LOS ALAMITOS : Small Stable Will Try for a Repeat of Last Week’s Perfect Performance

Few racing stables compile winning streaks that include the entire barn, but owners Richard Urbaniak and John Browne are in the midst of a three-race streak put together by the only horses they have in training at Los Alamitos.

All three of the horses won important races last week and two of them, Kenwood Don and Irish Fling, will race again tonight and Thursday night in the $30,000 finals of the Cypress and Stanton pacing series. The third horse, Fayes Chance, won last Friday’s not-posted invitational, which is one level below the filly and mare invitational.

The horses have more in common than just being owned by Browne and Urbaniak. Each was imported from New Zealand by bloodstock agent Frank Ranaldi and driver Joe Anderson in the last year.

Kenwood Don and Irish Fling weren’t favored in last week’s second leg of the Cypress and Stanton series but should be well backed in this week’s finals, which both have attracted eight-horse fields consisting mostly of New Zealand-breds.

Kenwood Don, for example, has raced in two series this spring, running fourth in the Anaheim Series final on March 18. His main competition tonight will come from Ross Croghan’s Handiboy, who has won six of eight starts this year, but was fourth in last week’s second leg.

Irish Fling will have to contend with Ella Bonny, also from the Croghan barn, Thursday night. Ella Bonny has won half of her six starts this year.

All four of those horses were brought here over the winter from New Zealand, providing owners Browne and Urbaniak opportunities to own horses that are ready to race.

“(Joe and Frank) know what my involvement should be,” Browne said. “I leave it up to them. They seem to have a handle on what to bring in.”

Anderson was the leading driver of the 1991 meeting and currently is in fourth place, 40 victories behind Croghan. Last fall, he took a string of horses to Chicago, among them Fayes Chance and Samantha Hanover, both owned by Browne and Urbaniak. Fayes Chance won her first 1992 race in eight tries last Friday, but Samantha Hanover, who remained in Chicago with five other Anderson horses, has won five filly and mare invitationals this year on the Chicago circuit.

Anderson has been scouting horses for almost 10 years Down Under and went to New Zealand two weeks ago with Ranaldi to see some new prospects. They selected six, among them Mark Hanover, who won the 1991 Interdominion, a major New Zealand race, and Clancy--pacers that have earned a million dollars between them and are considered “Cup,” or top-level horses in New Zealand.

The pair will be sent to the United States soon and will be divided between Anderson’s two stables.

“I’ve never bought horses of as high a quality,” Anderson said. “If they’re good enough, I’ll be willing to send them all over the country to race. Clancy made $160,000 (last year) and that’s in tough racing. Those horses have to race in the top class with fields of 12 to 18 horses.

“(Clancy and Mark Hanover) are kind of like John Henry types,” Anderson said, referring to the thoroughbred star of the early ‘80s, who earned more than $6 million. “Owners can have a lot of fun because they can race with the top horses wherever they race.”

Prince Brian has emerged as the horse to beat in the $250,000 Shelly Goudreau Memorial Pace after breaking a track record in the first leg of the series last Saturday.

Racing in the first of two $20,000 divisions, Prince Brian made a sweeping move past the field halfway through the one-mile race and won by 2 1/2 lengths in 1:53, a track record for a 3-year-old colt, and shaved more than a second off Bright As Day’s week-old mark.

Prince Brian has made only eight starts, a low number for a 3-year-old harness horse in April. He’s won five races, including all three of his 1992 starts, and has never been worse than third.

He is owned by Nick Barbieri of Woodbridge, Canada, and trained in California by Bob Reeser. Rheal Bourgeois trained him for his first two victories at Pompano Park in Florida earlier this year which is where the colt’s driver, Joe Pavia Jr., is based.

The second division of the Goudreau went to Vacationing, who is owned by Richard Staley of Los Angeles. He paid $53.60 to win, pacing the mile in 1:55 1/5 for his third victory in 10 starts this year. Driven by D.R. Ackerman, he rallied in the stretch and edged Dal Reo Scruffy and Shiney Key. True Tyrant, the 1-5 favorite, finished fourth, only his second defeat in 15 starts.

The Goudreau series continues Saturday with the $20,000 second leg, which will probably be split into two divisions. The final is April 25, the closing night of the meeting, and carries a purse of $250,000.

Magic Moose, the winner of three of four starts this spring, has been shipped to the East Coast to prominent New Jersey trainer Brett Pelling. The 8-year-old gelding’s California trainer, Pete Foley, intended to leave him here until the meeting concluded and then send him but shipped Magic Moose last Thursday because of the lack of local racing opportunities. He last raced on March 18, winning an Invitational Trot.

There simply haven’t been enough top trotters on the grounds to challenge Magic Moose, who last year won 14 of 27 races and more than $137,000.

Los Alamitos Notes

Thursday’s program also includes the $20,000 California Sires Stakes final for 3-year-old trotting fillies. Tonys Best and Foxy N Rowdy won eliminations last week. The trotting fillies’ division was the only one to require eliminations last week. In other $20,000 3-year-old finals, Bonefide Boy won the colt and gelding trot division, You Better You Bet won in pacing colts and geldings, and First Knockout was best among the pacing fillies.

Mary Franco won last Friday’s Filly and Mare Invitational Pace for her fifth victory in 11 starts this year.