Success of Dashing Folly Has Trainer’s Fortunes on Rise

Seems the stock of trainer Donna McArthur has gone up dramatically heading into Friday’s opening of the 47th season of quarter horse racing at Los Alamitos.

“Every time I walk down the shed row this year, it’s like opening up presents on Christmas morning,” she said.

Nearly every horse owner in the country has been clamoring after McArthur, trying to persuade her to train their stock after her filly, Dashing Folly, was named 1996 horse of the year.

Dashing Folly, purchased for $30,000 in 1994 by McArthur’s real estate syndicate, Jaramar Ltd., was winless before last year’s campaign and had only four fourth-place finishes to her credit. The horse had been hampered by shin problems in her early years.

Last spring, McArthur changed the filly’s workout schedule and hooked her up with veteran jockey and fellow Texan Tammy Purcell. The results were victories in all 10 starts, including a runaway win in the Los Alamitos Million. The performance has since been called one of the best ever by a filly, according to the Quarter Racing Journal.

McArthur has been the subject of interviews and articles in horse racing publications all winter; however, she said her focus remains on returning to Los Alamitos, where Dashing Folly will defend her title.

Dashing Folly will run in the year-end Champion of Champions, but she also is being conditioned for an early showcase in the 400-yard, $100,000 Vessels Maturity June 27. Trials are scheduled June 19.

McArthur has her sights on other challenges too. She has been able to pick which horses she wants to handle, and her barn is high on 2-year-old Corona Cash, a half sister of 1996 Kindergarten Futurity winner Corona Cartel. Corona Cash ran at Remington Park in Oklahoma recently and qualified for the consolation race of the $740,000 Remington Park Futurity. McArthur is expected to unveil the filly at Los Alamitos in the trials of the Kindergarten Futurity, a 350-yard, $200,000 race for 2-year-olds May 23. Trials are scheduled May 9.

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Can Dashing Folly, with her 10 consecutive victories, continue her remarkable success?

The national quarter horse record for most consecutive victories is 14, held by three horses: Pies Royal Request, Josie’s Bar and Destiny’s Drummer. The California record, set by Corona Chick, is 12 in a row.

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The biggest stakes races in Los Alamitos’ first month of quarter horse racing are the El Primero del Ano derby May 2 and the La Primera del Ano derby May 3. Trials for those races are Saturday. The $120,000 El Primero, which is run over 400 yards, is for 3-year-old colts and geldings. The $100,000 La Primera, which is also 400 yards, is for 3-year-old fillies.

The stakes schedule begins Friday, with the $20,000, 350-yard Kaweah Bar Handicap for 3-year-olds and up. The Miss Princess Handicap, a 350-yard, $20,000 race for fillies and mares 3 and older, is scheduled for April 25.

A total of 142 racing days are scheduled, with the meet running most Thursdays through Sundays until Dec. 21.

Post times are 7:15 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and 6:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

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The first attempt by track owner Edward C. Allred to put on a harness meet proved to be a whopping success, according to final figures released by the track. The 59-night session set a track record with an average nightly handle of $1,176,431.71. That represents a 21.14% increase over the 1995-96 event, which was put on by a private vendor that leased the race track.

A total of $69,409,470.80 was wagered on the harness program, which included four simulcast races in addition to cards that featured as many as 14 races per night.

The harness meet also attracted some top talent. Bruce Clarke, the leading driver at the fall Cal-Expo Meet in Sacramento, won the Los Alamitos driving title this winter with 82 victories. Rick Kuebler won 68 and Ross Wolfenden won 67.

Trainer Rudy Sialana took top honors with 62 victories.

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Several weeks ago, Allred revealed knowledge of an investigation into possible race fixing by at least one Arabian rider last season at the track. However, nothing as has come of the investigation into the alleged infraction.

Track insiders confirm investigations are on-going, but say the slowness of investigations and the lack of any official word on the matter is mind-boggling.

“Everything is hearsay,” Allred said. “Nothing I have heard is any different. In the last few weeks I thought there might have been some action by a grand jury. Maybe this is much to do about nothing.

“I’m hoping everything is OK and a few people didn’t do something that makes us all look bad.”

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The American Quarter Horse Assn. announced it will hold several major events at the Disneyland Hotel, including its 1998 annual general meeting. Also on tap is the AQHA annual racing conference. No dates have been set.

Because of the hotel’s close proximity, it’s a good bet the AQHA will pair the fall event with a major stakes race at Los Alamitos. This year, the general meeting was held in Dallas the first weekend of March. If it were to be held here at that time, it would coincide with the harness meet.

Notes

Ginger Hyland, a member of the Horsemen’s Quarter Horse Racing Assn. at Los Alamitos, has been elected AQHA president. Hyland resides in Lake Hughes, Calif. . . . The Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Assn. announced it will hold its annual yearling and mixed stock sale at Los Alamitos on Oct. 5. One of the richest sales in history is expected to be the annual Vessels/Schvaneveldt sale Aug. 5 at the Vessels Stallion Farm in Bonsall. The Vessels family founded Los Alamitos. . . . Tyson Ziebarth, 18, of San Juan Capistrano, finished 12th recently at the Young Riders Final of the Intercontinental Youth Showjumping Championship in Monterrey, Mexico. . . . A lawsuit filed by Ron and Ann Zumbrun on behalf of the California Harness Horsemen’s Assn. against Edward C. Allred and others, claiming they were attempting to interfere with the growth of California harness racing by running their own meet at the track, has been dismissed by the court.