LOS ALAMITOS : Trainer Bobby Gordon Starts Fast, Four Victories Opening Weekend

After finishing second in the trainer standings at the previous two Los Alamitos harness meetings, trainer Bobby Gordon wasted no time last weekend serving notice that his stable was ready to go in 1992.

Gordon sent out 21 horses and won four races to tie last year’s leading conditioner, Paul Blumenfeld, for the lead after two nights of the 54-night winter-spring stand. Gordon’s 36-horse barn is out to duplicate his 1989-90 winter meeting, when he was the top trainer.

Last weekend, Gordon had two winners each evening, and three of the four were new arrivals from New Zealand, which has proved to be fertile grounds for California harness horsemen looking to purchase ready-to-race horses.

Gordon, 50, has worked with Brian Meale of Auckland on the acquisition of several horses that Gordon will train while Meale shops for buyers--and in some cases, after Meale has found a buyer.

One New Zealand import is Stand By, a 6-year-old mare, who made her first American start last Friday at Los Alamitos, winning the filly and mare Invitational by 1 3/4 lengths. Stand By was timed in 1:58 1/5 over a track rated good and was in last place in the five-horse field until the final eighth of a mile when she swept around the leaders and pulled away.

Owned by Robert and Loretta Siaats of Los Angeles, Stand By won eight of 14 races last year in New Zealand, an impressive record considering that the New Zealand classification system demands that winners always step up in class. “We gave a lot of money for her, so she was expected to be a top mare,” said Gordon, who would not disclose the purchase price. “She’d done a top job in New Zealand. She only had 14 starts and had eight wins which, is real good in their classification system. I tried to let (the racing officials) get her a start in an easier race.”

The Invitational field also included the top mares at Los Alamitos in 1991--Bag a Few, last year’s pacer of the meet, including a mile in 1:54 4/5 last July; Cool Charm Girl, a winner of 11 of 29 in 1991, and Jiffy’s Girl, winner of six of 18 last year and an invitational-calibre mare both at Los Alamitos last summer and at Maywood Park in Chicago. Jiffy’s Girl injured her left hind suspensory Friday and is confined to her stall, according to trainer Robert Johnson. He said there is a chance that she could race later in the year and that X-rays were negative. Johnson said she probably injured the leg in the stretch while finishing third.

Before Friday’s race, Stand By last started in New Zealand last September, finishing second in a 1 3/8-mile race in Auckland. Like the bulk of Gordon’s stable, she prepped at Del Mar, which was host to more than 600 harness horses for winter training. She is the latest of Gordon’s successful New Zealand-breds. In 1991, he trained Speedy Alba and Smooth Lord, two older pacers owned by the Staats’, which competed with the top horses at Los Alamitos.

Gordon also trains You Better You Bet, the top 2-year-old pacer last year at Los Alamitos. The colt, by Rowdy Yankee, won six of seven starts last summer for owner Perry De Luna of Culver City. His only loss was a nose decision to Picture Perfect in his final start of the season. “I’m hoping he’ll be good (this year),” said Gordon, who qualified the colt at Del Mar on Jan. 18. “I was going to race him (last) Saturday, but there wasn’t anything for him. Hopefully, I’ll get a race in him this week.”

Gordon, of Anaheim Hills, trains a total of 12 horses for Meale and is optimistic about this year, both at Los Alamitos and Sacramento in the summer. “I guess you always have a goal to do well,” he said. “I’ve got some high expectations. Hopefully, they’ll be met.”

Last Friday, Stand By, who is expected back in this Friday’s filly and mare Invitational, was driven by Rick Farrington, a 27-year-old newcomer from New Jersey, who like several other Eastern horsemen has joined the California ranks for the first time.

Farrington drove last year at the Meadowlands, the nation’s top harness track, where he was 19th in the driver standings. He also drove at several other harness tracks, including Pocono Downs in Pennsylvania, where he won a stake.

Farrington was the first of several new horsemen to make a quick impact. Steve Warrington, who transferred part of his stable from Maryland, won four races over the weekend, including three Saturday night; Terry Kerr, who is approaching 4,400 career victories, drove two winners Friday, and Greg Wright, who was the leading trainer at the Meadowlands, also was a winner Friday night.

It was sort of a homecoming for Farrington, who accompanied his uncle to Los Alamitos, Hollywood Park and Sacramento 15 years ago, when Bob Farrington campaigned for a California stable. “I talked about coming out for a few months, and at the Harrisburg (Pa.) horse sales in November, I told people I was coming out,” Rick Farrington said. “I just wanted a change of pace.”

The New Zealand-bred horses weren’t the only newcomers in last weekend’s races. Fred Kuebler, Los Alamitos director of standardbred racing, Kuebler estimates that one in six of the horses on the backstretch have shipped here from the East Coast.

Friday night, fans had to consider horses from Maywood, Mohawk, Hazel Park, Windsor, Garden State, Rosecroft, Northfield, Greenwood, Freehold, Cloverdale, Sportsman’s, Fairmount Park and Muskegon Race Course. The surge in newcomers can be credited to two factors--a 10-month harness racing calendar for California that has offered the sport much needed stability, and the recruitment of eastern horsemen by Los Alamitos officials, including Kuebler.

“Between the Canadians and the Eastern horsemen, we have around 262 new horses,” Kuebler said. Last year’s meeting, which was the longest harness session in Los Alamitos history, running from early February to late July, was plagued by a crippling virus early in the summer and a horse shortage by the end of the meet.

Officials have moved to a four-day week this year--Wednesday to Saturday--in an effort to improve quality, which in effect will allow horses to stay in training longer.

“There’s plenty of horses, but not enough of them are qualified at the moment,” he said. “Right now, we’re relying on the guys that were ready early. Within a couple of weeks, we should have most of them ready.”

The lack of prepared horses has also affected the number of races that will be contested on the early weekday programs. Officials intended to run 12 races on Wednesday and Thursday nights and 13 races on weekends, but this week--and possibly next week--there will be only 10 races on Wednesday and Thursday.

Los Alamitos Notes

The mutuel handle exceeded $1 million both nights last weekend. Including off-track wagering, Friday’s total crowd of 7,383 bet $1,201,516; while Saturday’s total crowd of 6,973 bet $1,081,055. Lloyd Arnold, Los Alamitos president and general manager, is hoping for an average handle of $900,000 for the spring meeting, which runs through April 25.

The first series of the season begin tonight and Thursday night. Tonight, the Seal Beach Series, for California-bred colts and geldings, has its first leg, which has been divided into three divisions. The favorite in the third division, tonight’s fourth race, will be Picture Perfect, a 3-year-old, owned by Paula and Lawrence Hayward. The colt, the only horse to beat You Better You Bet last year, will be driven by Lawrence Hayward. In five starts, he has never been worse than third.

Thursday’s Westminster Series, for California-bred fillies and mares, has two divisions, the eighth and 10th races Thursday’s night. Contenders include Baroness, Red Star Tigress, Sassy Sandy and Sex Kitten, all winners last weekend. Thursday’s fourth race is a $15,000 invitational for trotters.