Dash For Speed Breaks Record at Los Alamitos

Dash For Speed, a 5-year-old mare, took a major step toward the 1990 World Champion title by winning the $50,000 Anne Burnett Invitational Handicap in track-record time Sunday at Los Alamitos Race Course.

Dash For Speed, a two-time national champion and a winner of over $1 million, made her 1990 debut in the Grade I Anne Burnett Invitational. With jockey Kip Didericksen aboard, Dash For Speed opened a clear lead early and held off a late charge of Lil Bit Rusty to win by a neck.

Dash For Speed’s time of 19.53 seconds for the 400-yard race bettered the 19.57 track record set in 1976 by the mare She’s Precious.

“She’s a real pro,” Didericksen said after the victory. “She just looks down the race track and when the gates gates open, she just takes off. She got a little tired at the end, but it was her first race in a long time.”

Dash For Speed had not raced since October, when she was upset in the Grade I Breeders Championship Classic at Sunland Park, N.M.

Owned by Bob Blakeman and Tom Bradbury, Dash For Speed was sent to trainer Blane Schvaneveldt in May to be prepared for a summer campaign which will include a start in the $100,000 Los Alamitos Championship on July 28.

Dash For Speed has won eight Grade I stakes in her career, but the victory in the Anne Burnett was the mare’s first stakes victory outside of New Mexico.

The Anne Burnett also marked the first time Didericksen had been aboard Dash For Speed.