LOS ALAMITOS : At the Age of 8, ‘Grandpa’ Still Is Competitive

Raise An Impudent, with a six-year racing career, has outlasted most of the horses his age and even a few of the small Midwestern quarter horse tracks where he has raced.

An 8-year-old gelding, Raise An Impudent has raced 78 times, won 29--including 10 stakes--and more than $217,000 at 13 racetracks from California to Kentucky since 1986. Most of the major stars of his 1984 foal crop, including 1987 horse of the year First Down Dash and 1986 2-year-old champion Ronas Ryon, have been sent to the breeding barn.

But Raise An Impudent is still at the track and could be a strong factor in the 870-yard division at Los Alamitos and Hollywood Park this year. He is the 123-pound highweight and probable favorite for Friday’s $20,000 El Ocho Setenta Handicap after a one-length victory in the War Chic Handicap on May 15, the season’s first 870-yard stake.

The gelding has been with trainer Laura Pinelli at Los Alamitos since November, when owner Thomas Demmitt of Plains, Kan., learned, at virtually the last minute, that the gelding was eligible for the Champion of Champions trials at Los Alamitos in early December.

Demmitt and his wife, Linda, had to transport the gelding from Plains to Oklahoma City themselves to get him on a westbound truck. Less than three weeks later, he started in the Champion of Champions trials, but didn’t qualify for the $250,000 final.

Still, Pinelli was impressed with the gelding’s late kick and wanted to try Raise An Impudent at 870 yards.

“I said the only way I’d keep him is if they’d let me try him at 870,” Pinelli said. “I knew he wasn’t competitive with Apprehend and Jazzing Hi (two of 1991’s top older horses) at a quarter mile.”

Raise An Impudent had tried 870-yard races twice in Albuquerque in 1990, losing both. He ran his first 870-yard California race in late December, winning by four lengths. He followed that with a dull fifth in the Bull Rastus Handicap last January, his most recent start before the War Chic.

“You wouldn’t believe how sound he is,” jockey Joe Meier said. “He’s never had a joint get puffy or anything. He’s never taken a bad step.”

Raise An Impudent was bred by Thomas’ father, Quinby, a southwest Kansas farmer-rancher who helped begin organized quarter horse racing in Kansas in the ‘40s and ‘50s. Quinby, who died in February at 85, also helped develop the Kansas Futurity, which was run at Meade, Kan., in the early ‘50s and is now the first leg of the Triple Crown at Ruidoso Downs, N.M.

Raise An Impudent ran once under Quinby’s name, finishing seventh at Holly, Colo., in April of 1986. At that time, Quinby decided to sell Raise An Impudent, then a colt, at a sale in Purcell, Okla. Thomas had other ideas. He decided to buy Raise An Impudent back and use him as a roping horse on the family’s land in Kansas and Colorado.

Soon after the sale the horse was gelded, but Thomas decided to send him to the track one more time. That was six years ago. Through his career, he has raced in Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Kentucky, Minnesota and California. Three of those tracks--Eureka Downs in Kansas, Ross Meadows in Oklahoma and Riverside Downs in Kentucky--no longer hold official quarter horse races.

“He’s one of a kind,” Demmitt said. “He’s been kind of a calm horse and kind of quiet. He’s always been sound. He’s never taken a lame step or come out of a race sore, and that’s his secret.”

Pinelli stands Raise An Impudent in a whirlpool each morning to promote circulation in his legs so she can go about her morning business without worrying about the horse. On occasion, she will even catch him asleep in the whirlpool.

“We don’t call him Raise An Impudent, we call him Grandpa,” she said. “The only thing that’s older is the (lead) pony, and they both move at the same speed.”

Pip Pip strengthened her reputation as the top 2-year-old quarter horse on the West Coast on Saturday, setting the fastest qualifying time in the Miss Kindergarten Futurity trials.

The trials of the Miss Kindergarten for fillies and Kindergarten for colts and geldings were the first 2-year-old trials in California this year. Juveniles in the rest of the nation have participated in as many as three futurities so far, but California’s schedule is weighted toward the summer and fall. Other regions wind down by Labor Day.

Consequently, the Miss Kindergarten trials were Pip Pip’s second start of the year and both have been runaway victories. She broke her maiden on May 15 by 2 1/2 lengths in 15.70, the second-fastest 300-yard time at Los Alamitos this year. Owned by Abigail Kawananakoa and trained by Blane Schvaneveldt, Pip Pip won Saturday’s trial by 1 3/4 lengths in 17.71 seconds, setting the fastest qualifying time for the June 21 final.

“This is the fastest 2-year-old I’ve ever ridden,” jockey Henry Garcia said. “We had the lead two jumps out of the gate and she ran so easy all the way.”

Easily A Secret set the fastest time for the June 20 Kindergarten Futurity earlier on Saturday, running 350 yards in 17.85 seconds, roughly a length slower than Pip Pip. Easily A Secret is owned by Dr. Ed Allred, the chief executive officer of the Horsemen’s Quarter Horse Racing Assn., which conducts quarter horse racing at Los Alamitos, and is trained by Bruce Hawkinson. The gelding was ridden by Ralph Seville.

This is the first year the Kindergarten Futurity, which began in 1955, has been divided by sex. It is the first of two futurities of the summer season; the Dash For Cash Futurity on July 25 will not be divided.

Los Alamitos Notes

Jockeys Kip Didericksen and Henry Garcia have been invited to compete in the $20,000 Lazy E National Quarter Horse Jockey Championships at Remington Park in Oklahoma City on Sunday. They are first and eighth, respectively, in the Los Alamitos standings. They will be joined by Alvin Brossette, Jacky Martin, Jerry Nicodemus, Tami Purcell, Tram Telg, Jerry Yoakum and two jockeys from Remington Park that have yet to be chosen. The riders will compete in four races with points awarded for placings. First place is worth $7,000. . . . Jockeys Steve Treasure and G.R. Carter won five races last Thursday and Friday, respectively.