LOS ALAMITOS : Four Forty Blast Has Plenty Left After Making a Break for Barn

When Four Forty Blast walked onto the track for his first race on May 9, the colt with the impressive breeding quickly turned center stage into a circus.

As a full brother of last year’s All-American Futurity finalist, Holland Ease, Four Forty Blast had all eyes--and most of the money--on him. The colt, however, had other ideas.

He dumped jockey Kip Didericksen during the post parade and ran about 200 yards toward the barn area before the gate crew caught him and put the rider back up.

A few minutes later, Four Forty Blast won by three-quarters of a length, reassuring trainer Carlos Lopez and owners James Streelman and Deeny Boer that he wasn’t merely a good workout horse.

If opposites attract, then the unpredictable Four Forty Blast and the cool-tempered Lopez should get along well later this year when the horse returns to California after a summer of stakes races in Oklahoma and New Mexico.

After two weeks of racing, Lopez is tied for second in the trainer standings, three victories behind Frank Monteleone, and has a 27-horse stable that could be in for a big year. Besides Four Forty Blast, Lopez, 37, also has Bobby Beduino, who won a division of the Los Alamito Derby trials last Saturday and is a leading contender for the $125,000 derby on May 30.

Lopez also has the rest of the California-based Dutch Masters stock as well as few for San Tan Tillage, Inc., an Arizona partnership. He picked up both owners when trainer Bob Baffert left quarter horse racing for the thoroughbred game last fall.

Lopez is also expecting, from Arizona and Utah, 2-year-olds that have already raced in futurities this year.

“I’ve got better horses this year than last year,” Lopez said. “I didn’t have a good start (last year), but when Bob quit, everything changed. We qualified for a few futurities and things wound up good.”

A native of Veracruz, Mexico, Lopez was introduced to racing by his father, a part-owner of a trucking company, who also owned and trained a few quarter horses in his spare time. After earning a business degree at the University of the Americas in Puebla, Mexico, Lopez went to work for his father’s company as a personnel manager. He worked only a year, however, before horse racing got into his blood.

He moved to California in 1977 and groomed horses at Los Alamitos for three years. He began training his own stable in the early ‘80s and won his first stake, the Juvenile in 1982, with Watch Him Truck for his father, Florentino.

Through the ‘80s, he trained both stakes horses and claimers and won two Grade I races in 1987 with jockey Henry Garcia. Homesick, he returned to Veracruz in late 1987, thinking he might stay, but returned to California two months later, in time for the 1988 racing season.

Since then, he has been a mainstay at Los Alamitos and at Temucula, where he owns a 6.5-acre ranch that has a small racetrack and room for 40 horses.

“Carlos is real easy to ride for,” said Didericksen, adding that Four Forty Blast is the best 2-year-old he has ridden this year. “Even if we had gotten beat, he’d have been the same. He just takes care of business.”

Lopez and Garcia have a tougher assignment with Bobby Beduino. Even though he is the second-fastest qualifier, he will have to contend with a strong field, among them top qualifier Waverino, Speckled Shorts and Sir Austin Duncan, each of whom has earned more than $100,000.

As does Four Forty Blast, Bobby Beduino has a successful sibling. The 3-year-old colt is a half-brother of Fusion Illusion, who was a stakes winner at Los Alamitos last year.

“I’ve got a pretty good barn right now, compared to other years,” Lopez said. “I’d like to win the Los Alamitos Derby. That’d be a good start.”

Jockey Roman Figueroa suffered a leg injury in a freak starting-gate accident Friday morning, forcing him to miss the weekend races.

Figueroa, 37, was momentarily caught in the gate with a 2-year-old after the horse had become restless and tossed the jockey to the ground. The horse stepped on Figueroa’s calf, leaving a cut that took 25 stitches to close.

“At first, I thought it was a charley horse,” said Figueroa, who won the Kaweah Bar Handicap on opening weekend with Sweeten The Pot.

Figueroa missed more than merely three days of riding, however. Several of the horses he was scheduled to ride won important races.

Pip Pip, a 2-year-old filly, made her debut on Friday and won by 2 1/2 lengths in 15.70 seconds, the fastest time by a 2-year-old so far at Los Alamitos. Pip Pip could have a bright future; she is by top sire Dash For Cash out of major stakes winner Sompinlikaglass.

Two of the horses Figueroa had been scheduled to ride on Saturday also were winners. One of them, Speckled Shorts, won a division of the Los Alamitos Derby trials.

Normally, trial jockeys keep mounts if the horse qualifies for the final, but Figueroa might have a chance to regain the mount on Speckled Shorts because Didericksen, who rode the gelding, will probably ride top qualifier Waverino.

Figueroa was also scheduled to ride Rock Own in the Hualapai Downs Futurity in Kingman, Ariz., on Sunday, but couldn’t make the trip. Rock Own won easily. Figueroa might regain the mount on Rock Own.

Figueroa is scheduled to ride two horses Thursday night.

Los Alamitos Notes

Raise An Impudent, an 8-year-old gelding, won Friday’s $21,200 War Chic Handicap. It was his 10th stakes victory. Owned by Thomas Demmitt of Plains, Kan., Raise An Impudent has won 29 of 78 starts, racing throughout the nation. On Friday, he was ridden by Joe Meier for trainer Laura Pinelli. . . . Arabians had their first stakes events of the season last week. Bunny won Friday’s Sierra Queens Sprint Handicap for fillies and mares, and KA Czubuthan won Saturday’s Siera Knights Sprint Handicap.

Speedy Lunch, second in the Bull Rastus Invitational last January at Los Alamitos, won the 870-yard Remington Challenge Handicap on Saturday at Remington Park in Oklahoma City. He is owned by Pat Marckesano and Victor Rodas and might race at Los Alamitos in June or July. . . . Corona Chick, the nation’s top 2-year-old last year, has recovered from a hoof abscess and is being pointed to the Dash For Cash Derby in July, according to trainer Frank Monteleone.

Reeds Signature, who won the Miss Princess Handicap, heads six nominees for Saturday’s $20,000 Charger Bar Handicap. . . . The Cal-Expo harness meeting at Sacramento set a handle record Friday, with $684,677 bet during a 13-race program highlighted by the California driving debut of former San Francisco Giant pitcher John Montefusco. Montefusco, who usually drives in New Jersey, went one for three for the night. . . . Through the first eight nights of racing, the average handle at the Los Alamitos quarter horse meeting has been $964,656.