LOS ALAMITOS : Two-Year-Old Trio Promising at Kindergarten

Trainer Jaime Gomez will start three 2-year-olds in Friday’s $100,000 Kindergarten Futurity, and although he predicts that his horses will run 1-2, it’s possible that his best 2-year-old will remain in the barn that night.

Two weeks ago, Gomez saddled five of the 18 quarter horses trying to qualify for the Grade II Kindergarten. Four of the five are owned by Dutch Masters III and three of those will run Friday.

The Fling King won the second trial in 17.99 seconds. Canthus was in the middle of the pack of qualifiers at 18.25 and Taras First Love squeaked in at 18.40.

Texas Dutchman, the fourth of the Dutch Masters III runners, missed by 0.02 seconds.

Although The Fling King has always been the trainer’s pick, he believed that Hi Tech Attack would give him a race. Unfortunately, Hi Tech Attack flipped as the gates sprung open and didn’t finish the race.

Hi Tech Attack suffered only cuts and bruises from hitting the gate and will probably race next week. Meanwhile, The Fling King takes over as the trainer’s first choice in the Kindergarten.

His second choice, Canthus, has a cataract in his left eye and runs with a blinker on that side.

“He’ll run better and better each time,” Gomez said. “He could be a surprise in this one.”

But Taras First Love, the stable’s third horse in this race, is the barn favorite.

James Streelman and Denny Boer, the remaining two of the three Dutchmen who started Dutch Masters racing stable, bred all three runners and like their Kindergarten chances.

“We thought (The Fling King) was our best chance to qualify,” Streelman said.

But after 10 years as a race horse owner, he is not counting this one over.

“It’s exciting, but we’ve had the fastest qualifier before and that doesn’t always win the race,” Streelman said.

To collect the $42,000 winner’s share, The Fling King will have to beat My Left Foot and Cool Papa Bell, the second- and third-fastest qualifiers.

My Left Foot beat Hi Tech Attack in his first start and ran second to The Fling King in the trial, but ran greenly both times.

Cool Papa Bell comes to the Kindergarten with a little more experience. In four races, he has won three and finished third once. Cool Papa Bell was racing for the first time under the lights in his Kindergarten trial, which he won in 18.08 seconds.

Trained by Bret Layne, the Dashing Val gelding is owned by James Kelly and Charles Grannon. Kelly manages Legacy Ranch, where the gelding was bred, and named him after James Thomas Bell, a baseball player in the old Negro leagues.

Los Alamitos Notes

In Saturday’s $110,000 Miss Kindergarten Futurity, trainer Danny Mitchell and owner Cathy Monji once again will have the fastest qualifier and the probable favorite in Dicey Secret. Qualifying for the Miss Kindergarten, Dicey Secret ran a 17.86, a length faster than the second-place finisher, Ms Dash Fascination. Ah Sigh, the third-fastest qualifier, also won her trial impressively. Owned by Frank Nakamura and trained by Charles Bloomquist, Ah Sigh is now two for two. Owners Carol and Edward DeNike, who own 3-year-old stakes runners Her First Cin and Streakin Millie, have another strong set of 2-year-old fillies in A Total High and Dashing Dual. . . . Kent Desormeaux won the jockey challenge by winning the 870-yard race and finishing fourth in the 400-yard race on Saturday. Along with Corey Nakatani and Chris Antley, Desormeaux was representing the Hollywood Park jockeys colony against Los Alamitos regulars riders Eddie Garcia, Jose Badilla Jr. and Jim Lewis.