LOS ALAMITOS : Magic Moose Will Try to Improve Record Tonight in Invitational Trot

When Magic Moose left Los Alamitos after a successful meeting last summer, he headed East with trainer Pete Foley for richer races in the Midwest and Canada. The gelding, who had established a reputation as one of the top trotters on the West Coast, simply added to his list of credentials in the late summer and early autumn.

Magic Moose, who will be an overwhelming favorite in tonight’s fourth race, a $15,000 invitational trot, had 18 starts at Los Alamitos in 1991 with winning streaks of two, three and five races. However, he lost his last two Los Alamitos races last July to Piece De Resistance and Mad Milton, and therefore lost the trotter of the meet title to Mad Milton, the top 3-year-old.

But Magic Moose wasn’t finished. Last August he won four of nine starts in Detroit. He also raced in New York, Canada and Chicago. He never was worse than third, ending the East Coast portion of the year at Detroit’s Hazel Park on Oct. 7 with a three-length victory in the invitational class.

Along the way, he won a division of the Provenzano eliminations at Batavia Downs on Aug. 23 and was third in the $50,000 final, beaten a length by BillyJoJimBob, a week later. Last Sept. 26, Magic Moose dead-heated for second, after racing on the outside most of the way, in the $40,000 American National Stakes at Sportsman’s Park near Chicago.

“I was real happy with him. He won four invites at Hazel and equaled a track record in a division (of the Provenzano) at Batavia,” Foley said. “The disappointing thing was he got beat a neck in 1:58 4/5 (in the American National Stake) and got backed up on the turn. He was tons the best.”

Driver Ross Croghan partnered him in the Provenzano and the American National Stake. “I raced him at Batavia and he was tremendous,” said Croghan who is currently tied for second with Steve Warrington in the Los Alamitos driver’s standings, six victories behind Rick Kuebler.

“I raced him at Chicago in the American National. He got interfered with or he’d have won by seven or eight,” he said. “He was better through September and October than he was at any time in his life.”

Foley, a 42-year-old native of Australia, even considered paying a large supplemental fee, $49,000, to make Magic Moose eligible to the Breeders’ Crown Horse and Gelding Trot held near Pittsburgh, but changed his mind because the large fee represented a big part of the $137,066 that Magic Moose earned in 1991.

“At a point, I thought he was the best trotter in North America,” Foley said. “We just thought the risk (with the Breeder’s Crown supplement) was too much. After the race, we had second thoughts.”

Foley’s horses returned to California on Oct. 12 and headed to Del Mar, where the harness horses were stabled until the end of January. Magic Moose won a qualifying race on Jan. 18 and made his first start Jan. 30.

Magic Moose trailed the field after the first half-mile, followed the leader, Primrose Lane, into the final turn and wore down his rival in the stretch for the victory by a head. Through the stretch, it appeared that Primrose Lane, who was driven by D.R. Ackerman, wasn’t going to let Magic Moose pass; but in the final yards, Croghan was able to coax the gelding to victory with a sparkling final half-mile time of 58 1/5 seconds.

“He knows how to win--all you have to do is point him to the winner’s circle,” said Croghan, who will drive Magic Moose tonight. “He’s the most perfect trotter you can sit behind.”

Magic Moose, an 8-year-old gelding and oldest member of that five-horse field on Jan. 30, had started another Los Alamitos streak. Tonight, he faces only four opponents--Frederique, a 5-year-old mare; BH Dynamite, a claimer last year and a winner at Los Alamitos on opening weekend; Symphony Fund, who is owned, trained and driven by Karen Fekete and the winner of a trot on Feb. 3; and Primrose Lane, who led by a length at the eighth pole against Magic Moose before faltering. Magic Moose will take the No. 5 post position, as assigned by racing secretary Ron Goldman. As usual, he probably will trail early and make up considerable ground. The race probably will be easier than some of the races he faces later this meeting when Mad Milton returns to racing, but until then Foley knows that Magic Moose is the class of the division.

“He’s an out and out racehorse,” Foley said. “He’s quite a terror in the lane.”

Magic Moose is owned by Winn Schwyhart of Oakland.

Foley, who is tied for fourth in the trainer standings, didn’t see Magic Moose until early 1988 when, as a 4-year-old, he made his first career start, two years later than most horses. He won nine of 39 starts as a four- and five-year-old racing in California and back East but never trotted faster than 1:59 1/5.

Magic Moose returned to Los Alamitos at the end of 1989 and began racing with the invitational and free-for-all classes, scoring six victories in the first five months of 1990. After a fruitless trip to Chicago where he lost eight races, Magic Moose returned to Los Alamitos. In his last start of 1990, at Los Alamitos, he trotted a mile in 1:56 4/5, a track record for aged horses or geldings and the fastest trot in Los Alamitos history.

Sharing the spotlight with tonight’s invitational trot is the finals of the $17,500 Seal Beach Series, a pacing event for California-bred colts. It coincides with Thursday’s finals of the $17,500 Westminster Series for California-bred fillies and mares.

One thread joining the two races is Robert Rosen, who will drive Uppity Broad in the Westminster and Larry’s Levity, a major contender, in the Seal Beach Final. Rosen, is tied for eighth in the driver’s standings with four victories in 29 starts.

Last year, he was among the top 15 Los Alamitos drivers until he was suspended by track officials for what hey called suspicious betting patterns in a May 9 race. Rosen denied any wrongdoing and was allowed to continue training his small string of horses, which included Uppity Broad, then a 2-year-old stakes-winner.

At the conclusion of the meeting last July, he shipped his horses to Greenwood and Mohawk raceways near Toronto. He didn’t have much success--he won only one race--because of the competition on the raceway and a crowded barn area that made earning a spot in the starting gate a tough measure.

“My horses got a little sick and I didn’t get as good as results as I hoped,” he said. “It’s probably one of the tougher circuits.”

Rosen returned to California during the winter and was reinstated by Los Alamitos Racing Assn. President Lloyd Arnold. It didn’t take long for Rosen to become reacquainted with the local track. He has won three races with Larry’s Levity since Jan. 25, including two legs of the Seal Beach Series. Trained and co-owned by Larry Alterman (Joseph Oblack is the other owner), Larry’s Levity drew the No. 12 post position.

Rosen’s other big drive of the early part of this week is Uppity Broad, a 3-year-old pacing filly who will have a difficult task on Thursday night of upsetting Red Star Tigress, who easily won two legs of the Westminster Series. Still, Rosen says Uppity Broad can be a top filly in 1992 in the lucrative series stakes where she will have to face last year’s divisional leader Nighty Night.