LOS ALAMITOS : Garcia Breaks Out of Slump as Speedys Chick Wins Stakes

The frustrations were mounting for jockey Eddie Garcia as Sunday’s $20,000 Inaugural Handicap neared.

Garcia, who had tied Kip Didericksen for first in the riders’ standings at Hollywood Park, was still searching for his first victory when he met trainer Connie Hall in the saddling paddock before the Inaugural. Garcia was riding Speedys Chick for Hall in the 350-yard race, and took a moment to share his feelings with the trainer.

“He said he’d been dodging dirt clods all night and I told him he’d better be kicking them now,” Hall said. “It was time to break the ice.”

Garcia, who had teamed with Hall for 18 victories at Hollywood Park, upset favored Sweeten The Pot in the Inaugural Handicap, giving Speedys Chick his first stakes victory, in his 19th start. It was also the 3-year-old gelding’s first start against older horses.

Speedys Chick won the Inaugural by half a length over Sweeten The Pot, who won three stakes at Los Alamitos last summer and was sent off the 9-10 favorite. Leaving Memories finished third. The winning time of 17.71 seconds was respectable, considering how deep the track was opening weekend.

“(Speedys Chick) is sharp at 350,” Garcia said. “(If they’re going to beat him), they’d better have a runner. Every time they say ‘go’, he’s gone.”

A year ago, Hall, Garcia and owners Joe and Jerri Muniz of Costa Mesa teamed for a victory in the Southern California Derby with Kid O Dash. There are many similarities between Kid O Dash and Speedys Chick. Each was bred by Joe Muniz and won his first stake as a 3-year-old. Last year, 30 minutes after Kid O Dash’s Southern California Derby victory, Speedys Chick ran third in the Dash For Cash Futurity Consolation, one of the few highlights in the gelding’s 2-year-old season.

Speedys Chick suffered a major setback in 1991 because of double pneumonia. He lost all seven of his races at 2, but has won five of 10 starts this year. His only bad race was a 10th-place finish in the Governor’s Cup Derby last August. Since then, he has won three of four starts.

“At Bay Meadows (in 1991), we knew he was good, but he’s lost some of his breathing capacity,” Muniz said. “He was way ahead in the Sophomore Classic (a fourth-place finish on Oct. 3) but fell back. He beat some nice horses tonight. He does well at 350.”

Hall is pointing for the California Sires Cup Derby at Los Alamitos in December, but doesn’t have any specific plans after that.

Kid O Dash will also return to the races in the near future. The 4-year-old has been in training for the last six weeks after undergoing two ankle operations in the last year.

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Brian Koriner must have felt snakebitten during last Friday’s California Sires Cup Futurity trials.

The trainer saddled two horses in the trials and watched both win. But instead of having two starters in this Sunday’s $108,750 event, Koriner will start only Dash On Mitch, who shares the top qualifier role with I Am The Band. Firstdown Touchdown won his trial easily but ran against a strong head wind and missed qualifying for the final by .005 of a second.

Firstdown Touchdown ran 350 yards in 18.405 seconds but Ima Gold Dasher, who ran fourth in the second division of the trials, was clocked in 18.40 seconds and became the 10th qualifier.

Firstdown Touchdown wasn’t the only horse in that predicament. Beinbetter, who finished second in the fourth division of the trials, was also clocked in 18.405 seconds.

Quarter horse racing uses trials to determine the finalists of major races, the 10 fastest times advancing to the finals. It’s not uncommon for horses that miss the board in a trial to qualify, whereas trial winners from other divisions don’t.

All that matters is the final time.

The biggest surprise in Friday’s trials was the head wind, which was stronger for the last three trials than for the first two and resembled conditions more common in Texas or New Mexico than California. Dash On Mitch and I Am The Band won the first two divisions with times of 17.98 seconds. In the last three divisions, the fastest time was Tacfully’s 18.27 seconds and he was the only horse in those three races to make the final.

Dash On Mitch, whom Koriner bought with Ralph Burdick last November for $16,000 at a yearling sale, has developed considerably since the summer, when he was just another horse in Koriner’s barn. He lost his first four races before winning a $16,000 claiming race for maidens at Hollywood Park on Aug. 28. After a fifth in a trial race at Hollywood in late September, he won the Pomona Juvenile at Fairplex Park in early October.

Friday’s trial was his most recent start since that stakes victory.

“He wouldn’t break (last summer),” Koriner said. “He was green and we ran him for a claiming price. His heart is getting big now.

“(Dash On Mitch) is still a little green. Together with a good draw, he’ll be the horse to beat. (Jockey) Jerry Lee (Yoakum) said he has a lot of ability and said he doesn’t know how to run yet. He could go right on up to be a good horse.”

Dash On Mitch didn’t face a tough field in the Pomona Juvenile and the California Sires Cup is only slightly more difficult. Aside from I Am The Band and Tacfully, finalists include Check Her Twice, The Rainbow Ranger, Oh La Secret, Dash For Beduino, Yuuba King, Secret Maker and Ima Gold Dasher.

I Am The Band, who has not been worse than third in seven starts, will probably provide Dash On Mitch with plenty of competition. The gelding is trained by Blane Schvaneveldt and is the only other horse in the final with a stakes victory. He won the John Hoak Memorial Futurity at Boise, Ida., last August.

The California Sires Cup isn’t the only big race for Koriner this weekend. He also will saddle Speedy Lunch in the $20,000 Katella Handicap on Friday, a race that will play a large part in determining this year’s champion distance horse.

Speedy Lunch has won three stakes this year--the Remington Park Challenge, the Table Tennis Handicap and the Pomona Invitational--and Griswold, who was the champion distance horse in 1991, has won two. Griswold finished second behind Speedy Lunch in the Bull Rastus Handicap last January, but was moved to first after the stewards ruled that Speedy Lunch had lugged out on the turn. In his next start, on July 17, Griswold won the Endurance Handicap at Los Alamitos with Speedy Lunch third.

The Katella Handicap and the $20,000 Bull Rastus Handicap on Dec. 18 are the last two major stakes for distance horses this year.