LOS ALAMITOS : Trainer’s Enthusiasm Undampened

Trainer Dan Francisco’s 4-year-old mare Lil Bit Rusty will run in the $148,000 Vessels Maturity Saturday night at Los Alamitos and although the daughter of Easily Smashed will be an outsider in the Grade I stakes, her trainer would be the last one to complain.

“Man, I’m just glad to be in this race,” Francisco said Tuesday. “I didn’t think we had much of a chance to do anything on trial night.”

The trials for the Vessels Maturity were run last Wednesday and the uneven condition of the Los Alamitos track that evening had Francisco concerned.

Rain had left the track in bad shape, especially near the rail.

Of the 10 qualifiers for the Vessels Maturity final, only Lil Bit Rusty qualified from inside the No. 4 post.

A winner of more than $100,000 in her career, Lil Bit Rusty drew the No. 1 post in her trial. Jockey Kip Didericksen rode her to a fourth-place finish and the eighth-fastest qualifying time.

“She had to run a big race out of the one hole that night to even make the finals,” Francisco said.

“The way the track was on trial night, there’s no telling which horse will come back and be tough in the finals.”

Francisco said that the horse to beat in the Vessels Maturity might be the mare Barbs Bounce, a winner of three 1990 stakes and more than $340,000.

Barbs Bounce’s five-race winning streak ended in the Vessels Maturity trials when she ran fifth while racing from the No. 4 post position.

Still, Barbs Bounce posted the ninth-fastest qualifying time, salvaging an otherwise disappointing night for trainer Bob Gilbert.

“I really thought I was going to qualify three horses for this race,” said Gilbert, who also sent out major stakes winners Teller Queen and Floyd De Great in the Vessels trials.

“Teller Queen had the two hole and Floyd got the three hole in the trials and neither of them had a chance to make the final from down there. I guess I should feel lucky that Barbs Bounce was able to sneak in.”

The two fastest qualifiers are the vastly improved mare, The Dream Date, a 22.10-second winner of her trial, and the champion colt Sig Hanson.

Sig Hanson finished second to The Dream Date in their trial but the winner of $423,000 came into the trial off a seven-month layoff and figures to improve.

Although there were several horses who suffered through a bad night on the evening of the Vessels Maturity trials, thoroughbred jockey Gary Stevens probably experienced the roughest night of the last week at Los Alamitos.

Stevens made the trip across town last Saturday night to ride Raised Toperfection for trainer Bob Baffert in the $233,000 Kindergarten.

Stevens was also named to ride the $5,000 claimer, Kite in the Sky, in the seventh race.

That turned out to be one horse too many.

Stevens and Kite in the Sky finished a close third in the seventh race, but the Los Alamitos stewards disqualified them for causing interference about 100 yards from the gate.

The stewards will decide this week whether or not to suspend Stevens for five days, a move that could cost the 27-year-old rider some choice mounts at Hollywood Park.

The Kindergarten wasn’t much better for Stevens, as he and Raised Toperfection wound up eighth.

Trainer Blane Schvaneveldt reports that two-time champion Dash for Speed is coming around, although a bit slowly, as she prepares for her 1990 debut.

A winner of more than $1 million, Dash for Speed was returned to the track in mid-May, after having been bred to a Texas stallion, Streakin Six, this spring. A surrogate mare is carrying Dash for Speed’s foal while she returns to training.

The $60,000 Anne Burnett Invitational Handicap was scheduled to be Dash for Speed’s return race but Schvaneveldt is not sure the 5-year-old mare will be ready for that engagement July 14.

“We’ll be lucky to be ready for the Anne Burnett,” he said. “They weren’t able to do much with her at the ranch and we don’t want to rush her if she’s not ready.”

Should Dash for Speed miss the Anne Burnett, the $100,000 Los Alamitos Championship July 28 probably would be her next race.

As the Los Alamitos summer season hits its halfway point, figures show increases in both handle and attendance.

Attendance, which includes patrons at California satellite wagering facilities, has increased more than 21%. On-track attendance is reported to be up 9.9% compared to a year ago.

Total handle, which also includes off-track betting, is up 8.1% but the on-track handle has dropped 8.4%.

In winning the $233,000 Kindergarten last Saturday night aboard Takin on the Cash, jockey Danny Cardoza scored his third victory in the Grade I stake.

He won his first Kindergarten in 1972, riding Pockatu. And the 18-year span between his first Kindergarten victory and his latest was not lost on the 40-year-old Cardoza.

“It kind of makes me feel old to think I won this race that long ago,” he said.

“I’m glad I won this one because I don’t think I’ve got another 18 years left in me.”