LOS ALAMITOS : Lighthill Near 63, Still Going Strong

Joe Lighthill, the resident curmudgeon of the Los Alamitos stable area, has never been known to waste a word when a grunt or a shrug will suffice.

“Too long!” replied Lighthill tersely when asked how long he had been driving standardbreds. “This isn’t fun. It’s work now. If it was up to my wife, I’d quit now.”

Trainer-driver Lighthill, who will be 63 April 22, hasn’t changed much since his first drive as an Ohio teen-ager in 1944.

“I didn’t like the way my father drove a horse in the first two heats at a county fair so he said, ‘Drive him yourself!’ ” recalled Lighthill.

Lighthill did and finished second with the pacer, Evans Abbe.

Now, 47 years and 2,265 victories later, Lighthill is still going strong. Despite his rough exterior, Lighthill is highly respected as a horseman, especially for his skill with trotters.

At the current meet, he has recorded 10 firsts, eight seconds and 13 thirds in 72 starts. All the victories have been with the diagonally gaited trotters.

“It just takes longer to train a trotter,” Lighthill said.

Capricious Stephi, one of his prize pupils, ranks as a leading threat in the $20,000 final of the California Sire Stakes 3-year-old filly trot Thursday.

Jigglin Joe, another trotter in his barn, is named after Joe O’Brien, not Lighthill. But the late Hall of Fame driver would be proud to see his namesake being handled so capably.

Lighthill’s career took him all over the country before he settled in Shafter, Calif., during the mid-1970s.

“In 1954, I trained out of Pinehurst, N.C., for Leonard Buck’s Allwood Stable,” Lighthill said. “He had a Grand Circuit stable with Kimberly Kid, Hills Hanover and Sparkle Way.

“I first came to California at Hollywood Park in the 1950s and stayed from 1959-64 for Ed Schafer of Bradbury. He was originally in lumber in Washington and named all his horses Lumber. Lumber Dream, a free-legged pacer who never lost a race in California, was probably the fastest horse I ever drove.

“I drove Meadow Skipper for Del Miller and gave him his 2-year-old record at Hollywood Park,” Lighthill said of the mid-60s standout pacer.

He also sat behind such stars as Peter Lobell, B.C. Count, Try Scotch, Tender Loving Care and H A’s Pet, winner of the 1975 L.K. Shapiro Stakes.

Lighthill has rebounded from several major injuries.

“I was out 13 months after having my right shoulder mashed at Hollywood Park in 1975,” he said. “They put a socket and two plates in. I also broke my knee twice.”

What keeps Lighthill going when many men his age are awaiting retirement?

“I still love it,” he said, letting his guard down. “If I was a little healthier, I would love to drive eight races a night.”

Fayes Chance, who has won three of four starts since being imported from New Zealand, is blind in one eye. The 5-year-old mare lost her left eye as a yearling when she got caught in a barbed-wire fence.

Even so, Fayes Chance has become a top invitational pacer.

“She’s got to be a little more special to overcome that handicap,” trainer-driver Joe Anderson said.

“About eight years ago I had a one-eyed horse from Australia but he was very flighty so I was skeptical when I first heard about her. But she has a different quality. She’s very keen, unafraid and uninhibited.

“She’s very trusting of people. Whoever had her over there did a great job. She’s adapted extremely well to this style of racing.”

Dinard and Best Pal, Santa Anita Derby 1-2 finishers, were not the only 3-year-old geldings in the spotlight Saturday. Heavy Tipper won a $20,000 California Sire Stakes final in 1:55, equaling Magna Bird’s 1985 track record for 3-year-old gelding pacers.

“I bought him for $2,500 at the Pacesetter yearling sale here,” trainer Paul Blumenfeld said. “He’s still green and just gets better and better.”

Todd Ratchford called the son of Denali, “The best horse I ever drove.”

Ratchford, 26, a Nova Scotia native who has lived here since 1979, is also given credit for calming down invitational trotter Alfa Star, who has been on gait in his last four starts after continually breaking stride last year.

“I haven’t done anything differently; I think I’m the human tranquilizer,” said Ratchford, who is from a long-established harness family. “My grandfather, Donald, is 84 and still drives in Halifax.”

Fans continue to grumble about long delays between races. Despite predictions that a new paddock would enable programs to end an hour earlier, weeknight programs still go on until 11 and weekend cards drag on past midnight. Management claims that post time is delayed several minutes to accommodate long lines at the windows. Irate fans say the problem could be solved by hiring more mutuel clerks.

Los Alamitos Notes

Alan Leavitt, a leading name for years in the East, is considering moving to Southern California. Leavitt formerly owned Lana Lobell Farms in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, one of the most prominent nurseries in the nation. He is looking to set up a stable and is consigning yearlings from the East to the pacesetter sale here July 21. . . . Bill Davis, a leading driver at Cloverleaf in British Columbia, Canada, is expected to ship in a large stable this weekend.

Jiffy’s Girl, another New Zealand import who won the distaff invitational pace last week, is the smallest horse Ross Croghan has ever driven. “She’s 14 hands high and she might be as light as 650 pounds,” Croghan said. “I also just got a 7-year-old pacer from over there named Bold Sharvid, an American-bred by Temujin. He has won $300,000 and paced in 1:56 over there.”

Vance Hanover, the New Zealand-based stallion responsible for such Los Alamitos stars as Fayes Chance, Vance Lobell and Power and Glory, is an American unraced son of Albatross who was sold for $5,000 and has been the leading sire in that country the last five years.