LOS ALAMITOS : Betting Will Be Offered on Races at Bay Meadows

Beginning on May 17, with the opening night of the 1991 Bay Meadows quarter horse meeting, fans will be able to bet on both quarter horses and standardbreds at Los Alamitos at the same time.

The necessary legislation was signed last week by Gov. Pete Wilson. Both harness and quarter horse officials expect fans to bet an average of $100,000 nightly on the Bay Meadows simulcasts.

“When we budgeted our purse structure, we budgeted $100,000 at Los Alamitos,” said Brad McKinzie, the vice president and general manager of the Horsemen’s Quarter Horse Racing Assn. “The people who came out during the quarter horse meet are going to have to come out to the harness races. We’re treating the simulcasts like a smaller quarter horse meet.”

The Bay Meadows simulcasts at Los Alamitos will be shown in the Cypress Room, but fans will be able to bet on both tracks throughout the facility.

The 38-night meet runs through July 20 with racing Wednesday through Saturday nights.

James Grundy brought Bag A Few from off the pace to win the the first leg of the Coming Out Series, Friday night in a personal best of 1:57 in beating eight other fillies and mares. The 3-year-old California-bred has won seven of nine races and $39,800 this year.

“Bag A Few’s a little better than I thought she’d be, and she’s very competitive,” Grundy said. “I hope she can go a little faster.”

Bag A Few paid $5.20 to win and had not raced since a seventh-place finish April 5 in a California Sires Stakes Final in which she was impeded and finished well back as the 2-3 favorite. Her only other defeat this year was a second-place finish March 22 in another California Sires Stakes Final.

“I had a rough trip that night,” Grundy said. “I went four-wide and she got a little tired.”

The Peter Lobell filly is owned by Chris and Sara Bardis of Sacramento, and has surprised Grundy with her progress this year.

“She’s green and has to be taken time with,” he said. “But she’s been kind of a surprising filly. She got a little sore last year, and that’s why she only had a few starts this year.”

Grundy plans to keep the filly here until the end of the year and may send her to Garden State Park near Philadelphia later this year.

Peter Lobell also sired Stanford Court, a winner of the first division of Saturday’s New Beginnings Series. The 4-year-old was driven by Gene Vallandingham and also had a personal best of 1:57. Papa Red and El Camino Real were a fast-closing second and third. The race marked Stanford Court’s third victory in 11 starts this year for his owners, the Monterey Farm of Holister, Calif.

The race marked El Camino Real’s fourth consecutive loss. He began the year with five victories, and has not been worse than third in nine starts in 1991.

Test of Wits took the second division and also set a lifetime mark of 1:56 for driver Abe Stoltzfus. The second legs of both the Coming Out and the New Beginnings will be run Friday and Saturday nights.

A virus is circulating on the backstretch and caused many scratches last week, nine last Thursday.

“There were six or seven scratches (Saturday) and some of the sick horses have entered back for next week,” said Fred Kuebler, director of standardbred racing. “Hopefully, it’s on the downhill.”

The virus has been especially hard on the meeting, because there were few enough horses as it was. The meeting was originally planned to conclude April 13, but a switch of dates with the quarter horse meeting extended the harness meeting through July 27. The announcement was made too late for some stables from other parts of the country that were committed to race elsewhere.

“When you’re short to begin with, and then you get (the virus), it’s definitely a cause for a lack of sleep,” Kuebler said. “Thank God it’s only a week-long (virus). A couple of days of fever and they’re back to racing in seven-10 days. It’s wreaking havoc in the racing office.

“I’ve seen viruses hit where there’s lung inflammation and mucous in the nose and they’re out three-four weeks, but this can be taken care of with antibiotics.”

Leading trainer Paul Blumenfeld has not been spared.

“It’s a disaster,” he said. “It’s got a bunch of my horses down and the ones that aren’t sick have a throat infection.”

Blumenfeld, 30, has 40 horses in training at Los Alamitos, but 15 are on the sidelines.

The track has increased the purse for the nightly trifecta race from 50% to 100%, depending on the number of entrants.

If 10 horses enter the trifecta race, carded nightly as the 10th, the purses are increased 50%. If 11 enter, the purse is increased 75%, and if 12 race, the purse is raised 100%.

“When you double the money, you’re hell-bent for the wire,” Kuebler said. “You don’t see single-file racing. The racing has been excellent with the extra horses. They’re averaging six in (along the rail) and six out (away from the rail).”

The multiple wager began March 22 at Los Alamitos and Kuebler hopes that more can be carded nightly.

Los Alamitos Notes

Bag A Few’s 6-year-old full brother, Ciao Baby, won Saturday’s first race and has earned more than $118,000. . . . Full siblings Hunter Kelly, a 3-year-old colt, and Kellie’s Jelly, a 4-year-old mare, raced against one another in Thursday’s sixth race. Both are by Hunter’s Star out of Jambo Kelly and both were bred by Virginia and Jim Bagatelos of Sacramento. Kellie’s Jelly finished second, but Hunter Kelly was off the board. . . . In Saturday’s third race, a preferred handicap, 10-year-old Scruffy Hanover finished off the board. Then in the sixth, his 3-year-old daughter, Dal Reo Temper, was seventh.