LOS ALAMITOS : Fun Night Turns Into a Nightmare

It was supposed to have been a night of fun at Los Alamitos.

Eight leading jockeys, currently riding at Santa Anita, had agreed to drive in three exhibition harness races last Friday.

It turned into a nightmare, particularly for Laffit Pincay, who suffered a broken collarbone in a spill.

Things got off to an ominous start when Billy Vallandingham--who normally drives the starting gate--learned during the day that his son, Charlie, had been killed in an automobile accident in Kentucky. Frank Sherren, a contractor and harness driver, was drafted to drive the gate.

Shortly before the first race, a power failure hit five towers of lights, darkening the clubhouse turn for the night. About the same time, an unrelated power failure knocked out all pari-mutuel windows in the grandstand. That problem was not corrected until the fifth race. Fans were allowed to cross over to the clubhouse windows to bet.

Track president Lloyd Arnold must have wondered if it might not be Friday the 13th, instead of the 26th.

The jockeys, however, remained upbeat while driving in two four-horse eliminations after the second race and awaiting the four-horse final after the fifth.

Pincay, Chris McCarron, Gary Stevens, Rafael Meza, Corey Black, Robbie Davis, Alex Solis and Ray Sibille posed for a group picture in the winner’s circle before the first pari-mutuel race. And eight heads popped up in unison when a pacer hit another sulky wheel at the finish, causing a loud noise.

“Looked like he tried to go through a hole that wasn’t there,” Black said.

The eight riders seemed as happy as a group of kids on the rides at Disneyland. Pincay won the first dash and raised his right fist triumphantly, as though he had just won another Kentucky Derby. McCarron won the second heat in his first exhibition drive.

The jockeys-turned-drivers exchanged good-natured banter in a private drivers’ room. Solis twisted his head and rolled his eyes back, imitating the pacer that had tried to pull him to the middle of the track.

Stevens converted a piece of rope into a lariat and teased Pincay about his victory.

“Laffit drives just like he rides in the afternoons,” said Stevens. “At the quarter pole, he put his wheel right in front of my horse’s head.”

The usually stoic Pincay laughed long and loud.

Entertainer Tim Conway kept the fans laughing with his call of the races from the announcer’s booth.

“A lot of them have never driven before, so you may see them in the lake,” he said.

“Can you guys wave to us? You don’t seem to be doing much else.

“Laffit and his horse are both steaming in the winner’s circle. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before after a race.

“The starter calls for the horses. ‘Hey, horses!’ ”

But the light mood turned grim at the start of the final. Pincay drove Trixie Norton, a 5-year-old pacing mare, from Post 3. She stumbled and fell, catapulting Pincay to the track.

Pincay, 43, quickly regained his feet before the hushed crowd.

Conway turned serious as he said, “These guys take their lives into their own hands in every race. That’s why there is a Don MacBeth Memorial Fund.”

Los Alamitos donated $10,000 to the fund for disabled jockeys in exchange for the exhibition.

Pincay was taken to Los Alamitos Medical Center, where X-rays revealed the broken collarbone. He is expected to be sidelined about a month, a time period during which he averages about $100,000 in income.

The track had taken extra precautions to find docile, well-mannered pacers, to equip the jockeys with jog carts, rather than regular sulkies, and to keep the fields uncongested with just four starters. Los Alamitos also had held exhibitions for myopic media members and overweight businessmen without incident.

But the spill illustrated the danger of a sport that during the last decade lost such stars as Billy Haughton and Shelly Gourdreau in track accidents. It also exposed the need of a counterpart to the Don MacBeth Memorial Fund for standardbred drivers.

McCarron and Conway are vice presidents of the fund started more than two years ago in memory of a top jockey who died of cancer only days after accepting the 1987 George Woolf Memorial Award at Santa Anita. McCarron estimated that the fund has raised about $500,000.

“It was just a real shame for Laffit and Los Alamitos that it turned out the way it did,” McCarron said. “We had a group of nice people trying to do something good for both sports.”

Said Arnold: “When the bank of lights went out, and then the tote machines went down, my heart sank. It cost us between $200,000-300,000 in handle, and we still handled $1.1 million. We were definitely headed for a record (the $1,258,873 of the previous Friday).

“It was just old age and a lack of maintenance with both power shortages. We had to put in new wire starting at 1 a.m. after the races, and we got the lights back up at 5 p.m. the next day. The power company was just super.

“Our pari-mutuel people deserve medals. They unhooked their machines in the grandstand and carted them to the Cypress Room in the clubhouse.

“It looked like Murphy’s Law was in effect.”

Trainer Pete Foley experienced a wide range of emotions during the weekend. On Friday, Foley’s Trixie Norton fell, unseating Pincay.

“She’s never done that before,” Foley said. “The gate got away too low. She anticipated it would pick up speed, went into a run and took a nose-dive. She’s sore in one shoulder.

“Laffit had the most experience of any of the jockeys. I trained a horse he drove in an exhibition at Hollywood Park eight years ago. He finished second with Easy D.V.”

On Saturday, Foley drove Capuchine, a star trotting mare, in a farewell mile after the fifth race.

“It’s the sensational trotting machine, Capuchine,” announcer Joe Alto, waxing poetic, said. The 4-year-old mare had won 13 of 19 starts before recently being sold to interests in Italy for $130,000.

“I’m beginning to feel the loss already,” said Foley, a native of Australia who has lived here 18 years. “You don’t get a horse like her every day. She’s not an ugly duckling. Everyone who sees her takes notice.

“She’s my wife Lynne’s pet. She picked her out of a sale and took care of her. Without her, the horse wouldn’t be so good.”

Capuchine had a lifetime best of 1:58 2/5 at Los Alamitos and earned $81,565 for owners Geraldine McClure and Janice Costar of Loomis. She will be sent to Florida this week for a layover before continuing her career in Milan.

“We have high hopes for another daughter of Hunter’s Star (as is Capuchine) named Kimmie’s April,” Foley said.

Kimmie’s April will race Thursday in a California Breeders’ Stake 3-year-old filly trot for a $14,499 purse.

Harness Racing Notes

Cappuccine, another 4-year-old mare but no relation to Capuchine, won a $3,600 pace in a lifetime best mark of 1:59 3/5 Saturday. Cappuccine’s dame is Cinnamon Tea; Capuchine’s is Cafe Capucino.

Storm Prince won the $15,000 invitational pace Saturday in 1:53 3/5, fastest mile of the meet and only a fifth of a second off the track record. Driven by Jim Morand, the 6-year-old horse stormed out of second at the top of the stretch to overhaul pace setting Power and Glory N, then held off the fast-closing Anatolian Story by a neck. Fractions of the blistering mile, a track record for aged stallions, were :27 4/5; :57 2/5; 1:25 3/5 and 1:53 3/5. Trained by Larry Rathbone for Ernest Hartman of Delaware, Storm Prince is a stablemate of Till We Meet Again, national 2-year-old pacing champion of 1989.

Capital Game, victorious in two stakes at the current meet, heads a field of eight tonight in the $15,397 California Breeders’ Stake 3-year-old colt and gelding trot.

Driver Rick Kuebler seeks another sweep of a division of a Cypress Series leg Thursday with distaffers Sweet Ella and Bonny Jo Scott N, both trained by Paul Blumenfeld. If Kuebler is forced to make a choice between the pair in the final, he is leaning toward Bonny Jo Scot N. “She has more speed,” he said.

Don’t look for Chris McCarron to consider any more harness exhibitions for a while. He was running outside Laffit Pincay during the spill last Friday. “You can get hit walking across the street, and I just went skiing,” McCarron said. “But you can try to minimize your risks.”