LOS ALAMITOS : Retiree Is Bringing a Midas Touch to His First Try as a Horse Owner

Bob Abbott might be the luckiest man at Los Alamitos.

In his rookie year as a harness horse owner, the retired printer from Garden Grove has won eight races in 10 starts with his three horses.

It started during the summer with Star Legacy, who won three races for Abbott before being sold to Chicago interests.

Abbott then bought Tsarina Bret, a filly from New Zealand, who scored three consecutive victories at Los Alamitos in August and September.

She has lost her last two races, but trainer Tim Diliberto recently discovered an abscess in a hoof. The 6-year-old mare, whom Abbott owns in partnership with Jenny Lake, Richard Getz and Gail Cavner, is not expected back this season.

Her departure was softened by the appearance of the newest horse in Abbott’s stable, Sedgeford Laddie, who won in his first start, an invitational trot last Wednesday.

Sedgeford Laddie will start again tonight in the eighth race, another invitational trot that has drawn many of the same horses he raced last week.

The post position draw for the nine-horse field was held Saturday and was another example of Abbott’s good fortune.

Invitationals are often handicapped according to post positions. Horses with strong credentials draw for the outside post positions, and lesser rivals select from the inside.

For tonight’s race, five horses drew for the outside positions. Sedgeford Laddie drew No. 5, a favorable post. Olive Je Ber, Robbie Hest, Fast Floyd and Joies Dream will start to the outside. Post positions one through four will be occupied by Skeet Load, First Down, David’s Legend and Sir Ricky.

Abbott answered an advertisement in the racing program for prospective owners last spring and since has been hooked.

“I didn’t know what to do (after Tsarina Bret began racing), so I bought another horse,” he said. “I was so amazed to see (Sedgeford Laddie) pull off his first race in this country.”

Sedgeford Laddie, a 7-year-old gelding, was imported from New Zealand during the summer and purchased by Abbott in early September from bloodstock agent Peter Blanchard. He had won only one race in 11 starts early in the year at New Zealand, then had the summer off while he grew accustomed to the United States.

“He got lucky with the perfect trip,” driver Ross Croghan said. “I think he’s competitive in this class. He probably has another second (of improvement) up his sleeve.”

Abbott hasn’t decided what he will do with Sedgeford Laddie at the end of the meeting next month, but a trip to Chicago has been considered. Abbott is also looking to expand his stable with another horse from New Zealand, where harness races usually are 1 1/2 to two miles.

“Horses like Sedgeford Laddie get this mile and they’re looking to go another three-quarters,” he said. “We’ll stay here until the season ends and then make a decision.”

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An occasional vacation to the countryside has helped lengthen the career of Cool Charm Girl, a 9-year-old mare who won the invitational pace for fillies and mares Friday.

The victory, by a nose in 1:56 3/5, was her second in a row and her 10th of the year. She is nearing the $200,000 mark in earnings and shows no signs of slowing.

Friday’s victory was also the first time she had raced with a “modified sulky,” which shifts the weight of the bike farther back on the horse. The conventional bike weighs heavily on the shoulders.

Some horses prefer the modified bike, others the conventional. Heavy Tipper, who won a leg of the American Pacing Classic last month, tried a modified sulky, but couldn’t handle it and a switch back to the conventional bike resulted in a quick victory.

Denise Maier, who owns part of Cool Charm Girl and has served as her trainer since the pacer was imported from New Zealand in the late 1980s, decided late last week to try the new bike.

“It seems to help some horses, so we thought we’d give it a shot,” she said. “There’s so much that plays into a race that you can’t necessarily credit the bike. I think you need to see a horse race with it to know if it works.”

Occasionally, Maier or her husband, Tim, who drives the 9-year-old mare, like to ship Cool Charm Girl to a thoroughbred farm in Corona, where she spends a few days. When she was racing at Sacramento during the summer, she stayed at a farm eight minutes from the track.

“She’s been out there the last three weeks quite a bit,” Denise Maier said. “She has a private paddock there and it makes her happy.”

Cool Charm Girl has been a mainstay in the invitational class, although her victory on Oct. 9, also by a nose, was in a conditioned race. Her 10 victories in 31 starts put her one away from her 1991 total, but her earnings this year of more than $68,000 are her highest since she was brought to the United States.

Despite her age, there are no plans for retirement to the breeding shed.

“She’s sound, and as long as she’s good, she’ll race,” Maier said. “She’s raced here all year and has had an excellent year. . . .

“She’s 3-year-old sound and takes good care of herself. She can’t make that much money as a broodmare. We’ll breed her someday.”

Los Alamitos Notes

Heavy Tipper won Saturday’s invitational pace in his first start since finishing seventh in the American Pacing Classic on Sep. 26. The 4-year-old gelding has won 11 of 27 starts this year. . . . Iceman, owned by Michael Schwartz of Santa Ana, won the $17,500 Sir Dalrae Series final Saturday. Last month, the 5-year-old gelding won the Hot Summer Nights Series.