LOS ALAMITOS : Brilliant Colors Has Taken Over as Top Female Pacer of Meeting

Brilliant Colors, the newest track record-holder at Los Alamitos, is also the top female pacer of the winter-spring meeting.

The 4-year-old filly has been a model of consistency throughout the first nine weeks of the meeting, winning five races and finishing second or third in four others. Her best race, however, was Friday’s $9,000 invitational handicap, when she was timed in 1:55 3/5, breaking a track record for 4-year-old fillies, the first track record of the meeting.

Brilliant Colors has been the top pacing filly this month, as she was in January when she won her first two starts of the meeting. In February, though, she won only one race and finished third in three others.

Her victory in February came at the end of the month and marked the first time this year that trainer Doug Ackerman and his son, D.R., who drives the filly, chose a modified sulky, a lighter model that shifts the weight of the sulky away from the horse’s shoulders. Since then, she’s won three of four starts.

“She wasn’t quite as sharp for a few weeks, but (March 12) she was really sharp,” D.R. Ackerman said. “She lets you know how she’s feeling when you’re warming her up.”

On Friday, Brilliant Colors was feeling great. She took the lead shortly after the start and throughout. The final time of 1:55 3/5 was one-fifth of a second faster than the times Theora Hanover, Silver Cedar, Cappucine and Lepton, who had previously held the mark for 4-year-old fillies.

The key to Friday’s victory were two slow quarter-mile splits in the middle of the race. Brilliant Colors paced the opening quarter-mile in 27 1/5, but reached the three-quarter mile mark in 1:27 2/5. By the time the fillies hit the top of the stretch, Brilliant Colors had, in effect, had a breather.

“If you give any of those mares a little rest, they’ll take off,” D.R. Ackerman said.

Brilliant Colors is owned by Richard Staley of Los Angeles and has actually gone faster at Los Alamitos than her Friday’s record. Last October, winning the California Pace for 3-year-old fillies, she was timed in 1:54 3/5, also a track record.

When the meeting concludes on April 24, the title of top 3-year-old colt or gelding trotter might go to the horse with the best behavior over the three-month meeting.

Three horses--Hays My Game, Cal-Aurium and Joe’s Birthday--have won all of the sires and breeders stakes races this year, mostly by taking advantage of others who have gone off-stride. Last Thursday, in the second qualifying leg for tomorrow night’s $15,000 California Sires Stakes, Joe’s Birthday was the model student.

He was the only one of the three to stay on stride throughout the mile and was clocked in a personal best time of 2:02 1/5. Hays My Game, who has earned the most money this year, led until mid-stretch, but went off-stride and finished third. Cal-Aurium broke stride before the start.

Joe’s Birthday is not immune to such trouble. The gelding, who is owned by Jim and Virginia Bagatelos of Dixon, Calif., has stayed the course in only three of his seven starts this year.

“He’s always showed some capability,” driver Frank Sherren said. “He’s had a little problem breaking, but he’s been pretty solid lately. I’ve been trying to build his confidence.”

The sires stakes for 3-year-old’s have four $15,000 divisions this week. Aside from the trotting colts and geldings, Eggwhite and Pert Aries will be favored in the trotting fillies divisions on Thursday, while the pacing filly Nuevo Yank and colt Pip’s Fonzo headline their respective races on Friday.

Joe’s Birthday won his first race of the year on Feb. 18, which was also the second qualifying leg of the sire stakes. A week later, in the first $15,000 final of the the year, he went off-stride midway through the race, but still finished second to Hays My Game. He returned on March 11 and was a fast-closing third in the first qualifying leg for this week’s final.

“I think it was my fault (he made a break),” Sherren said. “I pushed him a little on the turn with the whip and he made a break. I think we would have won the race.

“He came home good (on March 11) and he seems to have more confidence. I didn’t think I would beat (Hays My Game last Thursday). I think he’s the best of the division, but Joe’s Birthday is in the top three.”

Hays My Game has won three of six starts this year when it’s counted the most. He won a California Breeders Stakes on Jan. 28 and the first California Sires Stakes on Feb. 25 despite going off-stride. Cal-Aurium has earned more than $54,000, more than any other horse in the division, but hasn’t won since Feb. 11.

Eggwhite, whom Sherren also drives, is the probable favorite in the trotting fillies division despite losing on Thursday to Pert Aries. Eggwhite has won 12 to 15 starts, but has lost two of her last four races to Pert Aries. Those two have separated themselves from the other trotting fillies.

Nuevo Yank, who won the California Breeders Stakes for pacing fillies last January, won her first race in more than a month in Friday’s second leg. She was timed in 1:58 1/5, a personal best, beating Romantic Music, who was making her first start since last July.

Romantic Music, trained by Ross Croghan and owned by Laurette Odney of Granada Hills, won four of six starts last summer at Sacramento, including three stakes wins, but didn’t race at Los Alamitos last fall.

Nuevo Yank was ill for most of late February and early March, according to trainer Jim Wilkinson, who says the filly has regained her health.

“That race will do her a lot of good,” he said. “She had a 105 temperature and missed a week and then missed 10 (more) days.”

Pip’s Fonzo has won four consecutive starts and leads a division missing two of its top stars--The Starting Gate and Keepyourpantson. The Starting Gate is racing against better horses in New Jersey, while Keepyourpantson hasn’t started in more than a month.