toward a planned Orange County Italian cultural center. The entry fee is $125 per person.

For more information, call Al Chiechi at 558-1888, ext. 245 on weekdays and 768-3775 on weekends and after 6 p.m.

Around the Area

The co-ed team beach over-the-line world championships will be Saturday and Sunday at Belmont Shore Pier in Long Beach. . . . The American Youth Soccer Organization is seeking players aged 5-15 living in the Newport Beach/eastside Costa Mesa area. For information, call Michelle McNerney at 548-0763. . . . Don Chumley of the University of Georgia, the last player picked in this year’s National Football League draft, will receive the Lowsman Trophy on Wednesday at the Balboa Bay Club’s Sports Hall of Fame Banquet. Olympic double gold medalist diver Greg Louganis and former football great O.J. Simpson will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. The banquet is part of Irrelevant Week X. . . . The second Football Seminar for Ladies will be July 18 at the Emerald Hotel in Anaheim. Attendance will be limited to 350.