LOS ALAMITOS : Satellite Lets Fans Cheer Mare

Owner-breeder Ron Cook of Casper, Wyo., stood near the finish line at Los Alamitos Sunday night, wearing a white windbreaker with, in green lettering, “Isaws Sugar Bear, S.I. 108, Energy Downs, Gillette, Wyo.”

Cook, who runs a construction and fabrication company in Casper, explained that S.I. 108 meant the speed index the 4-year-old mare earned while winning a stakes race at Energy Downs last summer.

Cook, his wife, Mary, their son, Ron Jr., and his girlfriend cheered for Isaws Sugar Bear, the 3-2 favorite in the first division of the Las Damas Handicap at Los Alamitos. But the horse finished fourth, beaten by two noses for second.

The four were not the only Wyoming people cheering for Isaws Sugar Bear. Club Cheers, a Casper off-track betting site that carries Los Alamitos racing live via satellite, has become a crowded facility whenever Wyoming-bred Isaws Sugar Bear races.

“I’ve never seen so many people get excited as when she won her trial for the Champion of Champions last month,” said Cindy Thompson, manager of the facility.

“On Saturday, we had about 125 or 130 people, when normally we have 50 or 60. We bet about $9,500 on Los Alamitos; it’s usually around $6,000 or $7,000.

“There were a lot of people I hadn’t seen before. We did radio and newspaper advertising, and there was word of mouth. It gives you a warm feeling. Especially if you don’t have live racing, it’s almost like being there.

Casper is a city of 45,000 in a state of 455,000, the smallest population in the nation. Isaws Sugar Bear, who has won 12 of 19 races, might be the biggest sports celebrity in the state since Wyoming basketball star Fennis Dembo was on the cover of Sports Illustrated a few years ago. Their heroine will get a rest because of bone chips in her knees.

Cook, who raced the mare’s sire, Isaw Kirk, and her dam, Miss MacBeth, named her after his 18-year-old granddaughter, Misty Chaney. “We used to call her ‘Bear,’ ” Cook said. “When she woke up in a good mood, it was ‘Sugar Bear.’ When she woke up in a bad mood, it was ‘Grizzly Bear.’ ”

Club Cheers, one of four off-track betting sites in Wyoming, is an example of satellite wagering broadening the base of racing. Los Alamitos is enjoying its best meeting, with an average handle of nearly $1.1 million, and gives much of the credit to satellite wagering in Wyoming, Nevada, Canterbury Downs in Minnesota and Les Bois Park in Idaho.

“We’ll have 100 satellites within two years,” said James Smith, executive vice president of Los Alamitos. “We’ll double Nevada from 20 to 40. We’ll have seven to 10 locations in Mexico. We’ll have all the Northwest--Minnesota, Wyoming, Idaho, the Dakotas, plus Washington, Oregon and Montana.

“We’re looking into Hawaii, and eventually Texas. You might even see us in Asia. We’re looking into the Far East.

“We’re fortunate that we (have) night racing--and the only night racing in the western time zone. The day is not that far off when we do $1 million off-track. (It hit a high of $750,000 last month.) Within five years, we will be handling more off-track (betting) than we are doing total now.”

Lloyd Arnold, president and general manager of Los Alamitos harness racing, will attend a special California Horse Racing Board meeting Friday in Monrovia in an attempt to clarify the 1991 standardbred picture in California.

Arnold will proceed with a harness meet at Los Alamitos from Feb. 8 to April 13, but beyond that the future is unclear. At its November meeting, the board approved Arnold’s request for a summer meeting at Fairplex Park in Pomona, but only for one year. The board of directors of the Los Angeles County Fair unanimously turned down the bid last month, citing the drawbacks of such a short-term arrangement when it already has a long-term deal as a thoroughbred training site.

“Right now, we’re out,” Arnold said. “I was totally shocked at Pomona’s decision because we guaranteed them $500,000 a year. I’m upset with the CHRB for not giving us two years.”

Arnold hopes the CHRB will be more receptive to a longer lease at Fairplex after the recent departure of Phoebe Cook, who cast one of two votes against the one-year deal, and the addition of Ralph Scurfield, a former chairman of the board of the Cal Expo harness meeting in Sacramento.

“I wouldn’t go back to Sacramento this summer. I lost $1 million there last year,” said Arnold, who sees few alternatives but to wait for another meeting at Los Alamitos from late August through November if Pomona is unavailable.

“All the drivers who were here last year said they’ll be back, but right now I’ve got nine new stables with 140 horses sitting on hold,” Arnold said. “Everybody loves it here, but they can’t understand why we can’t get year-round dates.”

Quarter horse trainer Russ Harris once was a receiver for Ken Stabler, the former Raiders quarterback. “I was a 5-11, 155-pound split end in high school at Foley, Ala., and caught some touchdown passes from him,” Harris said. “He got nicknamed ‘Snake’ when we were playing Pop Warner football. He was just so slippery and so evasive you couldn’t catch him. He was a lot of fun and a good friend. He lives in Mobile, where he does sports commentary and his wife does news commentary.”

Los Alamitos Notes

Dashin Dee Dee and Miss Racy Vike, 4-year-old mares, earned berths in the $100,000 HQHRA Championship Feb. 2 with victories in $44,100 divisions of the Grade I Las Damas Handicap Saturday. “I don’t think you can hook a much stronger group of mares than this,” said Dennis Ekins, trainer of Dashin Dee Dee, after she beat Lil Bit Rusty, Wicked Dash and Isaws Sugar Bear. “It’s tremendous to beat a field like this. She just has so much heart and grit and courage.” She was bred and is owned by Mac Murray, a Salt Lake City automobile dealer.

“I’ve just had Miss Racy Vike for her three races in California,” trainer Lee Roy Heidelberg said. “I saw her in Oklahoma City last summer when she had the fastest qualifying time for the Remington Park Derby. I told the owner I was going to California, and if he’d like to send her out, I’d sure like to take her.” The homebred is owned by George Smith, an architect in Victoria, Tex.

Susies Girl Sally, a half-sister to Dashin Dee Dee, heads the probable list of qualifiers Friday night in trials for the $300,000 La Primera Del Ano Derby for 3-year-old fillies Jan. 25. Three-year-old colts will compete in trials Saturday for the $300,000 El Primero Del Ano Derby Jan. 26.

Wicked Dash, 6, and Wicked Willa, 4, finished third and sixth, respectively, in the first meeting of the stakes-winning full sisters in the first division of the Las Damas. Wicked Wind, a 5-year-old third full sister, was recently retired for breeding at Phillips Ranch in Texas, where all three were bred. The daughters of Dash for Cash and Viking Anne all were trained by Blane Schvaneveldt.

Dr. George Pratt, a professor of electrical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, visited Los Alamitos to research a story for the American Quarter Horse Assn.’s Quarter Journal. “The quarter horse accelerates up to 14 seconds, at which point he hits about 52 m.p.h.,” said Pratt, who has performed research at nearly every track in the country.

Wildcat Kelly A, a 4-year-old chestnut colt, broke his maiden against winners in memorable style Thursday. Making his third start, he liked the sloppy track and won a 6 1/2-furlong race in 1:27 2/5, breaking the track record for Arabians by three-fifths of a second. Ridden by Jerry Yoakum, Wildcat Kelly A is trained by Mary Clark and leased by Michael Shulman.

Jockey Ralph Pauline was fined $200 by stewards for causing an altercation in the jockeys’ room Friday. . . . World champion honors will be announced Jan. 20 on ESPN’s “The American Sportsman” show. . . .