LOS ALAMITOS : Shue Fly Handicap Headlines 12 Races

Dashing Val, fresh off a win in the Kaweah Handicap opening weekend, shares high weight of 122 pounds with two-time national champion Chingaderos in Saturday night’s $25,000-added Shue Fly Handicap at Los Alamitos Race Course.

The Shue Fly, a 350-yard stakes event for 3-year-old and older campaigners, headlines a 12-race program that features a special Cinco de Mayo celebration. The track’s gates open at 6 p.m.

The 39th running of the Shue Fly Handicap brings out a select field of five stakes veterans headed by high weights Dashing Val and Chingaderos.

Here’s the complete lineup from the rail out with riders: Dashing Val, Roman Figueroa; Aqua Treasure, Kip Didericksen; Calling for Cash, Danny Cardoza; Chingaderos, Steve Treasure, and Pancho Willy, Henry Garcia.

Dashing Val opened his 1990 campaign with an impressive victory in the Kaweah Bar Handicap on April 21 at Los Alamitos. Making his first start for trainer Blane Schvaneveldt, the Dash for Cash son threw a one-length lead on the field away from the starting gate and never looked back while racing to a widening 1 1/4-length victory. The final time for the 350 yards was a sizzling 17.60 seconds.

Schvaneveldt purchased Dashing Val from Edward Allred after a lackluster campaign last year when he managed only three third-place finishes in six starts.

Chingaderos, voted national aged gelding in 1989 by the American Quarter Horse Assn., makes his fifth start of the year for trainer John Cooper. The home-bred product of the Cooper family is one of the all-time favorites of Los Alamitos fans, having run out more than $800,000 during his six years at the track.

Chingaderos was troubled with injuries earlier this season at Bay Meadows. After finishing a disappointing fifth in the Inaugural Handicap, he scored a neck verdict as the favorite in the California Breeders Championship. He capped his Bay Meadows campaign with a fourth in the Alameda Handicap and then checked in third to Dashing Val in the Kaweah Bar three weeks ago at Los Al.

Aqua Treasure has the talent to upset either of the high-weights. The 4-year-old mare won a division of the Inaugural Handicap her first start at Bay Meadows and finished more than four lengths ahead of Chingaderos in the Alameda Handicap.