LOS ALAMITOS : Somber Side of Harness Racing Experienced by Owner, Trainer

The emotional peaks and valleys of owning and training racehorses were apparent last week for owner Nick Barbieri and trainer Rheal Bourgeois.

The Canadians’ home base is Mohawk Raceway in Campbellville, 25 miles west of Toronto, where 69 harness horses died Thursday in a predawn fire that ranked as one of the worst in horse racing history. Two of the horses that died were once owned and trained by Barbieri and Bourgeois, and one was Barbieri’s first stakes winner. Only 11 were saved.

Less than two days later, at Los Alamitos, Bourgeois drove Barbieri’s Prince Brian in a qualifying race. Prince Brian’s time of 1:57 4/5, plus his perfect record this year, makes the 3-year-old colt one of the leading contenders for Saturday’s first leg of the Shelly Goudreau Memorial Pace and the $250,000 final for 3-year-old pacing colts on April 25.

Bourgeois’ small Mohawk stable was unaffected by the fire, but two horses he had recently sold--Kawartha Playtime and Neat Touch--were killed. Kawartha Playtime, an earner of more than $400,000, was Barbieri’s first stakes winner, and Neat Touch was a favorite of Bourgeois’ wife, Liz.

The fire also killed Scooter’s Boy, a highly regarded 3-year-old colt, who was fifth in the Breeders Crown pace for 2-year-old colts and geldings last year, and Gloucester Court, an earner of more than $400,000 in 1991.

Bourgeois got a call in the middle of the night, alerting him of the fire.

“A friend called and said, ‘I don’t mean to scare you, but Barn 3 burned and they lost 69 horses.’ It was quite the shock,” Bourgeois said.

“I called (Liz) and she wasn’t talking. I knew (Neat Touch) was in it. My wife said she’d never seen so many grown men cry. It’s tough to replace these horses.”

Kawartha Playtime and Neat Touch were only two of the horses whom Barbieri and Bourgeois have owned and trained since they were introduced by a mutual friend 10 years ago.

Last year, they raced the 3-year-old Easy Goer, who won seven of 28 starts and $440,644 and carries the name of the thoroughbred superstar of the late 1980s.

The standardbred Easy Goer won the Oliver Wendell Holmes Pace at the Meadowlands in 1991, as well as finishing fourth in the Meadowlands Pace and the Little Brown Jug at Delaware, Ohio. Easy Goer’s fastest mile was 1:51 1/5, but his racing career was cut short late last year by a leg injury and he now stands at stud.

Barbieri and Bourgeois are hoping that Prince Brian follows in Easy Goer’s footsteps. Barbieri bought Prince Brian during the winter in Florida, after consulting with Bourgeois, bloodstock agent Charlie Karp and driver Joe Pavia Jr. Last year, Prince Brian won two of five starts, racing in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and earned more than $21,000.

“It was very simple for me,” said Barbieri, who paid $100,000. ‘If you’re going to buy one, those are the three people right there. If you get their opinion, there’s nothing more you need to do.”

After two February qualifying races at Pompano Park near Miami, one in 1:57 2/5, Prince Brian was entered in a $3,500 conditioned race March 7. In third place after the first half-mile, he took the lead down the backstretch and won by seven lengths in 1:54 2/5 with a final half-mile time of 54 1/5 seconds, an impressive time for Pompano’s five-eighths-mile track, the same as Los Alamitos.

“He did it under wraps, and that’s something,” Bourgeois said.

A week later, fighting a cough, he won by 5 1/2 lengths in 1:56 1/5. Shortly thereafter, he was flown to California.

In last Friday’s qualifier, Bourgeois didn’t urge the colt, who paced the last quarter mile in 27 4/5.

“We’re ready if he comes out of this OK,” he said. “I don’t know what will happen when they look him in the eyes. He’ll have to go (a minute and) 53 (seconds) to beat this bunch.”

As many as 21 horses could pay the $3,000 entry fee this morning to enter Saturday’s $20,000 first leg over one mile. Los Alamitos officials expect to hold at least two divisions Saturday. Most horsemen have determined by now whether their charges are good enough. Still, Prince Brian will have several sharp opponents, including Bright As Day, As Promised, True Tyrant and Skytel.

Bright As Day won a major prep for the Goudreau on Saturday in 1:54 1/5, which tied Best Of Danio’s 1987 record for the best mile by a 3-year-old pacing colt. In the process, he beat As Promised, Falcon Dakota, You Better You Bet, Shiney Key and Dal Reo Scruffy, who are expected to enter Saturday’s first leg. It was Bright As Day’s ninth victory in 11 starts, avenging his off-the-board finish on March 28 when he went off-stride in the last half-mile.

Another Goudreau eligible, Humstinger, won his first 1992 start Saturday in 1:57 2/5, edging fellow hopefuls Vacationing and Three Times Seven. Last Thursday, Jovial Killean, who is trained and driven by the meet’s leaders, Tim Diliberto and Ross Croghan, beat Just A Mene by a nose. Those two plus third-place finisher Five Aces are considered probable starters.

Two of the Goudreau’s leading contenders didn’t race last week: Skytel, a winner of two races against older horses in March, and True Tyrant, a winner of 13 of 14 races, including a victory against older horses on March 14 in 1:55 3/5. In his only defeat, on March 28, he finished second to Ramsey Hanover, a 5-year-old dropping from the invitational to the preferred ranks.

Prince Brian, however, will ship to Mohawk at the end of the month with Bourgeois, whom Barbieri credits for his racing success.

“The final word is Rheal’s,” Barbieri said. “(Trainers) get up at 5 a.m. (each day) and get so little credit. He gives you an honest day’s work, and in business, that’s all you can ask.”

Los Alamitos Notes

The stakes schedule and overnight purse structure for the summer harness meeting at Cal-Expo in Sacramento has been released. The meet’s richest race is the $50,000 Great Western Pace on July 4. Open invitationals will have purses of $7,500, half of what Los Alamitos has offered this spring. The Sacramento meeting will also be conducted Wednesday through Saturday. . . . The fastest winning dead-heat in 20 years of harness racing at Los Alamitos occurred Friday when pacers Blechnum Grove and Shangani hit the wire together in the ninth race. The race was timed in 1:55 3/5, considerably faster than the old record of 1:58, which had been achieved twice.

Mercury, the top aged pacing horse or gelding of the 1991 Los Alamitos meeting, was claimed Saturday for $25,000 by owner-trainer Mark Anderson of Rolling Hills Estates. Mercury won last year’s Great Western Pace and earned $114,6l8 in 1991, winning 14 of 28 races. He has not won in 10 races this year. . . . The Princess won last Friday’s Invitational for fillies and mares in 1:56 3/5. It was the 7-year-old New Zealand-bred’s fourth victory in 10 starts. She has been worse than third only twice this year for Ross Croghan and Tim Diliberto.

The Twin Trifecta, which has become the track’s most popular wager, has a carry-over of $34,237.65.