LOS ALAMITOS : For Trainer Perez, Experience on the Track Is Relative Matter

At 26, when most horsemen are still assisting other trainers and hoping to someday go out on their own, Jimmy Perez can almost see the top of the trainers’ standings.

Perez is having one of his best starts in the Los Alamitos winter harness meeting, having won 10 of 34 races--good enough for fifth place in the trainer standings. He is seven victories behind leading trainer Rick Plano, who has started 84 horses.

“(During winter training at Del Mar), I didn’t think I’d have a sixteenth of the meeting that I’m having,” Perez said. “I didn’t think the horses were ready. But they’ve raced much better than I thought they would. So far everything is going super.”

Perez’s 24-horse stable boasts several of California’s top trotters, including invitational winner David’s Legend, stakes finalist Cal-Aurium and two older mares--Always The One and Saprisa.

David’s Legend, a 5-year-old horse, has won three of four starts this winter, including an invitational handicap Friday. It was his first start in an invitational and David’s Legend profited from the absence of Robbie Hest, who won three consecutive invitational handicaps in late January and early February. This week, the two will race one another for the first time this year.

Last year, David’s Legend was trained by George Cliff of Henderson, Nev., who still owns the horse. Cliff is taking the year off, and turned the horse over to Perez last fall. David’s Legend has earned more than $10,000 this year; last year, it took him 38 starts to win $17,600.

“He’s had quite a turnaround,” Perez said. “We turned him out (last fall) to get his feet better and I think that--plus Steve Warrington is a top driver--might have helped a little bit.”

The older fillies, Always The One and Saprisa, are at a disadvantage because there aren’t enough older trotting fillies for them to race. They are often overmatched against colts and geldings.

Cal-Aurium has been one of the top 3-year-old trotting colts this year, winning a qualifying leg for the California Sires Stakes by 12 lengths Feb. 11. Cal-Aurium probably will be favored in the $15,000 sires stakes final Thursday, even though he lost by half a length to Joe’s Birthday in the second qualifying leg last week.

“We jogged him easy last week and I don’t know if that’s why he got beat, but I’m not going to make an excuse,” Perez said. “It could have been a number of things.”

In 1992, Cal-Aurium won six of nine starts and was never worse than third, winning five stakes in his final six starts. At the time, Perez wasn’t sure if Cal-Aurium would develop into a top 3-year-old, but now believes the colt has a future.

“He’s sound and well-mannered, but he’s funny,” Perez said. “When he jogs slowly, you wouldn’t give $5 for him. But he really strides out nice. My expectations have grown. I wouldn’t be surprised if he turns out to be a top trotter.”

Cal-Aurium is co-owned by George Kelly and Perez’s parents, Andrew and Victoria of Diamond Bar, who own 10 horses and were instrumental in his start as a trainer in the mid-1980s. Perez also trains for Way Knittel, whose K-B Farms is one of California’s most prominent standardbred farms. Without his parents’ help, starting a racing stable in his late teens might have been impossible.

“I put myself in a special position,” Perez said. “There’re a lot of guys on the backstretch with the talent to drive and train who haven’t gotten the breaks, a lot of guys who are sharp.”

Andrew Perez owned thoroughbreds in the late 1960s and the family always visited the local tracks. After graduating from high school, Jimmy assisted Jack Sherren and Bobby Gordon. Perez drove some of his own horses in the 1980s, but now leaves that to others.

Each season in recent years has been highlighted by a major stakes winner or a track record. Half Nip, an older gelding in the late 1980s, was one of his first stars. He set a track record for older pacing geldings in 1986 of 1:53 2/5 that stood as the fastest pacing mile at Los Alamitos for several years.

And each year since 1989, Perez has trained a major California-bred.

In 1989, Denali’s Thor was the top 2-year-old pacing colt and still competes on the circuit, with career earnings of more than $137,000.

In 1990, Perez trained Two In A Teepee, the top 2-year-old pacing filly with six victories in eight starts. The next year, injuries and the development of rival Bag A Few prevented her from defending her title, but she still managed to finish first or second in almost every stake she entered.

Perez tried to bring her back last year as a 4-year-old, but the injuries caught up with her again. She was recently retired for breeding.

“I brought her back but she was still sore,” he said. “She had a lot of heart. A few vets didn’t think she’d hold up, but she always gave 110% when she went behind the gate.”

Perez has several young horses in his barns that are nearing their first starts, some he says could wind up in stakes company.

“I have a lot of 3-year-olds that I have high hopes for,” he said. “I’ve done things in eight or nine years of training that some guys haven’t done in a lifetime. Every year, we’ve been lucky and blessed with a good horse.”

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Driver Terry Kerr is still seeking his 4,500th victory. He has won 12 races at this meeting, but has been winless in 45 drives since winning two of the first three races on Feb. 10. He is stalled at 4,498.

Kerr has three drives on Wednesday’s program and six on Thursday, including Fastly, who will face Cal-Aurium in the Sires Stakes for trotting colts. The milestone could be reached as early as the seventh race on Wednesday, when Kerr drives Some Mo in a claiming pace, his second drive of the week.

Los Alamitos Notes

Three other sires stakes will be held on Thursday and Friday. Pert Aries and Eggwhite are the leading contenders for the trotting fillies’ race on Thursday. Friday is for the pacers with Sinali heading the fillies’ division and Beast With Noname and Keepyourpantson in the colts’ and geldings’ division. . . . Kurahaupo Pride won her second consecutive filly and mare invitational Friday. The 4-year-old mare has not been worse than second in five starts this year for owner Henry O’Shea of Santa Ana.

Paul Reddam, general manager of the California Harness Racing Assn., which leases Los Alamitos for harness racing, co-owns Camaraderie. The 6-year-old gelding won last Saturday’s Invitational in 1:55 2/5, the fastest mile of the meeting. Camaraderie, co-owned by Mary Ann Plano, has won three of five starts this year. . . . Owner Gaetan Fortin of Quebec has brought a racing stable to Los Alamitos for this meeting.