LOS ALAMITOS : Trainers Scramble to Open Meeting Tonight

Last month, Lou Pena was training harness horses in Sacramento, facing an uncertain future.

He knew he would be racing in 1994, but didn’t know where.

Then on Dec. 16, horsemen and track owners settled their longstanding differences on a winter lease so that harness racing could be conducted again in California in 1994. Pena headed south for 13 weeks of racing at Los Alamitos.

His star last year was a 7-year-old pacer named Positron, who won 12 of 33 starts and more than $114,000, scoring most of his victories at Los Alamitos. He set a track record at Cloverdale Raceway in British Columbia for aged horses, pacing a mile in 1:54 3/5.

Tonight, Pena and Positron will help open the 1994 harness season at Los Alamitos. Positron will face four rivals in the 10th race, an $11,000 pace: Keepyourpantson, Nirvana, Tootie Roll and Vacationing.

The meeting will run through April 2. Racing will be conducted three nights a week--Thursday through Saturday--compared to four nights a week in 1993.

The short preparation period has affected the horse population. General Manager Fred Kuebler expects to have only 400 to 450 race-ready horses by the middle of the meet. It takes an average of 100 horses a night to fill eleven races.

“None of us knew until the 16th of December if we’d even have a meeting,” Kuebler said. “My biggest concern wasn’t putting together the staff or the (business) contracts. It was where would the horses come from?”

Horsemen from the East Coast or Canada who might have come to California for the winter had to commit to other tracks a few months ago to ensure stable space.

Programs tonight and Saturday will have 10 live races and three simulcast races from the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J.

“A month ago we were just sitting by the phone, waiting for the news,” Pena said. “Everything’s going about as I expect for now. I’ve got three horses in on opening night. The horses are ready and I think they’ll come through.”