LOS ALAMITOS : Refrigerator’s Brilliant Season Puts Him in New Classification

The World Champion title awarded annually to the nation’s top quarter horse might no longer be suitable for Refrigerator, the 5-year-old gelding who won the Champion of Champions for the second consecutive year Saturday.

Horse of the Decade might be more appropriate.

Refrigerator’s victory made him quarter horse racing’s richest horse with earnings of $1,948,257. The previous record of $1,869,406 was held by Eastex, who won the 1984 All American Futurity and was also a stakes winner at Los Alamitos.

Refrigerator became the second horse to win consecutive runnings of the Champion of Champions in the race’s 22-year history, along with 1976 and 1977 winner Dash For Cash. It was trainer Blane Schvaneveldt’s seventh Champion of Champions victory and the third for jockey Bruce Pilkenton.

And Refrigerator isn’t finished. Owner Jim Helzer of Arlington, Texas, said Saturday that Refrigerator will race again next year to try to become the first quarter horse to earn $2 million.

“He’s a monster,” Schvaneveldt said. “He’s a super horse. The greatest thing is he never makes a mistake. He’s the most perfect gate horse I’ve ever had.”

Refrigerator finished three quarters of a length ahead of Down With Debt, a 3-year-old filly owned by George Haddad of Costa Mesa. Both probably will win year-end championships.

For the second consecutive year, Refrigerator will be named world champion, champion aged horse and champion aged gelding. In addition, he was the champion 2-year-old of 1990 and the champion 3-year-old gelding of 1991. Down With Debt is the favorite for the 3-year-old filly title.

Helzer isn’t sure where or when Refrigerator will make his first start of 1994, but it’s likely to be in the Midwest. He is expected to return to California next fall for a campaign geared toward becoming the first horse to win three Champion of Champions.

“He’s always stepped up to the task,” Helzer said. “To be mentioned in the same league as Dash For Cash and (World Champion) Easy Jet is phenomenal.”

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The last time Oklahoma horsemen Bob Moore visited Los Alamitos it was 1972, when he watched Mr Jet Moore win the first running of the Champion of Champions.

On Friday, he returned and watched Awesome Blossom, a 3-year-old filly, win the $113,000 Golden State Derby. Moore bred Awesome Blossom and raced her dam, Prissy Gold Digger, one of the leading fillies of her generation.

Awesome Blossom’s season has been filled with near-misses in stakes races, but she was on top Friday. It was the highlight of the weekend for Moore, trainer Bob Gilbert and jockey Steve Treasure. The next night, the same team finished last in the Champion of Champions with Rare Form, who turned his head the moment the gate opened and was left behind.

The Golden State Futurity, the leading race for 2-year-olds in California, was run on Sunday and went to Time For Royal Cash, ending owner Abigail Kawananakoa’s best year.

Kawananakoa, of Honolulu, won the All American Futurity earlier this year with A Classic Dash and also won three major races at Los Alamitos--the Golden State Futurity; the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Assn. Futurity with The Royal Prince and the Dash For Cash Futurity with A Classic Dash. Her stable leads the nation in earnings.

Time For Royal Cash has won four of seven starts, including her last three. She was second in the first consolation of the All American Futurity on Labor Day and hasn’t lost since. Treasure rode Time For Royal Cash for trainer Tom Bazley.

Two leading contenders, Moo Vin First and Jumping Tac Flash, were late scratches. Jumping Tac Flash was withdrawn after becoming upset in the gate, something that has plagued the filly all year. Moo Vin First was in the stall next to Jumping Tac Flash and broke through the gate after Jumping Tac Flash become upset. Moo Vin First dumped jockey G.R. Carter and ran down the track. Both were considered to be Time For Royal Cash’s leading opponents.

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The meeting ended Sunday with no indication when live racing will return.

Normally, harness racing begins within a week of the close of a quarter horse meeting, but this fall no agreements have been reached between harness promoters and track officials on a lease. As a result, it’s expected no harness racing will be conducted in Southern California this winter.

Friday night, Ed Allred, who owns 50% of the track and owns the company that sponsors quarter horse racing at Los Alamitos, held talks with Paul Reddam of Newport Beach concerning a lease, but the two couldn’t reach an agreement. Reddam was one of two harness horsemen who sponsored a meeting last spring.

Talks also were held Dec. 7 with a group of harness owners and breeders, but the two sides could not agree on a closing date for the harness meeting. The harness side wanted to run until late March or early April, depending on which group was negotiating for a lease, but Allred wants the track available to quarter horses, Arabians and thoroughbreds for training in mid-March.

“Anything’s possible in the coming days,” Allred said. “All it takes is someone willing to run a harness meeting through March 12 and fund it. It takes a lot of money.”

Unless an agreement is reached this week, a thorough renovation of the racing surface will begin early next week and continue through January. At that point, the three breeds would return to the track for training. Allred said Sunday that if no harness meeting is held, he may ask the California Horse Racing Board at its monthly meeting Thursday to begin a mixed meeting in mid-March and run through mid-December. Dates have been allocated for a mixed meeting that would begin in mid-April.

The 1993 meeting began in May and included 131 nights of racing. The average attendance of 6,037 and handle of $969,979 were less than Allred expected, although business picked up considerably in the final month of the season.

Thoroughbreds became part of the program in late July, providing the track with a much-needed boost. Over the last few years, California has run fewer quarter horse races as racing opportunities in Texas and Oklahoma have expanded. Allred said the involvements of thoroughbreds is likely to increase next year.

Los Alamitos Notes

Richard Pfau was the leading Arabian rider of the meeting and won two stakes Saturday and Sunday. Saturday, he guided Magna Terra Smoky to victory in the California Heritage Handicap. Magna Terra Smoky, a winner of nine of 13 starts in California this year, was named the Arabian Of The Meet. On Sunday, Pfau was aboard PS Crystal Sage, who won the California Girls Handicap. On Dec. 3, PS Crystal Sage won her first stakes in the California Arabian Futurity for fillies. . . . Other divisional titles went to John Burger, leading Arabian trainer; Eddie Garcia, leading quarter horse jockey and Blane Schvaneveldt, leading quarter horse trainer. Refrigerator was named the quarter horse of the meeting.