LOS ALAMITOS : Champion of Champions Again to Be Pivotal in Award Voting

Only an event such as Saturday’s Champion of Champions can prompt jockeys to reconsider retirement, owners to consider court action and another to be thankful that his horse didn’t sell at auction.

Aside from that, the $250,000 race probably will determine quarter horse racing’s world champion, a title that has gone to 13 of the last 20 winners of the 440-yard race. And Saturday’s race is wide open, because favored Rare Form, who almost broke a 16-year-old track record in the trials, was found a week ago to have suffered a leg injury.

His withdrawal leaves Refrigerator, a 4-year-old gelding who won two major races at Los Alamitos last summer, as the favorite. Refrigerator is trained by Blane Schvaneveldt, who has won the Champion of Champions five times and has five horses in Saturday’s race.

Schvaneveldt last won in 1990 with Dash For Speed, who was ridden by Kip Didericksen. The 26-year-old jockey announced his retirement on Dec. 1 because of health problems caused by a constant struggle against weight.

In the week after the announcement, he gained 10 pounds but was surprised he wasn’t heavier. In the last few days, he has been at the track galloping horses, including Refrigerator, each morning.

“I’d like to ride him one more time,” he said. “It’d be a storybook way to finish (my career) if we would win.

“At first, I didn’t think about riding him and I said, ‘Let’s think about it and see how big I get.’ I’d better do it, I’d never forgive myself if I didn’t.”

Horses earn berths in the Champions of Champions’ field in two ways. Winners of five top races get automatic spots in the final. The other five spots are determined by the five fastest times in the trials. This year, though, only four horses earned automatic berths because Special Leader, who won last year’s Champion of Champions, was sent to stud.

The four automatic berths went to Refrigerator, who won the Los Alamitos Championship; Bills Ryon, Breeders Championship Classic; Femmes Frolic, the World’s Championship Classic, and Ed Grimley, the Rainbow Derby.

Dash Master Miss, One Slick One, Junos Request, Sound Dash, Six To Five and Ima Lark earned spots in the trials, although Ima Lark’s position was disputed by the owners of The Dream Doctor.

Ima Lark and The Dream Doctor ran the seventh- and eighth-fastest times of the 15 horses in the trials, 21.550 and 21.555 seconds for the 440 yards. Don and Kathleen Clift of Orange Park Acres, who own The Dream Doctor, are questioning whether their horse didn’t run a time identical to Ima Lark’s. They have also contended that Sound Dash, who finished third, one spot ahead of The Dream Doctor, should have been disqualified and moved back behind The Dream Doctor for interference during the race.

The stewards did not call an inquiry after the race and no one in The Dream Doctor’s camp, including jockey Eddie Garcia or trainer H.J. Visscher, lodged an objection.

The Clifts had been considering court action, but then decided not to pursue it.

“Our feeling is, we don’t want to do anything to blemish the integrity of the race and the nine other (owners) who have worked just as hard,” Don Clift said.

“This is a game of inches. We feel Sound Dash cost us a chance to run. Unfortunately, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance. But the courts were not our intent. We’re not that type of folks.”

Besides determining the world champion, the race will also settle many of the divisional honors, including the title of 3-year-old filly. Strong races by Dash Master Miss or Sound Dash might be enough to impress the 64 members of the American Quarter Horse Assn.’s Racing Committee, which selects champions. If those horses falter, the title will go to Corona Chick, who is sidelined because of a leg injury.

Two years ago, Gus Barakis Jr., who owns Dash Master Miss, tried to sell her at a yearling sale in Oklahoma City.

Barakis, of Weatherford, Tex., sold several horses before Dash Master Miss entered the ring. Unlike the others, Dash Master Miss didn’t reach her reserve price. Barakis wanted $5,000, but the bidding stopped at $3,000.

Barakis kept the filly and sent her to the track. Through most of her 2-year-old year, he probably wished he had sold her. One race after another was marred by a poor start, crucial in races that last less than 20 seconds.

But this year has been Barakis’ pay-back. The filly has won several stakes, including the Kansas Derby at Ruidoso Downs in Ruidoso, N.M., last May, despite losing a shoe three jumps out of the gate.

Barakis has recent history on his side. Horses from the Champion of Champions’ trials have fared well in the final, dousing the myth that a fresh horse is better off than one with a difficult recent race.

Last year’s top three finishers--Special Leader, Isaws Sugar Bear and Refrigerator--all ran in the trials. In 1990, Tee Roy Reb won a trial and returned to run second in the final behind Dash For Speed. In addition, See Me Do It, who won the 1989 race, was a 3-year-old filly.

“It’s tough for a 3-year-old filly, but she’s sound and anything can happen,” Barakis said. “If she breaks like she did in the trials and runs that race, I look for her to hit the board.”

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Jockey Yvonne Azeff interrupted her winter vacation long enough to win two Arabian stakes last Friday. Azeff, who lives in Cooper City, Fla., near Ft. Lauderdale, rode Calin De Louve in the California Futurity for colts and geldings, and FMR Hadassah in the California Futurity for fillies.

Both horses are trained by Lynette Ashby, who was the leading Arabian trainer at the Hollywood Park meeting.

Calin De Louve is undefeated in five starts, including the $170,700 Drinkers of the Wind Futurity in mid-October at Hollywood Park, the richest race in Arabian racing. He won by two lengths, but was almost passed in the final turn by By Gove, who closed within half a length.

FMR Hadassah, who won the $19,000 fillies’ division, had an easier time, pulling away late to win by two lengths.

“(FMR Hadassah) just coasted,” Azeff said. “It’s hard to keep Calin De Louve’s attention. He wants to play around when he gets out (ahead). It wasn’t until (By Gove) came to him that I got his attention.”

Los Alamitos Notes

Two Arabian stakes are scheduled this weekend. Friday’s program includes the $20,000 California Girls Handicap for older mares, and older colts will race in Saturday’s $20,000 California Heritage Handicap. . . . Four Forty Blast is the fastest qualifier for the $191,600 Golden State Futurity on Dec. 26. He ran 440 yards in 19.88 seconds in the last of Saturday’s four trials.

Griswold, the front-runner in the race for champion distance horse of the year, is the probable favorite in Friday’s $20,000 Bull Rastus Handicap. . . . Thursday’s program includes two divisions of the California Sires Cup Derby trials, headed by Inaugural Handicap winner Speedys Chick.

Arabians trained by Loren Nichols were scratched during the weekend for unspecified reasons. Los Alamitos stewards said the trainer was under investigation and that a hearing probably will be held.