FAIRPLEX : Sondheimer Goes After Foothill

The Los Angeles County Fair’s 54th racing season--four breeds running 241 races over 19 consecutive days--begins at Fairplex Park in Pomona today at 1 p.m. with a 13-race card that includes thoroughbreds, quarter horses, Appaloosas and Arabians.

The top thoroughbred jockeys ride infrequently at Fairplex, many of them squeezing in vacations and riding in out-of-town stakes during this break in Southern California’s major racing schedule, but Gary Stevens will be aboard Sondheimer, one of the favorites in today’s $50,000 Foothill Stakes for 3-year-olds.

Other stakes on the card are the $35,000 Bustles and Bows for 2-year-old thoroughbred fillies and the $15,000 Express for quarter horses 3 years and older.

Sondheimer, claimed for $32,000 out of a race at Santa Anita last February, has won only two of nine starts since, but in his last race he won a seven-furlong stake for California-breds at Del Mar, beating J.F. Williams, who had been undefeated.

Others among the 10 starters in the 6 1/2-furlong Foothill are Prospect For Four, who won two stakes over the five-furlong Fairplex track last year; and Dr. Augusta, a stakes winner at the Bay Meadows Fair last month. Prospect For Four will be ridden by David Flores, who set a Pomona record last year with 48 victories. Flores also won the riding title in 1990 with 35 victories. The year before, with 19 victories, he shared first place with Corey Black and Martin Pedroza.

Craig Lewis, last year’s Fairplex training champion with 10 victories, will saddle Southern Wish in the Foothill.

The meet runs through Oct. 4, with 12-race cards on Saturday and Sunday and 13 races other days.

Last year, counting off-track play, the daily average handle was $3.1 million, ranking Fairplex eighth in the country. This year, there will be betting at 18 off-track locations,including Hollywood Park, Del Mar, Los Alamitos and five Indian reservations.