HALL’S MARK : Her Colt Has a Chance in $890,000 Race

Determination--34 years of it--has brought trainer Connie Hall to Hollywood Park, where she has the chance to win an $890,000 quarter-horse race tonight. Not many men have won a race this rich, and it has never been done by a woman in a division of horse racing whose doors seem to have fewer cracks than the rest of the sport.

Hall, one of only three female trainers at Hollywood Park, will saddle Chicks Beduino in the Dash for Cash Futurity, a 400-yard race that offers a purse of $332,500 to the winner. Chicks Beduino, a 2-year-old colt who has six wins and a second-place finish in eight starts, was timed in 20.13 seconds last week, the fastest of the 10 horses who qualified for the Dash for Cash.

Chicks Beduino has already won the Bay Meadows Futurity and the Governors Cup Futurity at Los Alamitos and is easily the highlight of Hall’s 15-year training career, a career that wouldn’t even have started if the divorced mother of two hadn’t been so persistent.

Hall said she was turned down three times after applying for a groom’s license. “That was all part of a redneck business,” Hall said. “People in this game just didn’t think women were supposed to rub horses. But I finally got the license. They were convinced that I wouldn’t go away if they didn’t give it to me.”

Much earlier, as a 6-year-old growing up in Lakewood, Hall had shown an interest in horses. Humoring her, Hall’s parents gave her a docile mare as a pet.

After graduation from Mayfair High School, Hall tried her hand with a variety of horses, including jumpers, before she finally concentrated on quarter horses. She got her training license in 1972 and won with her first starter and a horse she owned, Sailors Charge, at the Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona.

Owners Rory and Joe Muniz and John Bobenrieth Jr., are paying a supplementary fee of $15,250 to make Chicks Beduino eligible for the Dash for Cash, but he has already given them a $160,000 win, in the Bay Meadows Futurity in April.

That was Chicks Beduino’s second start. In his only finish off the board, he ran fifth in the Kindergarten Stakes at Los Alamitos in June, although beaten by only a half-length.

“He had a rough trip in that race,” Hall said. “He got bumped out of the gate. Will Be Easy (who finished second) was disqualified, and we were moved up to fourth. When my horse gets a clean trip, it’s hard to beat him.”

Here is the Dash for Cash field, starting with the inside post: Freedom Flyer, ridden by Kip Didericksen, carrying 122 pounds; First Down Dash, Danny Cardoza, 122; Texigo Star, Kenny Hart, 122; Chicks Beduino, John Creager, 122; The Rebel Band, James Brooks, 122; Satin Steel, Roman Figueroa, 119; Victoryforth, John Ward, 119; Knights Wheeler, Eddie Garcia, 119; Leinsters Image, James Lackey, 122, and Cavi Tron, Bruce Pilkenton, 122.

The Rebel Band, Satin Steel, Victoryforth and Leinsters Image are all trained by Blane Schvaneveldt, who won last year’s Dash for Cash with Raise a Secret. Like Chicks Beduino, First Down Dash, The Rebel Band and Leinsters Image are also supplementaries at $15,250 apiece.

Hall figures that Chicks Beduino will get the most trouble from Freedom Flyer and First Down Dash, whose times ranked second and third in the qualifying races.

“I’m always worried about a horse that’s already beat me, and First Down Dash won the Kindergarten,” Hall said. “Freedom Flyer has already had two nice wins over this track.”

Hall realizes, of course, that Chicks Beduino has all nine rivals to beat. Still, the odds for the trainer are better than they were a long time ago. That was when she had all of racing to beat.