LOS ALAMITOS : Arnold’s Exit Creates Anxiety

Three weeks have passed since harness promoter Lloyd Arnold announced his retirement and the struggling California harness industry is still searching for a replacement.

Arnold, who has promoted harness racing at Los Alamitos since 1989, will retire on Nov. 14, the final day of the summer-fall meeting. Harness racing isn’t scheduled to resume again until late January, but if a new operator isn’t found to lease the facility, there might not be a 1993 meeting in California. The interruption would also put future years in doubt.

The search for a new operator has dominated the harness industry after strong meetings at Los Alamitos and Sacramento last spring and summer, but a disappointing meeting this fall. Thursday, the mutuel handle failed to reach $300,000 for a 10-race program.

Arnold, who owns 25% of the track, and Chris Bardis, another 25% owner, hope to find a promoter by Dec. 1. Otherwise the dates will probably go to Dr. Ed Allred, who owns the other 50% of the track and promotes quarter horse racing.

“I’m like everyone else, I’m disappointed,” said trainer Bobby Gordon, who is among Los Alamitos’ leaders. “I’ve supported California all these years and now it could be over. We had a real shot (three years ago) when Lloyd and Chris bought the place.

“We’re in a real crisis. I think most of the other trainers live in California and we have homes here. I’ve been here 23 years, and it’s difficult when we don’t have an idea what will happen over the next three months.”

Even though the deadline to find a new operator is Dec. 1, many hope it can be done by the end of this month so local horsemen can plan for the winter instead of scrambling around, looking for stall space and accommodations at other tracks.

Alan Horowitz, the executive secretary of the California Harness Horsemen’s Assn., has been searching for a new operator and says things will move faster soon.

“There are a couple of different parties that will be dealing with Lloyd and he’ll be getting a feeling (for their situations) and answering their questions,” Horowitz said. “At that point, he’d introduce them to Chris and Doc Allred.”

Horse owner Paul Reddam, who has a mortgage company in Irvine, is spending this week investigating the lease and dealing with the financial questions.

“There have been a lot of rumors and a lot that have included me,” he said. “I think the horsemen are anxious for something to get done.

“I think it would take a small group of (investors). The next step is to put together some financial information and sit down again.”

Because of the turmoil, this has been a difficult season to own a California-bred 2-year-old who would normally have the guarantee of a long season of state-bred stakes races at 3.

Owners have had to consider other options for 2-year-olds who have already proved they have talent.

The Starting Gate, a 2-year-old pacer, dominated his division of the sires stakes late in the Sacramento meeting and the early weeks of the Los Alamitos meeting. His trainer, Rick Plano, has turned him out in anticipation of sending him to the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J., for a $150,000 race in January.

Plano would have kept The Starting Gate racing this fall, but the Meadowlands race is for horses that haven’t won $30,000 in their careers, a figure The Starting Gate has almost reached, thanks to victories in his last six starts. He is owned by Plano’s wife, Maryann, along with Nick Kareotes and Ken Brandyberry.

“Once he starts in January, he’ll race straight through (the rest of the year),” Plano said. “We’ll go one race at a time. Money is not an object for the guys who own him with me, so we want to give him a shot.”

Plano’s other 2-year-old colt, Keepyoupantson, picked up where his stablemate left off Saturday, winning a $16,000 division of the Sires Stakes for 2-year-old pacers. He is also owned by Maryann Plano.

Cal-Aurium hasn’t dominated the 2-year-old trotting colt division as much as The Starting Gate had dominated the pacing colts, but Cal-Aurium has never been worse than third in seven starts. Last Wednesday, he won a $16,000 division of the sires stakes the hard way. He went off-stride early in the mile race, regained his stride, took the lead late and held off a late-closing Lear for his second consecutive stakes victory.

The colt is trained by Jimmy Perez and owned by his father, Andy, of Diamond Bar, and George Kelly of Salinas. In seven sires and breeders stakes for 2-year-old trotting colts this year, Cal-Aurium has won four and Hays My Game has accounted for the other three. Hays My Game was third Wednesday.

“He’s shown as much promise as any 2-year-old colt in California,” Perez said of Cal-Aurium. “He’s been good the whole time. He’s a little ignorant, but he’s a stud, so that’s expected for a 2-year-old.

Perez isn’t sure of his plans for 1993, but thinks that Cal-Aurium has considerable room to improve.

“I don’t know how good he is,” Perez said of Cal-Aurium. “If he gets racing every week, he could stop in 2:01 or (his time) could go down to 1:56.”

Los Alamitos Notes

Wednesday’s feature is an invitational trot, featuring a field of nine. Leading contenders Fast Floyd, Oliver Je Bear and Robbie Hest drew post positions seven through nine. Other entrants include BH Dynamite, First Down, Gallant Max, David’s Storm, Sedgeford Laddie and David’s Legend. . . . Simulcasts from Garden State Park in Cherry Hill, N.J., will be the first and third races on the Wednesday and Thursday programs.