LOS ALAMITOS : A Third Champion Is Smith’s Goal

Bill Smith, a prominent harness racing owner, visited orthopedic specialist Robert Kerlan for knee surgery earlier this year.

When Smith optimistically said he had a 2-year-old pacer with national championship potential, Kerlan--a racing aficionado--replied, “Bill, you’ve had two champions. Isn’t that enough?”

“I pointed up to the sky and said, ‘Nobody says you can’t have three,’ ” Smith said.

Smith, who owned and bred Sir Dalrae, the 1973 harness horse of the year, and Mr. Dalrae, 1984 aged pacer of the year, owns the Dal Rae restaurant in Pico Rivera and the appropriately named A La Carte racing stable.

Smith puffed a cigar last week in his restaurant’s Stall of Fame Room, where steaks and stakes dominate the discussion. The walls are covered with racing pictures, clippings and awards. Suspended from the ceiling in the middle of the room is a 38 1/2-pound northern ash sulky used with Sir Dalrae.

The sulky stayed put during the Whittier earthquake so diners below can eat in peace.

A drawing of a horseshoe frames a floor-to-ceiling head shot of Sir Dalrae on one wall. Restaurant napkins list a detailed history of the two pacers’ championship years. Matchboxes carry a picture of Sir Dalrae. Tapes of dozens of the major races the pair won around the continent can be seen on a television screen in one corner.

But that’s all history. Smith, 74, is nostalgic but has a new set of knees and a renewed itch for another champion during the 1990s.

“I’ve had 18 or 20 horses for several years but sold all my older ones this year,” he said. “I just sold a Bret Hanover filly named Imbibe that’s been racing at Los Alamitos to Castleton Farm. She’s out of a mare named Pleasure Ahead, by Good Time. I wasted such a good name on such a lousy horse. I could outrun her.

“I had horses in five different places. Now I just have a few young ones in training with Jim Dennis. I notice I have money in the bank now.”

Smith will be at Los Alamitos Thursday night for the season debut of 3-year-old filly pacer Tip ‘n Tax in the second race. But it’s the 2-year-old division that brings a twinkle to his blue eyes.

“My pride and joy is a colt named Royal Salute,” Smith said with conviction in his voice. “He’s by No Nukes out of Chin Chin, my good mare who is a full sister to Mr. Dalrae and a half sister to Sir Dalrae. I’ve also got a nice Mr. Dalrae colt named Mr. Gourmet.

“Without a young one to look forward to, this game can get dull,” Smith said.

Both colts are scheduled to begin racing at Sacramento next month, then go to Chicago with Dennis for stakes engagements in the Midwest and East in June.

Smith also owns a thoroughbred, a 2-year-old filly named I’m Really Dancing, trained by Tom Bell at Santa Anita.

Smith is such an avid racing fan that he roots for relatives of Sir Dalrae, Mr. Dalrae and Chin Chin, whether he owns them or not.

“Dalrae Star, a daughter of Darling Dal, who was a daughter of Sir Dalrae, just won stakes at Windsor and Greenwood in Canada last month,” the proud Smith said.

“Remember the name Pastina. I sold her last year as a yearling to Doug Ackerman for Richard Staley. She’s by No Nukes out of Aldente, a daughter of Chin Chin. If I know anything about racing, she’ll be the best 2-year-old filly pacer in the country.”

Smith, an Omaha native who played basketball at Creighton University and went to law school there, thanks racing for his life.

“I was in the (Army Air Corps), stationed at Monroe, La., in 1944,” he said. “I was supposed to fly to New York but because it was Kentucky Derby weekend, I asked if I could go to Louisville. I was able to make the change, and even bet Pensive (the winner).”

Smith’s jubilant mood turned somber when he learned that the flight to New York had crashed, killing everyone aboard.

Smith moved to the West Coast and took over the original Dal Rae restaurant on Western and 105th Street near Hollywood Park in 1951, keeping it open until 1969. He began the current Dal Rae on East Washington near Rosemead in 1958.

“Harness and thoroughbred horsemen used to come into the old Dal Rae all the time,” said Smith. “I would have become an owner earlier but I thought if I bought a few horses, I would have to give them one trainer, hurting the feelings of others and hurting business.”

In 1960, a restaurant patron named Murray Fairthrone talked Smith into becoming a partner in two standardbreds, Golden Cross and Queen’s Crown.

