Grandstanders Grade Meeting’s Best, Worst

Halfway through the meeting the knowledgeable press box crew at Los Alamitos Race Course, headed by veteran horse race publicity director John Petti, has posted its annual list of top performers. Here’s the list, and some selected comments or summations, after 71 nights of racing:

Top older horse--IB Quick. “The top horse on the grounds ever since his first start of the year,” the 6-year-old has won three of four starts this year, the press box crew pointed out.

Top older mare--Blushing By. “Not only the top mare on the grounds right now, but also the biggest surprise of the meet.” Has victories in two graded races.

Top 3-year-old--Dashing Folly. The filly “is undefeated in six starts this season and already has won four stake races here.”

Top 2-year-old--Uncas. Has won $174,063 so far. That’s $174,063 more than last year, the crew in the press box noted.

Top Arabian--Toss up between Sam Taire and Shallimar Nabu. Sam Taire has won more money, but lost to Shallimar Nabu head to head.

Top quarter horse jockey--Kip Didericksen. Said the crew: “It has taken him a little longer than expected” to regain the top spot after returning in 1995 from extended leave.

Top quarter horse trainer--Blane Schvaneveldt. No kidding. He’s a lock to win his 36th track conditioning title. The crew says he has won 30 more races than his nearest rival and more than a half million dollars so far.

Top Arabian jockey--Richard Pfau. “May be one of the most intense riders in the local jock’s room.”

Top Arabian trainer--Bill Lewis. “As dominant as Schvaneveldt has been in the quarter horse standings, [Lewis] has been just as tough against his fellow Arabian trainers” with 32 wins, 20 more than his nearest competitor.

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Jockey Billy Peterson, in his first season at Los Alamitos, continues to have success aboard 2-year-olds. He qualified Blushin Bugs with the fastest time to the All American Futurity at New Mexico’s Ruidoso Downs recently. The 38th running of the Futurity will be Sept. 2 and the winner will receive nearly $1.1 million. The Futurity is considered the most prestigious race in American quarter horse racing.

It will be Peterson’s third consecutive ride in the Futurity. He guided Winalota Cash to victory in the race last year. Can he do it again with Blushin Bugs?

“Blushin Bugs turned a lot of heads,” Peterson said after the race. “I feel very fortunate to ride him because I think he’s for real.”

Blushin Bugs covered his 440-yard trial in 21.43 seconds.

Winalota Cash continues to do well with Peterson aboard. The 1995 World Champion 3-year old is considered the front-runner at the All-American Derby, Sept. 1 at Ruidoso. The gelding qualified with a fast time of 21.13 seconds in the 440-yard trial.

Peterson, a stockbroker trainee in his spare time, continues to see his star rise. The Utah-born rider, who graduated from Texas El Paso last year, came West for the first time this spring after posting the highest earnings of any jockey in the nation in 1995. While he had a third as many starts (382) as runner-up Joe Badilla Jr. (915), he took in almost $1.8 million.

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Veteran jockey Guillermo Gutierrez, a specialist aboard thoroughbred horses at the track, is recovering from shoulder injuries that have sidelined him most of the last two seasons.

Gutierrez ranks second in the number of wins in track history aboard thoroughbreds. He had shoulder surgery in 1995 and missed two months of the season. He said he feels he rushed himself back into action too quickly this spring. A month into this meeting, a steel pin in his shoulder popped loose, requiring surgery. He has not raced since.

“My shoulder feels really good right now and I would like to make a return by the end of October,” he said while visiting the track last week.

Gutierrez has been living in Tijuana, where he is helping his father build a house.

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The totals are in and the fourth-annual Vessels/Schvaneveldt Yearling sale raked in a record $1,813,100 at the North San Diego County stallion ranch of Frank “Scoop” Vessels in San Luis Rey Downs. That’s up 71% in total sales from 1995.

Of 153 horses for sale, 127 were sold to new owners, 20 were repurchased and six were taken off the market before the bidding. The average price per horse was about $14,000.

Organizers credited satellite bidding, added last year, as the main reason for their success. A total of 23 horses were sold via satellite.

Notes

Trainer Russell Harris has returned to Los Alamitos with a couple of dozen horses after two years in Texas and Oklahoma. He ranks fourth on the all-time victory list for trainers at the track. One of his horses, Spill Perfume, won the recent $18,990 California Juvenile Challenge and qualified for the $100,000 Juvenile Challenge Championship Nov. 24 at Turf Paradise in Phoenix. . . . According to the Aug. 12 edition of Quarter Week, here are the top sires ranked by number of victories: 1. Chicks Beduino (56), 2. First Down Dash (49), 3. Raise A Secret (38), 4. Jazzing Hi (28), 5. Strawfly Special (16), 6. Barrymore (14), 7. (tie) Blushing Bug (12) and Holland Ease (12), 9. Merridoc (11), 10. Dashing Val (10). . . . Jockey G.R. Carter, aboard Miami Prince in its victory in the $30,000 Duel in the Park at Sam Houston Race Park in Texas Aug. 2, rode at Los Alamitos for the first time last Friday and says he wants to return permanently sometime after Labor Day . . . Trinity Meadows Race Track in Willow Park, Texas, closed its doors Aug. 6 after it ran out of operating capital. The track, which lost $200,000 in July, was hard hit by a new satellite wagering location in nearby Grand Prairie, according to the Dallas Morning News . . . Applications to attend the fourth National Simulcasting Conference in Houston are due Friday. For more information, call (806) 376-4888, Ext. 359.