LOS ALAMITOS : Tentative Deal on New Lease Draws Praise

The unwritten agreement reached Monday between two harness horsemen and Los Alamitos race track management to provide harness racing over the next 18 months couldn’t have been more timely.

The current harness meeting ends Saturday and without assurance of racing in 1993, many horsemen would have scattered across the United States. Instead, the backstretch will head to Del Mar or local farms for a few months of winter training before returning to the track in January.

Perry De Luna of Culver City and Paul Reddam of Newport Beach were part of a three-man group that had unsuccessfully approached track management in October about purchasing the lease.

De Luna, however, kept working on the project into early November and last Friday persuaded Reddam that it was worth another try to secure the lease and ensure the sport’s survival in California.

The deal, pending approval by lawyers for both sides as well as the California Horse Racing Board, would give harness racing two meetings at Los Alamitos through April of 1994, but fewer weeks in 1993 than there have been in recent years.

Harness racing will resume at Los Alamitos on Jan. 20, 1993--after the quarter horse meeting--and will continue until April 24. A Sacramento meeting, similar to the one in 1992, will be conducted this summer and will be simulcast to Los Alamitos.

This year, Los Alamitos harness racing was conducted from mid-August to mid-November, but next year harness racing won’t resume until mid-December and will continue until late April of 1994.

“I’ve worked on this for the last two weeks and I always thought it would work out,” De Luna said.

The new program does not include the $250,000 Shelly Goudreau Memorial Pace for 3-year-olds or the $100,000 American Pacing Classic for older pacers. They will be replaced by an emphasis on overnight purses.

One problem facing Reddam and De Luna is the small number of harness horses racing in California, currently estimated at fewer than 400. “The number of races will depend on the number of horses,” Reddam said.

Horsemen reacted favorably to the announcement, but were concerned over the number of dates in 1993. Trainer Greg Wright said the decision will enable him to take 13 2-year-olds to Del Mar for the winter. He also recently imported 10 horses from New Zealand and a majority haven’t started in the United States.

“The main thing I’m happy about is that we’ll be here in January,” he said.

Gene Vallandingham operates one of the larger stables on the backstretch and also owns some of the horses he trains. His main concern was the number of racing weeks next year.

“We’d like more dates, but at least we have the opportunity to race and we don’t have the overlap with the quarter horses,” he said.

The overlap this fall--when quarter horses were at Hollywood Park and harness horses were at Los Alamitos--hurt purses and handles at both tracks.

The quarter horse schedule over the next 13 months is entirely at Los Alamitos. Quarter horses will begin a meeting at Los Alamitos on Nov. 20 that will last until Jan. 16 and resume in late April and run until mid-December.

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Heavy Tipper, winner of Saturday’s Invitational, has developed into the most consistent pacer in California in the last two years.

Heavy Tipper, the leading 3-year-old in California last year, won Saturday’s one-mile race in 1:53 3/5 for his 13th victory in 30 starts this year and 26th in 53 races overall.

The 4-year-old gelding, whom owner Jim Coats of Citrus Heights, Calif., purchased for $2,500 at a yearling sale in 1989, has been in excellent form since finishing seventh in the finals of the $100,000 American Pacing Classic on Sept. 26. After that race, he was rested for three weeks and has since won three of four starts, all invitationals. His only loss was by a nose to One Bad Boy on Oct. 31, after he was trapped behind horses late in the race.

In Saturday’s race, Heavy Tipper raced on the outside of El Camino Real for the opening quarter-mile, but took the lead shortly thereafter. At the half-mile mark, he was challenged by the 3-year-old Stringing Along, who raced on the outside of Heavy Tipper and took the lead on the backstretch. In the stretch, Heavy Tipper, with driver Rick Kuebler, regained the lead and won by one length. El Camino Real, Positive Spirit and TK’s Skipper completed the order of finish.

“There were four out to beat one instead of one out to beat four,” Coats said. “I think it was one of his toughest miles.”

Despite the loss in the American Pacing Classic, Coats intends to give Heavy Tipper a shot at some of the nation’s top older horses next year. Two months ago, in a qualifying leg for the American Pacing Classic, Heavy Tipper beat Odds Against, the eventual winner of the final, in a hard-fought race that Coats says might have cost the gelding in the final.

Drawing the outside post in the $100,000 final didn’t help Heavy Tipper either, because he had to circle the field early to take the early lead.

“All of the marbles were up for grabs in that race,” Coats said. “We figured Odds Against would come at us early, but Clancy (who finished off the board) did and he was full-bore. Heavy Tipper probably wasn’t in tip-top shape. He’d been used hard the race before.”

In January, Heavy Tipper will begin a campaign at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J., site of the nation’s best harness racing through most of the year.

Current plans include racing in the Presidential, Aquarius and Driscoll Series in the first few months of the year.

“He’s had a real good October (and early November), but we don’t want to race him too hard. He’s had two or three more starts than we thought we’d give him this year. I think maybe he likes the extra time off. I don’t think he needs tuneup races.

“I want to see him race against the good horses. With several horses retiring (including Artsplace, undefeated in 16 starts this year), I think he’ll do well. He’s already beaten Odds Against.”

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Thursday’s 11-race program will include two races simulcast from Garden State Park. The live feature is the 10th race, a $5,000 invitational for trotters.