Queen’s Crown became the foundation mare for all Smith’s success. In 1967, Fairthrone sold out his half of a six-horse stable.

“Queen’s Crown goes back to Nibble Hanover,” said Smith. “Queen’s Crown and Bret Hanover are out of full sisters. Queen’s Crown was double-gaited. She took a record on both the pace and trot and lived to 30.

“I paid $1,000 to breed her to Porterhouse and produce Sir Dalrae. He didn’t race at 2, and since Porterhouse was a trotting sire, we started him on the trot at 3. His first race was on the trot but he developed a hitch and three months later he made his first start on the pace.”

Sir Dalrae won 20 of 27 starts in 1973 but Smith still fumes over one race that was not run.

“He had won 15 in a row and was coming to Hollywood Park, and Western Harness wouldn’t write a prep race for him,” said Smith. “Jim (Dennis) and I had lunch with Marvin Shapiro and Pres Jenuine and said we’d even donate the purse to charity. I was so mad I sold my 2,800 shares of Western Harness at $6. Later it went to 52. That’s how smart I am.”

Smith paid $20,000 for breedings to Meadow Skipper to produce Mr. Dalrae and Chin Chin. Mr. Dalrae’s top clocking was a 1:52 2/5 and earned $1.125 million.

Sir Dalrae still stands at stud in New Zealand at 22. Smith still has four shares to breed to Mr. Dalrae in Illinois and also still owns Chin Chin.

“She just dropped an Abercrombie colt I’m naming Bill of Fare,” Smith said. “I think I’m going to keep him.”

Harness Racing Notes

Australian-born driver Ross Croghan scored his 1,000th victory in North America with Mufti in the fourth race Thursday. “My mother, Aileen, was here visiting from Brisbane for the first time in 10 years,” said Croghan of the milestone victory. Croghan also said that sophomore filly pacing star Lepton was fully recovered from a virus which forced her to miss a race Friday.

Michigan native Peter Wrenn, second in the driver standings with 78 victories in his first Los Alamitos meet, returned to Detroit this week to compete at the Hazel Park meet. Wrenn, 27, will be married to Melanie Deters on June 29.

Fairplex Park in Pomona turned down a proposal by the Continental Racing Assn. of Chicago to lease dates for a meet from November to January. “The board rejected their proposal at a meeting last Tuesday,” said Fairplex president Ralph Hinds.

Driver Bob Sleeth was fined $100 and denied the use of a regular whip for one year by stewards when Tigershark came back from the 10th race after a third-place finish March 16 with cut marks on his stifle. Sleeth had just regained the whip March 1 after a similar suspension last summer at Sacramento. He will still be able to use a smaller jockey’s whip. “We don’t feel the jockey’s whip will restrict the horse’s competitiveness,” said Michael Corley, speaking for the board of stewards. “We’re primarily doing this to keep (Sleeth’s) overaggressive whipping tactics in check.”

Eminem, bidding for horse-of-the-meet honors after his eighth straight victory Saturday in a California Sire Stakes race, returns to Fireball Series competition Saturday and the Fireball final April 14. “He’s a big gangly colt, but for his size he accelerates really fast,” trainer-driver Rick Plano said after the 3-year-old colt covered the second half in :56 3/5. He could meet national champion Till We Meet Again May 5 at Sacramento.

Despite having won races with Divine Spirit on March 8 and 29, Plano was fined $50 and $100, respectively, for “failure to come up into position for the start.” Croghan was hit twice on the same night for similar violations on March 23, also for $50 and $100, with Gee Gee Gem, which placed fifth, and Waratah, which won.

Till We Meet Again trained a mile in 2:02 and change Saturday, the last quarter in :29, according to Abe Stoltzfus, who will drive the champion in a qualifier between races at Los Alamitos April 12. He will make his sophomore pari-mutuel debut May 5 at Sacramento.

Set To Go, who dominated the distaff pacing ranks here, won the $25,000 open handicap Saturday at Yonkers Raceway for Joe Anderson in 1:58 1/5. New owner Carmen Koosa bought her last week for $70,000 from the Roger Stein stable. Anderson won a second race at Yonkers for Koosa with My Hi Fella.

Using a new sulky, Storm Prince won the $15,000 invitational pace in 1:54 3/5 Saturday, paying a whopping $20.20. Driver Jim Morand is heading back to Maryland to drive.