LOS ALAMITOS : Arrival Was Surprising; Win Wasn’t

Trainer Blane Schvaneveldt was a surprise guest at his own party last Sunday evening.

Schvaneveldt spent part of the weekend at Remington Park in Oklahoma City, overseeing his Midwest stable, and wasn’t expected back at Los Alamitos in time for Sunday’s Independence Day Handicap, in which he had two starters--Sadiesal and Sign Of Love. But Schvaneveldt, 59, caught an early flight and surprised even his family, arriving in time to saddle both horses.

Sadiesal’s victory gave Schvaneveldt his 250th stakes victory at Los Alamitos, a first in quarter horse racing. He also owns and bred Sadiesal, a 3-year-old filly by Chicks Beduino, who was ridden by his son-in-law, Roman Figueroa. The even-money favorite won by half a length over Tango Cash.

“I kind of wanted to get back to California (for this),” he said. “I thought the owner would get mad if I wasn’t.”

Quarter horse records from the late 1960s and early 1970s are sketchy, but Schvaneveldt said Sunday that he posted his first Los Alamitos stakes victory in 1970, when Band Of Angels won the Kindergarten, the year she was named champion 2-year-old filly.

Since then, his stakes triumphs have ranged from races as big as the $250,000 Champion of Champions, which he has won six times, to the $15,000 Independence Day Handicap for California-breds, which he has won four times. Schvaneveldt wasn’t aware of the approaching milestone until it was mentioned in early May that he was within five. He has won five of the first 14 stakes of the meeting and is also Los Alamitos’ all-time leading trainer with 2,723 victories.

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On June 20, owner Zory Kuzyk was walking to the winner’s circle when she learned that Le Ritz, her horse in the Miss Kindergarten Futurity, had been nosed out by Jumping Tac Flash.

On Saturday in the Vessels Maturity, a similar scenario developed with another of Kuzyk’s horses. Wealth, a 5-year-old gelding owned by Kuzyk, hit the wire with Chicks Got Pazazz. Once again, Kuzyk set off for the winner’s circle. This time, though, she stayed for the celebration.

Wealth beat Chicks Got Pazazz by a nose for his second stakes victory of the year and the first Grade I victory of his four-year career. He was ridden by Figueroa for trainer Bob Gilbert.

Figueroa picked up the mount on Wealth when jockey Steve Treasure was unable to make it back in time from a race in Denver. It was the second time in three weeks that Treasure has missed a winning ride in a major race. He also missed riding Daily Triple in the Kindergarten Futurity in late June.

Los Alamitos Notes

An appeal by jockey Jerry Yoakum, the leading rider at Los Alamitos last winter, was denied by California Horse Racing Board referee Conrad Klein in late June. Yoakum was appealing a one-year suspension handed down last February after an electrical device used to stimulate racehorses, also known as a buzzer, was found in his jacket in the Los Alamitos jockey’s room last January. Yoakum received a stay order from an Orange County Judge in early May that allowed him to ride in New Mexico in May and June. He won two races at Ruidoso Downs. Before the ruling was announced, he was hoping to ride Macs Leinster Band in Saturday’s Vessels Maturity. In his appeal, Yoakum said he was unaware the buzzer was in his locker. . . . Any doubt that Four Forty Blast wasn’t on top of his game was removed in Friday’s Los Alamitos Derby. The 3-year-old gelding won his second stake of the year by half a length over Down With Debt. The 10-horse field was the strongest group of stakes horses assembled this summer. Eight had won or placed in stakes races. Four Forty Blast won the Horsemen’s Quarter Horse Racing Assn. Handicap last January at Los Alamitos, but was third, as the 2-5 favorite, in El Primero Del Ano Derby over Memorial Day weekend after breaking through the gate before the start. He was the fastest qualifier for the Los Alamitos Derby and his victory in Friday’s final was the ninth of his 16-race career.