Cal-Breds Get $1 Million Spotlight

Local horsemen have long claimed that California produces some of the finest racing stock in the world. Now they have a night of their own to showcase their product.

The $1 million California Breeders Champion Night on June 24 at Los Alamitos Race Course will feature 12 races for Cal-bred stock. The event is being warmly received by those who say it is long overdue.

“We have some of the top stallions in California,” trainer Paul Jones said. “We’ve never had a night like this. It gives the people who breed horses in California a good opportunity to run in good races with good purses.”

The American Quarter Horse Racing Assn. defines Cal-bred as a foal conceived in California, or conceived by a California stallion. Jones has qualified three horses for the biggest race on Cal-Bred night, the $380,500 Governor’s Cup Futurity. Two more of his horses will run in the $158,200 Governors Cup Derby, which is also on the Cal-Bred Night program.

“Each state tries to promote horses that are bred in that state,” said Jones, the track’s leading trainer in 1999. “There’s going to be a stakes race for $5,000 claimers and $10,000 claimers. That gives people who race those horses a chance to run for a good purse.”

Los Alamitos has many stakes races during the year strictly for Cal-bred stock, but this is the first time that so many will be held on a single night.

Adding Cal-Bred Night brings the total stakes purses in all races at Los Alamitos this year to an all-time high of $2.5 million, about $400,000 more than last year’s mark, which was also a record. Track officials say they plan to make this an annual event.

“We have a fantastic breeding program in the state of California,” said Los Alamitos racing secretary Ron Church, who schedules track events. “This event will give us the opportunity to showcase these horses and their owners and breeders.” Previously, the best-known Cal-bred race at Los Alamitos was the Spencer Childers California Breeders Championship Handicap.

Childers, a long-time Fresno-area horseman, is on the track’s board of directors. He has been an outspoken supporter of the quality of Cal-bred stock for decades.

The Childers Handicap, which will be run during Cal-bred night, has seen its purse doubled to $150,000 this year. That has attracted a strong field including the nation’s top-rated quarter horse, Tailor Fit.

Bred by another of the state’s long-time breeders, the late Jens L. List, Tailor Fit is a 5-year-old gelding voted 1999 world champion. He is trained by Steve VanBebber.

BOXING IS BACK

The “Rumble at the Races” boxing cards, staged near the finish line at Los Alamitos between races, will continue this summer but under a new format.

Promoter Roy Englebrecht intends to feature a series of four-round fights in four weight classes, with the winners of the July 8 and Aug. 12 bouts to meet Sept. 9 in what he categorizes as title bouts.

Weight classes to be contested include bantamweight, lightweight, welterweight and middleweight.

NOTABLE

Trainer Billy Lewis has returned to Los Alamitos after spending 1999 at Delaware Park. He began his career in 1970, training quarter horses, and took on Arabians a decade later. He eventually moved his barn to Delaware, where Arabian racing was more popular. Twice named Arabian trainer of the year, Lewis currently has a stable of more than two dozen horses, most of them 3-year-olds.

Los Alamitos will hold a handicapping contest July 14 with a purse of $10,000 at stake. Contestants will be asked to pick winners in nine races, six from Los Alamitos and three that will be viewed live via satellite from Hollywood Park. Four finalists will represent the track at a similar contest to be held in Las Vegas later this year. For information, call (714) 236-4413.

Partners James Azevedo and Charles Boyles recently claimed 5-year-old gelding Lethal Artillery for $50,000. It was the highest price ever paid in a claiming race at Los Alamitos. Lethal Artillery, bred at the Vessels Stallion Farm, was first claimed for $8,000 in 1997, but has since recorded three top-three finishes in major stakes races.

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