LOS ALAMITOS : Wright Hopes to Pull Off a Fast One

Ken Wright, a gynecologist from Fresno, hopes to go party-crashing Saturday night at Los Alamitos with Jazzing Hi in the $125,000 Breeders Championship Classic.

The Championship Classic, the highlight of eight stakes during Quarter Horse Breeders Classic Championship Day, has been billed as a showdown between champion females See Me Do It and Dash for Speed.

Wright, who owns the horse with breeder Wayne Charlton, went so far as to buy an advertisement in recent Los Alamitos programs, proclaiming: “Jazzin Hi is the fastest horse in the world. He will prove it in the Quarter Horse Breeders Championship on Nov. 17 at Los Alamitos.”

And he put his money where his mouth is, supplementing the 4-year-old son of Merridoc for $12,000 in the 440-yard race.

“If he wins, it won’t be an upset,” Wright said. “He’ll have dead aim on those ladies.

“I know if they get too involved with each other, he’s going to sneak by and get it. If I’m within three-quarters of a length with 200 yards to go, I’ll win it.

“He’s as raw-talented a horse as I’ve ever had,” said Wright of the chestnut, who has four firsts and four seconds in 10 starts. He won the Vessels Maturity and finished second in the Los Alamitos Championship, a half-length behind Dash for Speed, during the summer meet.

“He always has to come from behind,” Wright said. “He was about two lengths behind the mare in seventh with 80 yards to go in the Championship and made up a length and a half. I watched the tape over and over again. I called (track announcer) Ed Burgart and asked if he had ever seen a horse move that fast. He said no.

“I guarantee people will see the fastest horse in the world. I guarantee at the end he’ll be catching the leaders.”

Wright, a former partner of Dr. Edward Allred--now president and CEO of Los Alamitos--in Long Beach, shifted his practice north 14 years ago.

“I bought my first quarter horse in 1974,” Wright said. “I bought Triple a Deck for $3,600 at the Pomona sale, he won his first race, and I was hooked.”

Wright enjoyed greater success as the co-owner of Charger Bar, a world champion, and The Black Alliance, a two-time divisional champion.

Jazzing Hi is out of Anna High, a stakes-winning half-sister to Charger Bar.

“This is the first male out of the Charger Bar line to do this well,” Wright said.

“I had good stock from the start and just thought I was going to ride it forever,” Wright said. “But I’ve been in kind of a drought the last six years. Somebody closed the door.

“But now I’ve got Jazzing Hi and a nice 3-year-old half-brother to The Black Alliance named One Kilo Whiskey. I’m back!”

As a final challenge, Wright has proposed a side bet with the owners of See Me Do It and Dash for Speed.

“The winner keeps his (purse) money,” he said. “The losers, if they finish second or third, donate their winnings to charity.”

Trainer Daryn Charlton, 27, has been preparing Jazzing Hi for the last three weeks since the horse returned from Utah.

“If we can stay within a half-length 200 yards away, we could pull an upset,” Charlton said. “The mares are the ones to beat, but there are four or five in there who could win.”

Expected to join the three in the Classic are Heisajoy, Tee Roy Reb and Wicked Dash.

Los Alamitos Notes

The Dream Doctor might have earned a spot in the $25,000 Breeders Sophomore Classic after scoring a two-length victory under Eddie Garcia Saturday in the $55,729 California Sires Cup Derby in :19.69, only :16 off Dash for Speed’s track record for 400 yards. “I thought he ran a monster,” said trainer H.J. Visscher after the gelding’s fifth victory in six starts.

“This is the first runner owned by Kathy and Don Clift of Orange,” Visscher said. “They claimed his dam, Proud Dream, and she broke down in that race, so they bred her. He had some problems with sickness at 2, and I got him unraced in January.”

Fans who bet Grammas Noisy Jet to place in the first race Saturday were the unluckiest of non-winners. Although she crossed the wire second, a head behind Formalities, Grammas Noisy Jet and Azure Baby Bandit, who was unplaced, were declared non-starters. Stewards flashed the inquiry sign immediately after the race and discovered that Gates 1 and 2, from which the pair broke, opened an instant late. Despite starting about a length behind, Grammas Noisy Jet, a 7-1 shot, almost hit the wire first after being sixth. All money bet on the two horses was refunded.

Jockey Jim Lewis equaled a career-high four winners last Tuesday, scoring with Flow Control, Our Buddy, Little Doc Mason and Twaynas Dash. “Twaynas Dash qualified just so-so and ran a big race that night,” said the 33-year-old Utah native. “I was glad to win two for Wayne Thompson (Twaynas Dash and Flow Control). He’s my main stable.”

Fans at Canterbury Downs in Shakopee, Minn., bet $24,591 Friday night as it joined the Los Alamitos off-track network and will continue to do so each Friday.

ESPN will tape the Breeders Championship Classics and televise them Nov. 25 as part of the “America’s Horse” show at 10 a.m., PST. In addition to the Grade I Championship Classic, the lineup includes the Grade I $100,000 Juvenile, the Grade I $35,000 Sprint, the Grade I $35,000 Distaff, the Grade II $25,000 Sophomore, the Grade III $25,000 Marathon, the Grade III $15,000 Freshman and the $40,000 Pacific Derby.

One of the most interesting races will pit local star Baychaino against New Mexico invader Ferrari in the Marathon at 870 yards. “Baychaino feels a lot better after his last win than he did after finishing second at Pomona,” trainer Charles Treece said. “He’s a good 3-year-old hooking older horses. The other horse (Ferrari) has never run on a five-eighths mile track, but they say good horses run anywhere.”

The Pacific Coast Select Breeding Stock Sale will be held in conjunction with the Breeders Classics Sale Spectacular Sunday, beginning at 11 a.m., at Barretts adjacent to Fairplex Park in Pomona. . . . Breeders Spring Classic threat Chingaderos won the same race here in 1988.

Delinquent Account, runner-up in the $304,933 3-year-old Filly Pace in the Breeders Crown at Pompano Beach, Fla., was bred by Pico Rivera restaurateur Bill Smith. “I sold her for $35,000 at the Fasig-Tipton yearling sale in Kentucky,” Smith said of the daughter of On the Road Again-Aldente.