Molina’s Heart Rules Her Head When It Comes to Horses

Trainer Jaime Gomez knows some owners who have good horse sense, some who got involved in racing on a lark and others who make a good living at it.

Then there is Celina Molina, an aspiring Latina pop singer, whose instinct about horses appears uncanny.

Molina, 25, has surprised Gomez and others by purchasing two of the top race horses that have run at Los Alamitos based on how she feels about them, rather than what tout sheets say.

She rocketed to third among owners in winnings nationwide in 1996 after Corona Cartel won the Kindergarten Futurity and the Los Alamitos Million. Molina used $42,000 she received from selling a family home in Mexico to buy Corona Cartel, which posted earnings of $544,435 before going out to stud at the end of last season. Molina said she just had a good feel about the horse when she saw it.

Her latest venture, Flash First, a filly that turned in the second-best time ever recorded by a 2-year-old at Los Alamitos Race Course earlier this meet, was bought at auction by Molina for $62,000. That’s $20,000 more than Molina wanted to spend, but she made the decision after looking into Flash First’s eyes on a visit to the stock pen with Gomez, who was trying to sell her on a couple of colts.

“I have good instinct about this,” Molina said. “When I first went to the sale last year, I had a list of five horses. I didn’t feel anything about them. I was going to leave when Jaime took me to see Flash First. I went to her pen and got this feeling inside me. I had to have her. I got butterflies in my stomach. There’s just no way to explain it.”

Despite developing bone chips in both knees, Flash First is expected to be among the nation’s best newcomers by the end of the year.

Molina grew up in Tucson, where her father runs a body shop and races horses at county fairs. Much like her mother did in her native Sonora, Mexico, Molina sang at local fair talent shows.

By 15, she was a popular singer in a Latino band. Two years ago, she went to Hollywood to begin work on her first album, expected to be out late this summer. Molina describes it as “contemporary hit music with a Latin beat.”

About the time she headed West, Molina sold the family home in Sonora and used the earnings to buy Corona Cartel. Her 27-year-old brother, Cesar, helps manage the stock.

Robert Stein, a co-manager of her music career, says Molina has an unspoiled quality about her.

“I work with lots of young artists and they can be full of themselves, so arrogant,” he said. “She is so down to earth, so kind. It’s a pleasure to work with her.”

Molina hopes her recording career takes off. Someday she wants to own a horse that wins the Kentucky Derby. As for her rapid success in racing, she’s as surprised as anyone.

“At the auction I never thought I could buy Flash First because there were so many more [bidders] in this business with a lot more money,” she said. “They were older and wiser and have been in the business longer than me. But Jaime told me I have a lot of luck and to go by what I feel.”

*

In its June issue. The Quarter Racing Journal provides some insights into why some horses run better than others.

According to contributor Marianna Hawn, research indicates that top race horses of all breeds have larger hearts passed down on the female X chromosome. The heart of Triple Crown winner Secretariat, for example, was estimated to be 22 pounds at autopsy. The normal horse heart is about 8 1/2 pounds. Quarter horses with enlarged hearts have thoroughbred blood lineage, according to Hawn, a point backed up by Los Al Marketing Director Jeff True.

“Thirty to 40 years ago we started to mix our sprint thoroughbreds with quarter horses for more size, refinement and [high-strung] temperament,” said True, who studied horse production and management while earning a degree in agriculture at Tarleton Statein Texas.

Veterinarian William E. Jones writes that a fat-laden diet is believed to provide race horses with more endurance. A horse’s metabolism can be adapted to burn fat first, which means more glycogen, an anaerobic fuel in the body, is available to help in the stretch runs.

*

Track owner Edward C. Allred is one of the nation’s leading breeders and owners of quarter horse races. He has often found it necessary to use his stock to fill out race cards at Los Alamitos.

The knock has been that Allred can produce them, but his stock can’t win the big ones.

That could be changing, however. His filly, Girl Secret, has won four consecutive starts, including a come-from-behind victory June 5 in the $50,000 California Sires Cup. Another big victory came May 2, in the $100,000 La Primera Del Ano.

In the 400-yard Sires Cup, Girl Secret broke slow, was cut off by another horse and was in last place after 100 yards. She made up two lengths on the leader to win by a nose.

“I haven’t seen a comeback like this in quite some time,” Allred said. “I even stopped watching the race because I didn’t think we had a chance to win. I still can’t believe she won.”

Los Alamitos Notes

Glowest won the fifth race June 5 and returned a season-high $153.60 payoff, the third triple-digit payoff of the current meet. . . . The 1996 World Champion Dashing Folly had a screw put in her foot after suffering a small break, trainer Donna McArthur announced. Dashing Folly is expected to aim for the Go Man Go Handicap on July 24. . . . The American Quarter Horse Assn. plans to hold its second America’s Day at the Races on Sept. 7. The inaugural event boosted attendance at tracks across the nation, according to AQHA spokesman Keith Kleine. . . . Jet-setting Tami Purcell, who has more victories than any other female jockey, says she is in semi-retirement and is picking her mounts carefully. She rode Corona Cash to victory June 5 at Los Alamitos and a day later took Dash Free to second place at the Heritage Place Futurity at Remington Park in Oklahoma City. . . . Jockey Joe Badilla, off to a slow start at Los Alamitos, has been splitting time between the Cypress oval and Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico.