LOS ALAMITOS : Weekend Goes Sunny Side Up for Father-Son Trotting Team

The father-son training and driving team of Jack and Frank Sherren has quickly established itself in stakes races at Los Alamitos.

The two men won three of eight stakes held last week, virtually cornering the market on top-class trotters. On Thursday, they won the Breeders Championship for 3-year-old colts with Hunter Key and the 3-year-old filly division with Lil Eggie. On Friday, they won the 4-year-old filly division with Eggwhite. Their only loss in the four trotting stakes came Saturday, when Joe’s Birthday finished third to Hays My Game, who is driven and trained by Rick Plano. Plano’s stable won three stakes during the weekend, adding two stakes for pacers on Friday and Saturday.

The Sherrens family team is represented by two full sisters--Lil Eggie and Eggwhite--who were sired by Sacramento and are out of the mare White Nest Egg. Both Lil Eggie and Eggwhite are co-owned by Jack and Ann Sherren of Cypress and breeders Jim and Virginia Bagatelos of Dixon.

The two fillies have so dominated the California-bred ranks in recent years that the ensuing offspring--the 2-year-old No Yoke Jack and the yearling My Nest Egg--have been nominated to stakes races around the nation as well as California’s.

But in California, at Los Alamitos and Sacramento, Eggwhite and Lil Eggie have starred. Eggwhite, a 4-year-old, wouldn’t normally have any California-bred stakes races this year, but because no harness racing was conducted in California last fall, the purse money for stakes is being distributed this winter. Therefore, horses who were 3-year-olds in 1993 will have stakes opportunities this month at Los Alamitos.

In Friday’s $18,700 stakes, Eggwhite trailed Missy Dragon until the last 50 yards and won by a nose in 2:01 3/5, best of her career. It was her first victory since winning a stakes for 3-year-old trotting fillies last May in Sacramento and increased her earnings to more than $118,000.

Eggwhite won 15 of her first 18 starts, but has won only three of 11 since. Last summer at Sacramento, she won only two of nine starts and finished second six times, losing frequently to Pert Aries, who was trained last summer by Steve Warrington and has not started at the current meeting.

“(Eggwhite) didn’t race badly last year, but when Steve began training that other filly combined with the big mile (circumference track at Sacramento), it helped Pert Aries a lot,” Jack Sherren said. “The only time I beat him was when I went to the front and parked him (on the outside). Pert Aries usually went to the front, and my filly doesn’t have that much gate speed.”

The Sherrens are considering retiring Eggwhite after this meeting and possibly breeding her to a nationally known trotting sire, such as Speedy Crown. Aside from a few more stakes, she would have to face older colts and geldings for the remainder of the meeting because her large number of victories excludes her from any easier conditioned races. A decision has yet to be made.

Lil Eggie, however, has a full calender of stakes this year. Last year, at Sacramento, she won five of seven starts, with her only losses coming in races in which she went off-stride. One of those victories was by 23 lengths and produced a track record for 2-year-old fillies of 1:59 4/5, a time that stood as the nation’s best for that division for part of the year.

On Thursday, Lil Eggie won her sixth race and appears to be as talented as her older sister at this stage of her career. She beat five other 3-year-old fillies, trotting a mile in 2:03 1/5. Her next start might not come until Feb. 3, when the next division of the Breeders Stakes is held. Later in the year, she might venture East, according to Jack Sherren.

“Lil Eggie could beat her older sister,” he said. “I don’t know how fast Lil Eggie is. We thought about taking her back East if there’s some late-closing (stakes) at Lexington (Ky.). I’d like to take her back there and go for a record.”

The earnings potential for a stakes-caliber harness horse in California has been hampered in recent years by a declining foal crop and a decline in nominations for races.

“We’re fortunate in the sense that we have some nice horses, but we don’t have the (breeding) program in California to have the earnings potential,” Frank Sherren said. “A few years ago, with a 3-year-old, I think earnings of $150,000 were possible. But we’re California horsemen, and we’ll stick it out.”

Hunter’s Key was the most pleasant surprise of the three winners for the Sherrens. The 3-year-old gelding won only one of eight starts at Sacramento last summer, often failing to stay on stride for the entire mile. His only victory last year came in a qualifying race for a stake. In the final, he once again broke stride and finished fourth.

On Thursday, he not only trotted the entire mile, but did so in a personal best time of 2:03 1/5. Magna Missile, the divisional leader last year, finished second.

“We always thought of him as a better colt than he indicated,” Frank Sherren said. “He had some soreness problems. Confidence is such as big thing with these (trotting) horses. He’ll be even better in the next month. Last year, he was only 50%. Now, he’s 80% and in a few more races he’ll be 100%.”

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Monday’s earthquake caused only minor damage to the grandstand, where several television monitors were broken. None of the horses stabled on the backstretch were injured, although there were some anxious moments.

“The horses all handled it pretty good,” said trainer Jimmy Perez, who has a stable of 24 based at Los Alamitos. “Our horses are more temperamental than quarter horses or thoroughbreds. At 5 a.m., they were back to eating breakfast.

“Knock on wood. When these happen, anything can happen. It could have been a disaster. The grooms were on their toes.”

Los Alamitos Notes

Rick Plano’s two stakes-winning pacers were Maxanali in the 3-year-old colts division and Keepyourpantson in the $22,000 4-year-old colts division, the richest race of the weekend. Romantic Music won the 4-year-old filly division and Hutt Girl was best among the 3-year-old fillies.

Saturday’s card was shortened to 10 races after the harness program at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J., was canceled because of snow. Los Alamitos simulcasts three races a night from the Meadowlands. In the first five nights of the Los Alamitos harness meeting, the simulcasts have been canceled twice.

The 10 live races on Saturday were conducted in heavy fog. Visibility was less than 100 yards at times, which did not affect the safety of the races, but did hamper viewing. The mutuel handle suffered considerably, totaling only $596,404--expected to be the lowest Saturday handle of the meeting. Friday’s handle was $860,435, a meet high.

Positive Spirit, a 7-year-old horse, pulled an upset in Saturday’s $9,000 featured pace for older horses. Driven by Terry Kerr, Positive Spirit was timed in 1:56 for his second victory of the meeting. The Starting Gate, a 4-year-old horse trained by Plano, who has earned more than $378,000, finished fifth. . . . Thursday’s program has no stakes races, but features much larger fields than previous programs.