A GREAT RIDE

Blane Schvaneveldt is 65 years old, a quarter horse trainer with extensive accomplishments, a big man with a big belly and a big cowboy hat, and on Saturday, when the horses take their places for the Los Alamitos Million Futurity, the big-purse season-ender, Schvaneveldt will have three big and talented horses in the field of 10.

This is a big deal for Schvaneveldt, believe it or not.

To quote from his Trainer Profile in the Los Alamitos archives, “As far as trainers are concerned, Blane is quarter horse racing. Blane has captured 38 quarter horse training titles at Los Alamitos. He holds the track record for most wins in a single season with 148 in 1995.”

Yep, Schvaneveldt says, all true. And, he notes, he also has been named American Quarter Horse Association trainer of the year 12 times. No one else comes close.

There is no one walking around the backstretch at Los Alamitos who doesn’t recognize Schvaneveldt, who doesn’t point out his hat, who doesn’t say what a great guy he is.

Son of an Idaho rancher, Schvaneveldt was one of 12 children, eight of them boys, all of them rough-and-tumble characters. The four oldest boys, Blane being one, didn’t fight over the car keys. There was no car. The boys fought for one horse, the transportation of choice.

Schvaneveldt never considered another line of work. He began what is called chariot racing around the farms and fairs of Idaho, horses hooked up to chariots, money being bet, of course. Schvaneveldt, a tall, sturdy man, was not going to be a jockey, but he knew in his heart that he would make a good trainer.

Sure enough, his talents and his reputation grew. Schvaneveldt and Ivan Ashment, an Idaho Falls potato farmer who made a little fortune, became a team--Ashment the owner, Schvaneveldt the trainer--and they arrived in California 30 years ago. The two raced at Bay Meadows up north and Los Alamitos down south and soon Schvaneveldt had made a home with his wife, Shirley, and daughters, Brenda and Shonna, in Cypress.

Schvaneveldt hung with guys like Wayne Lukas and Bob Baffert. But when Lukas and Baffert left the quarter horse life behind for the more profitable work of training thoroughbreds, Schvaneveldt didn’t change. Couldn’t change.

“I liked the life too much, liked the people and the family atmosphere,” he says.

So many people keep coming through his office door on this cool morning, two days before the Million, that Schvaneveldt finally apologizes and locks the darned thing. But then the cell phone rings. And rings. And rings. “Never thought I’d have one of these,” he says.

On the wall is a picture of a sweet, dark-haired little boy. His name is Brayden. He is 2 1/2 years old and he is Schvaneveldt’s grandson. Brayden, son of Brenda and jockey Roman Figueroa, is fearlessly offering a handful of hay to a hungry horse. Brayden is on his tiptoes and there is a connection, a look in the eyes of the boy and the horse.

“Yep,” Schvaneveldt says, “Brayden’s good with the horses. I think he could have a future.”

There is, though, a melancholy tone to Schvaneveldt’s voice. He is not optimistic about the future of quarter horse racing.

“There aren’t as many owners, not as many horses,” he says. “I don’t know why. The tax situation, what, I don’t know. But I know I’ll have a bunch of good horses stabled here and there won’t be enough races for them. Not enough owners out there willing to put out the money for new horses.”

His saddest moment as a trainer came last year when First Sovereign, winner of two Futurity races in five starts, a horse worth several million dollars, Schvaneveldt estimates, was killed in a training accident. The horse, Schvaneveldt says, “was so frisky and eager to run that he ran right into the rail. Just turned around to work him and off he goes. Only one that’s ever happened with for me. It was quite a loss. For me and for the owners.”

Even if Schvaneveldt has relinquished his title as winningest trainer at Los Alamitos the last couple of years to Paul Jones, and even as he laments the ever-decreasing number of quarter horse owners, Schvaneveldt can’t complain about his contributions to the sport’s single richest race Saturday.

For owner Lorin Klevin, Schvaneveldt will have So Dashing, who tied, with Separatist, for the fastest qualifying time. For owner Zory Kuzyk, Schvaneveldt brings Gabriels Thunder, who will be ridden by his son-in-law Figueroa. And also for Kuzyk will be Logistic.

“When qualifying came around,” Schvaneveldt says, “I told friends I thought I had nine good horses and that I expected at least one to make it into the big race. Didn’t expect three, though. In all my years, I’ve never had three. I don’t think any trainer has.”

Schvaneveldt says he is not ready for retirement yet, although, he says, “Sometimes I wonder if the sport will last as long as me.” He still loves getting up early every morning, he still loves making the two-minute trip from home to Los Alamitos, still loves making an hour’s drive to his ranch near Hemet where he helps break thoroughbreds as well as quarter horses. He misses how things used to be, how everybody knew everybody on the backstretch, how everybody was friends. “It’s more of a business now,” Schvaneveldt says.

Then Schvaneveldt looks at the photo of Brayden and his face brightens. “The boy loves his horses,” Schvaneveldt. “Just like his grandpa.”

Diane Pucin can be reached at her e-mail address: diane.pucin@latimes.com