LOS ALAMITOS : Jim Todd Is Enjoying a Big Meeting

At 6-feet-1 and 230 pounds, driver-trainer Jim Todd is an easy guy to spot at Los Alamitos Race Course.

Wearing a helmet and his blue and gray silks, Todd resembles a nose tackle for the Detroit Lions. He somehow looks as though he should be driving a bulldozer instead of a harness horse.

Big Todd, as he is called around the track, is enjoying a big meet with 18 victories and has developed a big horse in Power and Glory, a star of the invitational pacing ranks.

“Fastest horse I’ve ever driven,” Todd said of the 7-year-old New Zealand gelding, who won the $15,000 invitational pace last month in 1:53 4/5, two-fifths of a second off the track record. Power and Glory has won the invitational two of the last four Saturdays, splitting decisions with Storm Prince.

“I’m sitting there rating him to the three-quarters in 1:25,” said Todd of the 1:53 4/5 mile. “What a great feeling! I was ashamed of myself for hitting him in the lane. He looked like he could have gone around again.”

Todd bought the pacer for his wife, Virginia, and Warner Chinnis, paying $20,000 in November. He already has more than doubled the investment.

“I thought he was a good horse but I never expected him to be anything like this,” Todd said.

Todd, 57, has flowing white hair, a ruddy complexion and a gregarious nature. His Orange County roots run deeper than Disneyland’s or the Angels’.

“I’ve lived in Santa Ana most of my life,” he said. “I went to Jefferson Elementary School, Willard Junior High School and Santa Ana High School.”

Todd was hooked by the standardbred sport in the 1950s.

“I went to the harness races at Hollywood Park and just loved it,” he said. “I went through the program and picked a trainer who lived close to us. I found Jacques Grenier from Long Beach. That started it. I bought my first horse in 1955.”

Todd first worked as a roofing contractor and later built apartments.

“When (President) Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, you couldn’t get any financing until the turmoil ended because money was so tight,” he said. “I had all these buildings so I started jogging horses. By the time it straightened out, I didn’t want to go back. I sold all the apartments and started (racing) for real in 1965.”

Harness racing has been a family affair for Todd.

“My wife used to do it all,” he said. “She’d clean all the stalls. I worked her too hard. One day she stuck her toes in and said ‘That’s it!’ She still does the books.”

One of Todd’s daughters, Judy, is the mother of driver Eddie Hensley and Robin Peterson, who takes care of Power and Glory. Another of Todd’s daughters, Jackie, is the mother of Barry Moore, who also helped his grandfather around the barn.

Two other daughters are married to harness drivers. Sharon is the wife of Barry Wishard, and Cassie is married to Steve Hyman.

“Cassie comes out every day with their 6-month-old baby in a stroller around 9 a.m.,” Todd said. “She still harnesses and bathes the horses.”

Todd’s son Jim--a.k.a. Little Todd--also drove for several years but turned in his whip to sell cars when the sport hit financially trying times in 1987. Todd, though, would not be surprised to see Jim return, what with harness racing on the rise again at Los Alamitos.

“He got his matinee license at 14 and started driving at 16,” said Todd. “Once you do this, you end up doing it your whole life.”

The only painful family memory concerns a fifth daughter, Becky, who was married to driver Norman LaClair. She died of a drug overdose about a year ago.

Several good horses preceded Power and Glory.

“Around 1975, I bought a horse named Luxor for $22,000,” Todd said. “I went through the claiming ranks with him and filled the invitational. He got beat by a top pacer named Windy Way.”

Todd got one of his best bargains at Los Alamitos, Doctor E.K. Buckley, a horse named after a famous veterinarian from Ohio.

“He was supposed to have had a sesamoid injury, and I got him for $500,” said Todd. “Three months later, he won six straight races at Sacramento. He got better and better. He would always (travel) the last quarter in :28 4/5 or better. I later sold him for $25,000.”

Todd raced Le Fella against Cam Fella, harness horse of the year in 1982 and ’83.

“I bought him for $33,000 and raced him in the Great Western Series at Sacramento,” he said. “Then I took him to British Columbia, where he finished sixth in a $100,000 race at Cloverdale to Cam Fella. I made good money with him before he was claimed for $35,000 up there.”

Todd also recalled Bramble Scramble, a $12,500 claimer who won several races before later being reclaimed for $25,000, and Manitas N, a $10,000 purchase from New Zealand who clocked 1:56 at Hollywood Park and was sold for $50,000.

None of them, however, can compare in speed with Power and Glory. Todd does not call the New Zealand import the second coming of Cardigan Bay but you never know. He hopes to take the lead Saturday in the rivalry with Storm Prince, who posted his second 1:53 3/5 victory of the winter--a tick off the track record--in their latest meeting.

Harness Racing Notes

Ron Curtis, former president of Cal-Pacific Harness Racing, Inc., was sentenced to four years in prison last week for embezzling almost $400,000 from the racing corporation that ran the 1988 Cal-Expo meet at Sacramento.

Serge Masse, a Quebec native who had driven most recently in Western New York, received a rude welcome here last week. His first two starters were disqualified, and he was given five-day suspensions for each, which will keep him out of action through Feb. 23. Stage Harbor was disqualified from first to fifth in the seventh race on Feb. 6 for “coming off the rail approaching the half without sufficient clearance, impeding the progress of Amylase Ambler.” In the fifth race Thursday, High Volt Osborne was dropped from second to ninth for causing William Alfred N to break stride.

The Cameltonian, a match race between a camel and a pacer from a standing start at an eighth of a mile--turned into a virtual walkover for the pacer in an exhibition after the third race Friday. Armaway, handled by Mark Harder, won as he pleased under a snug hold. The Sultan, a 10-year-old racing camel ridden by Danny La Fon, balked twice at the start, going to his knees, then his belly. He finally finished a distant second. “I was going to play music from Camelot but this doesn’t seem like a real show-going crowd,” said horn-blower Jay Cohen.

Top harness drivers are notorious for their lack of handicapping expertise. Rick Kuebler, the leading driver of the meet, had to choose between Bonny Bo Scot and Sweet Ella, 5-year-old mares, in the $20,000 final of the Cypress Pacing Series Thursday. Kuebler had driven both in three previous legs. Bonny Bo Scot had won her last start in 1:57 3/5. Sweet Ella was fourth in her race in 1:59. Kuebler chose Bonny Bo Scot and landed the coveted rail to boot. But Sweet Ella, driven for the first time by Marc Aubin, won in 1:57 2/5 and paid $72.40 to win. Bonny Bo Scot finished second. Both are trained by Paul Blumenfeld.

Australian-born Ross Croghan swept the middle triple Friday with pacers Percy Redwood, Wayward Son and Yankee Wina. Percy Redwood, a 6-year-old gelding who had failed to break 1:58 in previous races at Los Alamitos, won in his first start for the Croghan stable, trained by Tim Diliberto. Claimed in his previous race for $8,000, Percy Redwood was moved up a rung to the $10,000 claiming level. “We lengthened his hobbles two inches, took the hood off and put an open bridle on,” said Croghan of equipment changes that dramatically improved the horse’s time. . . .Flight Strip and Absolute Gem head a lineup of seven in the $20,000 final of the Stanton Series for pacers tonight.