Foley Holds His Own at Los Alamitos

Pete Foley has been convinced. Trotters with their diagonal gait aren’t so bad to train, after all. In fact, some are thoroughly enjoyable.

“I was never that fond of them. But my wife always has liked them,” said the affable Australian native before a recent evening of activity at Los Alamitos Race Course. “And now my barn is about 50-50 trotters and pacers.”

Minority rights in the Foley shedrow (trotters consist of about 20 percent of horses stabled at Los Alamitos, the remainder being pacers, which move right then left legs in unison) was pushed along at a record clip by a filly now enroute to Italy and a late-bloomimg gelding.

And in this season of content for standardbred racing at Los Alamitos, Pete Foley is more than holding his own with a relatively small string of horses, one that he is looking to expand.

Since actions speak louder than words, proof of Foley’s ability is visible nightly at the track. Check the trainer’s standings in the racing program, and in the top lO will reside one Pete Foley, the eighth of nine children born 40 years ago in the State of Victoria, the capital of which is Melbourne.

The luck of having a passport brought Foley to American shores in 1971 after being involved, alternately, in quality Control for Bechtel Corp. in the outback of Australia and rubbing horses in Brisbane.

Clearly, Foley had made the rounds in his native land before coming stateside. Once in America, he went to work for Hall-of-Fame horseman Bob Farrington, then rubbed horses for Jack Williams, now a steward at Los Alamitos.

“A friend of mine mentioned he was sending a planeload of horses to America,” he recalls of the big move. “I’d’ already been out of the country, so I had a passport, and figured, Why not try it’ over there.”

In addition to his family, the young groom left behind scenes still etched in his mind. “It’s music to my ears to hear the track commentators there,” he says. “They describe every horse every step of the way, and when they finish, give the order in which they come across the line. You can get a picture in your mind how the race went.”

Another unforgettable scene is a track at Melbourne, just 3/8 of a mile in circumference (to compare, Los Alamitos is a 5/8-mile oval). The track was virtually surrounded by grandstands, holding up to 20,000 boisterous fans.

“The electricity in that place was unbelievable,” Foley says.

He earned licensing to drive on various tracks starting at 16 years of age and remembers driving a top pacer named Joe Billy, handicapped with a start 48 yards behind the “scratch” horse--that which had the shortest distance to cover in the race. Joe Billy did well to finish third.

Once he obtained his U.S. training license at 23 years of age, Foley stepped out on his own in California. He’s raced on another circuit just once since. “I tried Chicago, but it was too cold for me,” he admits.

From the start in California, Foley consistently campaigned a string of hard-trying, check-earning types with modest ability and branched out in 1982 to also co-manage the Man-mar Farm in Northern California. Man-Mar has been the home of the standardbred stallions Levity, Sacramento, and Hunter’s Star.

The latter two are trotting stallions, and it was a Hunter’s Star-sired filly that would give Foley feature race exposure through a glorious 1989. Capuchine would erase any doubts he ever had about trotters.

Unraced but patiently trained while a two-year-old, Capuchine was unveiled by her conditioner early in 1989. She promptly won in 2:03 while being “parked out”--racing on the outside of horses on the turns--much of the mile.

“I knew she had speed, but she showed she had heart, too,” Foley says of that first test. “And horses have to have both to be really good.”

Eligible to sires and breeders stakes throughout the year against her fellow California-breds, Capuchine dominated her classmates. Her l2th and final win of the year was her best, as she glided to a 1:58 2/5 triumph, shattering the track mark for three-year-old trotting fillies.

But purse money isn’t so easy to come by for a premier California-bred once he or she turns four and is forced to race in unrestricted company. Capuchine certainly could have held her own with any trotter locally, but instead will compete for the big lira in the near future.

European interests on the lookout for a top trotter purchased Capuchine for $130,000, likely a good deal for both sides. Purses for her class average the equivalent of $25,000 each week in Italy.

“I’ll be interested to see how she does,” Foley sighs.

To a large degree, success in racing is dictated on successful turnover of racing stock, and when Capuchine left, Magic moose delivered a strong salve to her former home.

Foley first began working with magic moose in 1988 when the gelding was a four-year-old. And a non-winner.

Magic Moose soon shed his “maiden” tag and paid $70 to win in doing so. “Then,” Foley says, “we went to Sacramento and he won five in a row, moving up to invitational class.”

But a lull in the California sulky schedule prompted the gelding’s owner to seek racing opportunities elsewhere. Magic moose competed back East for a year, with little success, before being returned to Foley last fall.

The horse was re-shod by his once ex-trainer and prepared for the Los Alamitos session that began in November. “I knew he was good,” the conditioner said. “But I never dreamed he’d get this good.”

The late-blooming Magic Moose turned six years of age on January l and a month later recorded the fastest trotting mile in track history--l:57 2/5. An earner of just over $22,000 through his five-year-old season, ‘The moose’ has banked $29,550 since the turn of the year.

“I’m very confident in him now,” says Foley, who also drives the gelding. “He’s like a car, you can start and stop him, and he’ll give you speed any time during the race. He’s a dream to drive.”

At the moment, Foley has at least one pacer in his barn for which he has high hopes.

Perede, a New Zealand-bred mare, has developed nicely, proving the Foley touch also works on pacers. Perede is rated a level below the top pacers at the track, but her trainer feels she has the ability to turn a sub-l:57 mile.

Then there’s the promise of youth. Sires and breeders stakes for two-year-olds commence in the summer and these winter mornings find Foley schooling his youngsters for their first starts.

The dream is that there’s another Capuchine waiting in the wings. Whether he or she paces or trots.