LOS ALAMITOS : Winning Doesn’t Take a Holiday

Last weekend wasn’t much of a holiday for jockey Bruce Pilkenton, but he wasn’t complaining.

Pilkenton won nine races in four nights, including two stakes and at week’s end was tied with Eddie Garcia for the lead in the jockey’s standings with 23 victories. He rode to stakes victories on Sables Secret in the La Primera Del Ano Derby for 3-year-old fillies and Jumping Tac Flash in a minor upset in the California Sires Cup Futurity for 2-year-olds.

The weekend had begun strangely for Pilkenton. He was fined $500 for an altercation with jockey James Brooks after the first race on Thursday. Brooks, who was aboard Alaman Tia, finished second, but was disqualified and placed fifth for interference in the stretch. Pilkenton was on Brooks’ inside aboard A Royal Request. The incident occurred as the horses were galloping out after the race. Brooks was given a four-day suspension for the disqualification.

Jumping Tac Flash, who gave trainer Blane Schvaneveldt his 247th stakes victory at Los Alamitos, was a two-length winner in the Sires Cup trials in mid-May. The gelding is undefeated in three starts, having also won his first start at a small track in Utah in early May. Schvaneveldt says the filly will stay in California.

Another contender, Her First Cin, fell shortly after the start and suffered her first defeat in three races. Jockey Mike Burgess wasn’t seriously injured and returned to win a race later on Sunday’s program.

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Sables Secret’s victory in the La Primera Del Ano Derby was the filly’s second major victory in a year, but surgery to remove bone chips in a knee will force her to the sidelines for the next several months.

Sables Secret also was sidelined for most of last year because of an injury to her other knee. Trainer Daryn Charlton said if surgery is performed soon, she will be sidelined until the fall.

The injury overshadowed an impressive performance. Sables Secret set a stakes record in the $137,240 race, running 400 yards in 19.53 seconds. It was her fourth victory in six starts for owner-breeder Spencer Childers of Fresno.

Sables Secret finished 1 3/4 lengths ahead of Chicks Got Pazazz, a stakes winner earlier in the meeting.

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Aside from A Classic Dash, favorites had a tough time in last Friday’s El Primero Del Ano Derby at Los Alamitos and Monday’s Kansas Derby at Ruidoso Downs in Ruidoso, N.M.

Four Forty Blast, the 2-5 favorite in the El Primero Del Ano Derby, lost all chance for a victory the moment before the start when he broke through the stall door and suffered a bloodied nose. He ran anyway and led for most of the 400 yards before finishing third behind Firstdown Touchdown and Easily A Secret.

In New Mexico, Deceptively, the 1992 champion 2-year-old, was beaten for the first time in the Kansas Derby. The filly, who won last year’s Kansas and Rainbow Futurities, finished third behind First Down And Ten and Desert Orchid.

Los Alamitos Notes

Mega Dash, last year’s champion 2-year-old gelding, finished second in an allowance race Saturday. His next start will probably be in the Los Alamitos Derby trials. . .Trainer Charles Treece was fined $1,000 in late May after test results revealed excessive medication in Oceano, the winner of a claiming race on May 1. . .Danny Cardoza rode Truthful to victory in the Classic Futurity for Appaloosa Saturday. It was the first Appaloosa stakes victory for Cardoza, quarter horse racing’s top winner.