LOS ALAMITOS : Alfa Star Has Unique Racing Outfit
Alfa Star, one of the most easily recognizable standardbreds at Los Alamitos, looks like a cross between a hockey goalie and Bugs Bunny.
A white hood covers his head and ears, which are stuffed with nylon cones to muffle the crowd noise. He also wears a yellow shadow roll and cheek pieces to keep his mind off possible distractions below and behind him.
“He tries too hard,” said owner Gary Budahn, a track veterinarian who assists trainer Mark Anderson with the horse. “He doesn’t trust the driver. He tries to race his own way. He’s had tremendous speed but is hard to handle.”
A leading threat in the invitational trot each Saturday, Alfa Star has broken stride in three of eight starts this year, but won three other times when he stayed on gait. The 5-year-old has earned more than $130,000 during his career with a best time of 1:57 2/5.
“I was schooling him as a 2-year-old, and he took off on a flat run,” recalled Budahn. “My arms were noodles. He’s like a wiry football player. He’s not that muscular but he’s really strong.”
His outfit rivals a Florence Griffith Joyner original. Besides the distinctive headgear, Alfa Star wears enough equipment to fill a stall. Groom Jesse Rios begins laying out the equipment at 5:30 p.m. on a racing night.
The high-strung trotter requires three different bits, one for jogging, one for warm-ups on race night, and one for the race. The Simpson bit is a chain-link model that goes into his mouth during the race. In addition, he wears an O’Mara overcheck bit that serves as a chin-chain to keep his head up.
He also wears a fiberglass head pole to keep his head to the left, Italian leather trotting boots on his hind legs and elbow boots on his front legs, four-ounce brass toe weights and flattened shoes to compensate for his high stride.
“He’s a regular puzzle,” said Budahn.
Budahn and his wife, Debbie, live in Rolling Hills Estates with their three children. They race under the name Gusty Stable. Both are natives of Minnesota and were undergraduates at Gustavus Adolphus, abbreviated to Gusty by anybody pressed for the time to go six syllables or shaky in spelling. Gary’s father manages the largest creamery in the world in Borgards, Minn., only 15 minutes from Savage, the home of legendary pacer Dan Patch at the turn of the century.
Gusty has enjoyed more than its share of luck with 5-year-olds Alfa Star and Doodlin. Doodlin, a pacing mare, won the $10,000 invitational Friday in 1:57, raising her career earnings near the $330,000 mark.
“My wife was home doodling on the phone that day,” said Budahn of the naming. “I have no imagination when it comes to names--only veto power.”
A Viking fan, Budahn did contribute the names Purple Reign and Purple People Eater to the stable.
Both 5-year-old stars are homebreds with Hunter’s Star blood. Alfa Star is by Hunter’s Star-Alfa’s Winner; Doodlin by Rowdy Yankee out of the Hunter’s Star mare Latin Star.
Doodlin was honored as Western Standardbred Assn. horse of the year in 1988. Coincidentally, Budahn--who also is president of the association--presented the 1989 award in the Los Alamitos winner’s circle Saturday night to Rick and Maryann Plano for pacer Winning Night after having accepted the award for Doodlin a year earlier.
“We couldn’t get Alfa’s Winner in foal the first year and were preparing to give her away the second year when she took,” said Budahn. “We tried to sell both Alfa Star and Doodlin as yearlings but business was so bad in California then we couldn’t give them away.
“Alfa Star was always a good-looking horse but Doodlin was awful-looking as a yearling. She was ill-proportioned and her muscles were not defined. It took until May or June of her 2-year-old year to grow into herself and look like a horse.”
Pat Crowe, trainer-driver of Cam Fella, 1982 and ’83 harness horse of the year, was at Los Alamitos over the weekend. He brought in nine horses from Toronto to be sold.
“I was going to sell them at an auction in Toronto April 21 but I talked to Lloyd Arnold (Los Alamitos president and general manager), and he said they needed horses out here and would have no trouble selling,” said Crowe.
Interest in ownership has risen so sharply that 60 horses have been claimed since the meet opened in November, more than in the previous 18 months.
“I brought five colts and four fillies,” said Crowe. “Two of the 3-year-olds are by Cam Fella; a colt, Cam Hill, and a filly, Armbro Inga. I also brought a 4-year-old named On the Beach, who took a mark of 1:58 2/5 last year and is a full brother to Beach Towel, one of the top 2-year-olds in the nation last year.”
Crowe, 52, still enjoys reminiscing about Cam Fella, who won 61 of 80 starts, earned more than $2 million and concluded his career with a 28-race winning streak against top competition. Cam Fella stands at stud in New Jersey and has sired champions Camtastic and Goalie Jeff.
Crowe still blames himself for Cam Fella’s defeat in the 1982 Shelly Goudreau Pace at Los Alamitos.
“He should have won that too,” Crowe said. “It was my fault. I drove him bad. I was locked in at the rail in fifth or sixth and the horse in front of me made a break at the three-quarter pole, scattering the field.
“The race I most remember was when he beat Its Fritz at the Meadowlands. Its Fritz had won six or seven in a row. He went by us at the head of the stretch and opened up three lengths, and I thought we were beat. But Cam came back and beat him by a length and a half at the wire. He just had so much desire. He was a winner. To win 28 in a row is unheard of.
“I tried to bring him to California in the fall of ‘83, when he had won something like 25 in a row. I had just won in British Columbia and was looking for a race. They put up $75,000 in Toronto and $50,000 in Florida for races for him. I called Hollywood Park and asked if there would be a race for him. I talked to Larry Marsh (general manager) and he said, ‘Nope.’ ”
Continental Racing Assn., a Chicago-based group, has sent a written proposal to Fairplex Park in Pomona for harness dates from November to January after the summer-fall Los Alamitos meet closes. Patrick Flavin is president of the association that operates harness meets at Maywood Park in Chicago.
Harness Racing Notes
Clockers Corner returns Saturday at 10 a.m. for each Saturday of the meet through April 14. The festivities, free to the public, include workouts, handicapping information and guest speakers. Trainer-driver Jim Butler and handicapper-simulcast host Joel Lesser will be the guests this week in the clubhouse near the winner’s circle.
Trainer-driver Jack Olsen got the “O for Olsen” tag off when he guided Empennage to victory last week. He had been zero for 71 for the meet. . . . Jerry Silverman, leading trainer from the East, made a rare appearance during the weekend. He looked at a horse in Abe Stoltzfus’ stable.
Power and Glory and Magic Moose used powerful stretch kicks in winning the featured invitational pace and trot, respectively, last Saturday. Power and Glory, handled by Jim Todd, won the pace in 1:53 4/5, rallying in a :27 3/5 final quarter to nip Dare You To at the wire. Magic Moose came from behind with Pete Foley in the sulky and caught Thadrow in the final strides in 1:57 3/5.