LOS ALAMITOS : Dash for Speed Begins Her Dash for World Championship on Sunday in Anne Burnett

Dash for Speed, a two-time national champion mare, will begin her quest for the world championship Sunday afternoon at Los Alamitos in the $60,000 Anne Burnett Invitational Handicap.

Winner of more than $1 million in her career, Dash for Speed will make her 1990 debut in the Grade I Anne Burnett, the major distaff race of the summer quarter horse season.

The 1988 champion 3-year-old filly and 1989 champion mare will face a field that will include Barbs Bounce, winner of the Peninsula Handicap.

“You bet it’s no easy race, especially for a mare coming back after a layoff,” said Dash for Speed’s new trainer, Blane Schvaneveldt. “I wanted to try and get her in an allowance race for her first start back, but the owners wanted to go ahead and try the stakes.”

Bob Blakeman, who with partner Tom Bradbury owns Dash for Speed, realizes the difficult assignment his mare will face Sunday.

“We know full well it’s a tough place to start her, but we didn’t bring her back just to win some races, we brought her back to go after (the title of) world champion,” Blakeman said from his Texas ranch.

The fact that Dash for Speed has been overlooked for this title, the highest honor in the quarter horse sport, has obsessed Blakeman for the last two years. He believes his mare has been slighted by the experts who vote on the awards.

“I don’t want to make anybody mad, but I just don’t know what this mare has to do to (be voted) world champion,” Blakeman said. “It looks like you have to win in California to get the votes, so that’s why we’re here.”

Last year, Dash for Speed was outvoted for world champion by the 3-year-old filly, See Me Do It, winner of the Champion of Champions in California.

See Me Do It is now racing at Ruidoso Downs, N.M., where the defending world champion has been upset in her first two starts of the summer.

“It’s tough to come back and race after a tough 3-year-old campaign,” Blakeman said. “Dash for Speed came back as a 4-year-old to win three Grade I races. Maybe if she can come back as a 5-year-old, it will prove once and for all that she’s the best horse in the country.”

To help Dash for Speed in her comeback this year, Blakeman bred the mare last spring in Texas using a new embryo transfer procedure.

In mid-April the mare was bred to the leading stallion Streakin Six at the Phillips Ranch in Texas, but seven days after the breeding, the embryo was placed in a surrogate mare who will carry the foal for the remainder of the 11-month gestation period.

The procedure allowed Blakeman to bring Dash for Speed back to the races, while at the same time giving her owner a 1991 foal that could be worth $100,000 or more in today’s market.

According to Brooks Thompson, manager of Phillips Ranch, the procedure will in no way hamper Dash for Speed’s return to the races.

“Having undergone this procedure will not influence how Dash for Speed runs in any way,” Thompson said. “We do about 25 embryo procedures a year here . . . and it doesn’t seem to bother the mares at all.”

If Dash for Speed runs well in the Anne Burnett, her next race would be the $100,000 Los Alamitos Championship, at 440 yards, on July 28.

Blakeman has made no secret about Dash for Speed’s 1990 plans. If all goes well, the mare will run in two races this summer, then return to Los Alamitos this fall for the $125,000 Breeders Championship Classic and the $250,000 Champion of Champions.

“We know how tough this is going to be, and to be honest, it’s a little scary to bring her back for one more try at (becoming) world champion,” Blakeman said. “This thing is either going to be a total hit or a total flop. There’s no middle ground.”

One horse that Dash for Speed could meet later this summer is the 5-year-old gelding, Heisajoy, winner of the $25,000 Chicado V. Handicap last Sunday.

A Louisiana-bred who has returned to the races this summer after undergoing knee surgery, Heisajoy dominated the race, cruising to a half-length victory in 19.59 seconds for 400 yards. The time was the second-fastest for 400 yards recorded at Los Alamitos, bettered only by the 19.57-second track record set in 1976 by the mare, She’s Precious.

Heisajoy has won two stakes in his first two starts of the year and, like Dash for Speed, is a potential starter in the Los Alamitos Championship.