LOS ALAMITOS : Apprehend Likely Favorite Saturday in Vessels Maturity

Jockey Henry Garcia is hoping that Apprehend, one of the top handicap horses at Los Alamitos last season, picks up where he left off last winter.

Garcia will ride the 4-year-old gelding in Saturday’s $134,200 Vessels Maturity, the first major race for older horses at Los Alamitos this fall. Apprehend, who was last year’s 3-year-old champion gelding, is the top qualifier, having won a 400-yard trial Sept. 20 in 19.70 seconds. The trial was his first race since last February.

Consequently, he is the likely favorite in Saturday’s race.

“He came back a lot better (in the trial),” Garcia said. “He’s gained weight and looks awful good. I was pretty lucky last year so I’d like to keep it up.”

Garcia’s mounts earned $991,102 last year, fourth-best in the nation among quarter horse riders. He rode Jacks Dash to three major victories and was an easy winner last Sunday with Strawfly Special.

“All my big horses are coming back,” said Garcia, 32, “Apprehend, Jacks Dash and the ones I’ve been riding lately have done well. I can’t complain.”

Neither can trainer Daryn Charlton, at least not very loudly. Charlton trains Apprehend and Jazzing Hi, the fifth-fastest qualifier in the Vessels and the 1990 champion aged stallion. Jazzing Hi was second to Miss Racy Vike in the Sept. 20 trials.

“(Jazzing Hi) was hit in the tail-end going away from the gate,” Charlton said.

Charlton expected a strong race from Apprehend, even though the Legacy Ranch gelding had been away from the races for seven months.

“He’s run well fresh before and I wasn’t worried about him,” Charlton said. “He’s ready.”

Garcia, who rode Ed Grimley to second place behind Corona Chick in last Saturday’s Ed Burke Memorial Futurity, fears Jazzing Hi and second-fastest qualifier Lil Bit Rusty, whom Apprehend beat by half a length in the trials.

“I think Lil Bit Rusty is fast, but I think I can catch her at the end,” he said. “Jazzing Hi didn’t run his race in the trials. He made up a lot of ground (in the trial) and he won big in his first race back (from a layoff in the Double Bid Handicap on Sept. 8). He’ll be real tough.”

Four stakes races for Arabians worth a total of $150,000 accented last Friday’s and Saturday’s cards and a 5-year-old mare, appropriately named Pacifica, was the only locally based winner. The three other stakes winners were recently at Delaware Park in Wilmington, Del., where most of the nation’s top Arabians spent the summer.

Two of the stakes winners are owned by James Wagner of Bristol, Ind.--CR Samborsta, the Korona Arabian Cup juvenile fillies’ division winner, and Charlie Valentine, who won Saturday’s $40,000 Korona Arabian Cup Open. Both were ridden by Sean Jones, one of Delaware Park’s leading thoroughbred jockeys, and are trained by Yancey Carter.

Charlie Valentine was the 1988 Arabian horse of the year but was injured at Los Alamitos in June of 1990. He was sent to Holland and stood at stud until three months ago.

“He came back to the States in July and he began training on Aug. 9,” Wagner said. “We were going to California anyway (with CR Samborsta), so we said, ‘Let’s take him.’ ”

Charlie Valentine set a track record, running 1 1/8 miles in 2:03.

TC Tomtyr, who won Friday’s Korona Arabian Cup juvenile for colts and geldings, missed the track record by one-fifth of a second when he stopped the timer in 1:19 for 6 1/2 furlongs. His owner, Thomas Luckett of Louisville, Ky., and and trainer, Danny Garrett of Paducah, Ky., arrived here Thursday morning, raced Friday night and loaded the horse back on a jet at 2 Saturday morning for the trip home.

“I don’t know what time it is, but these last 15 minutes have been worth the trip,” Garrett said after the race.

Pacifica is based in Santa Rosa with his trainer, Barney Phillips, who also trains a few thoroughbreds. He said that Pacifica will probably start again at Los Alamitos this season. The others had stakes engagements elsewhere.

Corona Chick wasn’t the only highlight of the weekend for trainer Frank Monteleone and jockey Kip Didericksen.

Monteleone also saddled the winning So Cal Gal in last Friday’s Charger Bar Handicap, and Didericksen also rode Special Coverage to an upset victory in Sunday’s Pat Hyland Handicap.

Special Coverage, who paid $58.80, gave Didericksen his third stakes victory in 22 1/2 hours. Didericksen won the Ed Burke Saturday night, the Pomona Championship at Fairplex with RAcin Vike Sunday afternoon, and then the Pat Hyland Sunday night. The Pat Hyland was Didericksen’s 17th stakes victory of the year, the same number he won in all of 1990. He also had three victories earlier on Sunday’s Los Alamitos program.

Special Coverage is owned by Janice Knorpp of Clarendon, Tex., and trained by Blane Schvaneveldt, who also saddled RAcin Vike. Schvaneveldt said he is considering the Los Alamitos Derby trials on Oct. 11 for the 3-year-old filly.

Knorpp’s philosophy on owning quarter horses differs from the majority. Most people race 2-year-olds extensively but Knorpp runs hers only twice. Knorpp is also co-owner of Tempered Glass, a 4-year-old filly who was a stakes winner at Los Alamitos last year and is preparing for her first local start of the year.

Monteleone calls So Cal Gal his best claim. He tagged her for $5,000 in the fall of 1989 and she has since won three stakes. The 4-year-old filly has won both of her 1991 starts under jockey Steve Treasure.

So Cal Gal is owned by John and Marguerite Smith of La Habra Heights and spent 40 days in an equine hospital with a severe case of pneumonia. She didn’t return to the races until Sept. 11, but her two victories this meeting have helped offset the $8,000 in veterinary bills she ran up.

Monteleone admitted after the race that a week ago he had considered running So Cal Gal in a $50,000 claiming race, but opted for last Friday’s stakes because of the better purse.

“She won’t be running for a tag anymore,” he said.