HARNESS RACING / LOS ALAMITOS : Filly’s Victory in the Breeders’ Final Is Bittersweet for Trainer Wilkinson

A few minutes after winning the California Breeders’ Final with the pacing filly Nuevo Yank, trainer Jim Wilkinson had yet to enjoy the victory.

He was back in the paddock, tending to his next starter, the pacing colt Beast With Noname, who was about to start in the colts’ division of the same stakes. It was probably best that Wilkinson was preoccupied with preparing a horse, because his mind would have been on the late William Cotter, Nuevo Yank’s owner.

“He put me in the business,” Wilkinson said of Cotter, who died in December at 70.

“He was my friend as well as my owner. (Harness racing) was his passion. He spent 30 years in it.

“He’s responsible for (my) whole (involvement),” Wilkinson said. “He helped me when the business was bad.”

Cotter was among the first to help Wilkinson begin training horses several years ago, sending him five.

Wilkinson’s involvement in racing began when he was 14 and attended harness races at Hollywood Park. He grew up in Van Nuys, went to Crespi High and later graduated from Cal State Northridge with an accounting degree.

While he was attending junior college in the late 1970s, he groomed a few horses but after graduating from college, he worked for 18 months in real estate.

He later assisted trainers Roger Stein and Pat McGonagle before starting his own stable in 1986.

“The standardbreds were a chance for the little guy,” he said. “I always loved the game. I think it’s more fun than thoroughbreds. I could have just as easily gone thoroughbreds.”

In the last several years, Wilkinson has expanded his operation and now trains 13 horses. Nuevo Yank, the first horse Wilkinson bred, was sold to Cotter a few years ago.

As a 2-year-old, she earned more than $14,000, including a stakes victory last summer at Sacramento. In 13 starts, she won only once, but finished in the money in eight races. By year’s end, however, she was overshadowed by Sinali and A Real Find, who dominated the 2-year-old filly pacers at the Los Alamitos fall meeting, each winning more than $30,000.

Wilkinson pulled a sore Nuevo Yank off the track last October, intending to save her for this year. On Friday, she beat both Sinali and A Real Find, pacing the mile in 2 minutes.

The trainer acknowledged that Nuevo Yank had benefited from a prep race on Jan. 23, when she finished second against older horses. A switch from a conventional race bike to a modified sulky, which shifts the weight from the horse’s front shoulders, also helped. It was the first time Nuevo Yank had used the modified bike, which is becoming more common.

“I thought she was fitter (Friday) than last week, so I decided to take a shot (with the new bike),” he said. “It seems to help horses that go to the front. It frees them and they don’t get as tired.”

Wilkinson hopes the new bike will help Nuevo Yank negotiate the Los Alamitos turns, which are tighter than Sacramento’s. Her record last fall is dotted with strong races followed by poor races when she struggled with the track.

“She was very big and immature (last year),” Wilkinson said. “Hopefully, she’s over the mistakes on the turn. (On Jan. 23), I thought she raced good, but not outstanding.

“I really think she’ll be better at Sacramento. Sinali is the queen of the division, but down the road, I think we’ll do better.”

Ed Hensley, who has driven the filly through her career, figures that the competition will get tighter among the 3-year-old fillies when the state-bred stakes races resume next week.

“I thought she was best of all and I know she was tighter,” he said. “I drove her like she was the best, and it paid off. I knew Sinali would be tough, and she’ll be the one to beat. Nuevo Yank is getting strong, but most of them do between 2 and 3. She finishes better this year.”

Hensley also drove Beast With Noname to a second-place finish in Friday’s $10,000 Breeders’ Final for colts and geldings. Similar to the pacing fillies, the colts appear to be well matched. On Friday, three horses had the lead in the stretch.

Perrault, who is driven and trained by Randy Edmonds, led at the top of the stretch, but was caught by Hensley with a sixteenth of a mile left. Hensley appeared on his way to sweeping both stakes races, but Rick Plano, who was driving Keepyourpantson, found an opening late and won by a nose. The winning time of 1:59 was well off Keepyourpantson’s best of 1:55 2/5 last September.

Keepyourpantson is owned by Plano’s wife, Maryann, and has earned more than $56,000. But he is not the best 3-year-old pacer Plano has driven. That honor goes to The Starting Gate, a California-bred, who made short work of the 2-year-old pacing ranks at Los Alamitos last fall but is now racing in New Jersey for trainer Paul Jessop, who once trained in California.

The Starting Gate has won eight of 12 starts and $34,703, and Saturday won a conditioned race at Freehold Raceway in New Jersey, pacing the mile in 1:55 4/5.

“The guy that trains him said the invitational went in 1:56 3/5,” Plano said. “The wind was blowing and it was 18 degrees. He went easy.”

It’s not clear where The Starting Gate fits in the national picture, but his owners--Maryann Plano, Ken Brandyberry and Nick Kareotes--will soon find out. He is expected to make his next start in the first leg of the Four-Leaf Clover Series at the Meadowlands in late February and will probably start in the Berry’s Creek Series in April, which draws some of the nation’s leading pacers.

“Every series later on gets tougher and tougher,” Plano said. “We’ve had offers to buy him--$15,000--and my partners don’t think that’s enough. We’ll take it one day at a time. Every time he goes a bigger mile, maybe they’ll offer more.

“He’s that rare horse, a one-in-a-million that every trainer and driver looks for. He’s too good for California as far as dollars and cents. I don’t think there’s anyone that’s had one like him out here and I’m not knocking anyone’s horse. (Keepyourpantson) has a track record, and I don’t think he can beat him.”

Keepyourpantson was the horse to beat last fall after The Starting Gate went to the sidelines. He won his last three starts, all stakes.