LOS ALAMITOS : Avison Lets Hall Look to the Top

Trainer Connie Hall, who has had many good horses in her career, is excited about her newest star, Avison, who ran a dead heat with Down With Debt for the victory in the $103,000 Vessels Maturity last Friday night at Los Alamitos.

For Hall, Avison is another in a long line of stakes winners, headed by the champions Chicks Beduino, Rambac and A Classic Dash, winner of the 1993 All-American Futurity. But Hall says Avison is something special.

“He is the most unique horse I’ve ever trained,” she said. “He has so many quirks.”

The gelding’s favorite trick is trying to bite anyone who walks by his stall but on the racetrack, Avison is all business. Hall says that wasn’t always the case.

As a 2-year-old, Avison was unruly and ill-mannered, and had the reputation of being a bad gate horse. Hall, however, seems to have found a way to calm him.

“I dearly respect the horses,” she said. “I think you need to give them all the opportunity to be a great horse, because some of them will surprise you.”

Hall and horses go way back. Growing up in Lakewood, she started riding when she was 6. After years of competing in the show ring and barrel racing, Hall was intrigued by racing.

“You progress through things and explore different avenues,” she said. “I was always drawn to the beauty of the racehorses. They’re all muscle and desire.”

Trading the politics of the show ring for the competition of racing, Hall started working for trainer Burt Montgomery in 1963. In racing, however, Hall was met with another attitude--male chauvinism. When she applied for a groom’s license, she was turned down on the basis of her sex. She finally was granted a license on her third try.

Nine years later, Hall was ready to start training on her own. At the time, the trainer’s test was given by fellow trainers. Hall, confident in her abilities, was surprised again.

“People were more interested in what I didn’t know than what I knew,” she said.

In the end, though, she got her trainer’s license, becoming one of the first women in the predominantly male field of quarter horse racing.

“One of the things that has helped me in my career is that I have confidence in my ability with the horses,” she said. “It isn’t the acceptance of the other trainers that’s important, it’s your self-esteem.”

Still, her climb to the top hasn’t been without consequences. Hall, who has two children, is three times divorced. Her long and often unusual working hours can easily undermine a relationship.

“I can do it all on my own,” Hall said. “If (men) can’t make my life more enjoyable, why do it? It takes a very liberal person to accept that.”

Hall seems to have found that person in Pat Ford. They have been engaged for seven years.

Today, Hall is often used as a role model for other women. She has been given a lifetime special-achievement award by the Women Behind Racing, and earned fame as the first woman trainer to win the All-American Futurity. A strong-willed individual, Hall never let gender become an issue in her life.

“Basically, it’s all yours,” she said of her success. “You just have to go get it, however you think you can.”

This year, Hall is going after the champion-aged-gelding award with Avison. The gelding, one of the first foals of the champion mare Florentine, has raced defending world champion and champion aged gelding Refrigerator twice this season, defeating him both times.

They first raced in the Go Man Go Handicap, when Avison finished a nose behind Down With Debt, with Refrigerator fourth. The contenders met again in the Vessels Maturity, when Down With Debt and Avison tied for first, Refrigerator running third.

“I was saving him,” Hall said of Avison. “In my mind, I always felt this horse was good enough to be in the Champion of Champions.”

Avison will get his chance this year.

Los Alamitos Note

Three-time distance champion Griswold won his first race of the year in the $20,000 Katella Handicap on Saturday night.