LOS ALAMITOS : Trainer Schvaneveldt Sweetens His Pot During the Weekend

Blane Schvaneveldt showed at Los Alamitos and at Remington Park in Oklahoma City during the weekend why he has been the nation’s leading quarter horse trainer since 1976.

Schvaneveldt won two stakes at Los Alamitos and was second at Remington Park in the nation’s second-richest quarter horse race.

Schvaneveldt won the Double Bid Handicap with Sweeten The Pot on Friday and the Independence Day Handicap with First Femme on Saturday at Los Alamitos. On Sunday in Oklahoma, his Dustys On A High was second in the $464,282 Heritage Place Futurity.

Schvaneveldt’s 35 victories lead the Los Alamitos standings--Bruce Hawkinson is second with 23--and he has won the last four stakes at Los Alamitos.

Schvaneveldt’s stable is once again so deep that he shipped Ocanthterun to Oklahoma City early this summer and the gelding won two stakes there before finishing a disappointing eighth in the $100,000 Remington Park Championship.

It was one of the few disappointments of the year for Schvaneveldt, 58, of Cypress.

“We’ve had some decent luck recently,” he said.

Sweeten The Pot’s victory was the 4-year-old gelding’s third in a stake during this meeting and Schvaneveldt’s eighth Double Bid victory in the last 11 years.

First Femme’s victory on Saturday was her first in a stake and her third victory in six starts for the Vessels Stallion Farm of Bonsall, Calif. Her 350-yard time of 17.32 seconds was one of the fastest in the nation this year.

“She’s one of those horses that gives you everything,” said jockey Roman Figureoa, who rode both Sweeten The Pot and First Femme. Figueroa was aboard First Femme on May 23 when the filly won by 1 1/4 lengths, but was disqualified and penalized to eighth for bearing out in the stretch.

The disqualification resulted in a five-day suspension for the jockey, but he was back in time to guide the First Down Dash filly to a two-length victory in a June 13 allowance.

Schvaneveldt was uncertain where First Femme would race next, but was hoping to avoid trials for any future stakes.

“She’s a hell of a filly,” Schvaneveldt said. “It’s the best she’s ever put together.”

Sweeten The Pot has earned an invitation to the $100,000 Los Alamitos Championship to be run in late July, a tough spot to stretch a winning streak. Refrigerator, who won the Vessels Maturity in June, will be a heavy favorite.

Sweeten The Pot has won five consecutive races, dating to October. Figueroa rode him to victory in the Kaweah Bar Handicap on May 9, but was under suspension for the First Femme incident when jockey Juan Limon guided Sweeten The Pot in the Shue Fly Handicap.

“I think he was more impressive when Juan rode him,” Figueroa said. “Maybe he’ll be peaking for the championship.”

Corona Chick, the nation’s 2-year-old champion of 1991, is nearing her first race of the summer. The 3-year-old filly was on the track Saturday morning and worked 350 yards in 17.8 seconds, the fastest 150-yard morning workout of the meeting.

Last year, Corona Chick won the Governor’s Cup, Ed Burke, Dash For Cash and Kindergarten Futurities in a string of nine victories. She was the fastest qualifier for the La Primera Del Ano Derby last January, but had trouble in the gate and was scratched. She hasn’t raced since.

Owner Bob Etchandy of Anaheim Hills and trainer Frank Monteleone are pointing the filly toward the Governor’s Cup Derby trials on July 28, but haven’t ruled out the possibility of an allowance before then.

It already is a million-dollar decade for jockey Henry Garcia.

The 33-year-old Artesia resident had his two best seasons in 1990 and ‘91, finishing fourth and third nationally in winnings. In 1990, he won six stakes and $991,102 and in 1991 earned $1,148,190, including 10 stakes victories.

Garcia rode Dash To Fame to victory in the El Primero Del Ano Derby in January and has the mount this Saturday when the 3-year-old colt makes his summer debut in the Dash For Cash Derby trials.

Garcia won both halves of the Kindergarten Futurity on June 20 and 21. He won in the colts-geldings division with Mega Dash and returned the next night aboard Pip Pip, who finished in a dead heat for first with First N Four.

Mega Dash will start Saturday in the Dash For Cash Futurity trials.

“He’s ready,” Garcia said. “We took him out last Saturday and he was doing very good. It will be a tougher race, but he will improve.”

Aside from Dash To Fame, who is expected to be one of the nation’s leading 3-year-olds this year, Garcia has two other championship contenders--Griswold and Apprehend, both of whom trained by Daryn Charlton and owned by the Legacy Ranch.

Griswold, the 1991 champion distance horse, and Apprehend, last year’s champion aged gelding, are nearing their first summer starts. Both will have seasons geared toward the second half of the year, when many of the more lucrative races are run. Charlton has not ruled out running Griswold over the straightaway instead of at 870 yards.

Garcia rode Apprehend and Griswold to three stakes victories last year and has been impressed with their recent training.

“I’ve been galloping Apprehend and he’s been doing very well,” Garcia said. “Griswold has been entered twice, but the races didn’t go.”

Garcia, a native of the Azores, off the coast of Portugal, moved to Southern California at 16. He worked a variety of jobs before a family friend introduced him to trainer Caesar Dominguez. A few years later, he was riding second call for Dominguez behind Danny Cardoza.

He was the leading rider of the 1988 Bay Meadows meeting and began a thoroughbred apprenticeship in 1988, which lasted less than a year. By September of 1989 he had returned to quarter horses full-time.

Garcia was third in the jockey’s money standings through the end of June with $326,754, even though there was no quarter horse racing in California in February, March or April.

Los Alamitos Notes

Junos Request, a troubled fifth in the Los Alamitos Derby in October, won the $100,000 Remington Park Championship on Sunday. . . . Leading quarter horse jockey Kip Didericksen rode Ed Grimley to victory Sunday in the Rainbow Derby at Ruidoso Downs. Last year at Los Alamitos, Ed Grimley was second to Corona Chick in the Ed Burke Memorial Futurity.

The Gold Rush Derby trials for 3-year-olds at 870 yards will be run Friday night. Oh Le Bo, who is trained by Connie Hall and owned by Thomas Blandford, is one of the leading contenders. The gelding was claimed in October for $4,000 with the $75,000 Gold Rush Derby in mind and won the Cypress Handicap in June.