Better to Give Than Receive

Heaven for horse owners would be the luxury of racing their stock without the overhead. This equine Shangri-La would preclude bills from the trainer, the veterinarian, the blacksmith and the guy who vans the horse from track to track.

For 60 days, five owners of a quarter horse at Los Alamitos will be introduced to this perfect world. They’ll watch Perfect Mom, a good 3-year-old filly, run two or three times at the Orange County track, pocket some purse money and let Ed Allred, the owner of the track, pay expenses.

Los Alamitos is conducting a contest to designate these five temporary owners. Fans have until Saturday to throw their names into a barrel at the track. By draw, 10 groups of five each will be assigned to 10 horses running in a race there Saturday night. The names attached to the winning horse will become Perfect Mom’s new owners.

“The ownership ranks have dropped off, just like attendance at the track has gone down,” said Jeff True, director of marketing at Los Alamitos. “We’d like to introduce some of our fans to the ownership aspect of the game. If it develops a new owner or two, the industry is ahead.”

In 1996, when True was working in Texas, he gave away a horse through a promotion.

“The guy who won the horse wound up with a couple thousand dollars worth of purse money,” True said. “He claimed a horse with the money and got into the game in an active way.”

Denny Elkins, who has been training Perfect Mom for Allred, said that he tells his clients that it costs about $1,500 to $2,000 a month to keep a horse in training. Horses eat every day, but even if they stay sound they sometimes run only twice a month. Meantime, expenses mount. For example, horses have their shoes changed at least once a month, the tab for the farrier running about $70. Trainers charge a “day rate” to train a horse and typically add on a 10% commission on purses the horse might earn. Jockeys also routinely earn 10% of a winning purse.

Perfect Mom’s five new owners won’t have these expenses and they’re guaranteed $500 apiece just for winning the preliminary race Saturday night. After that, for two months, they’ll receive $500 apiece for every Perfect Mom win; $300 each for every second-place finish and $100 for every other finish.

They’ll also get free admission to the Vessels Club at Los Alamitos and free winner’s-circle photographs if there are any.

“I hope they come by the barn to check up on their horse and get to know her,” Elkins said. “They’ll find that she’s a beautiful filly. She likes to get brushed and rubbed, and she shines like a copper penny. This will be a win-win-win situation for all of them.”

In introducing Elkins to the media in the winner’s circle at the track Wednesday, Los Alamitos left Perfect Mom at the barn. She’s scheduled to run Friday night, in the $95,500 California Sires Cup Derby, and was reported to be on edge for the race. Instead, Elkins hauled out a better-mannered gelding from his barn and put jockey Joe Badilla Jr. on his back.

“That’s Perfect Mom’s body double,” True explained to photographers and film crews.

Badilla, who leads this season’s Los Alamitos standings with 107 victories, rode Perfect Mom in her first of 11 starts, when they finished last in a maiden race for $16,000 claimers at Los Alamitos in July of last year.

“She stumbled pretty bad leaving the gate that day,” Badilla said. “She was spread out when the gate opened, and it was all I could do to avoid going down. She didn’t have a chance.”

Perfect Mom since has had two victories and three seconds in 10 starts and earned $30,680. She left the claiming ranks after her second start and has run in stakes and allowance company ever since.

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Point Given, who has already won three $1-million races this year (the Preakness, the Belmont Stakes and the Haskell) will try to add a fourth when he runs Saturday in the $1-million Travers at Saratoga. He has matched Alysheba, Best Pal, Cigar, Lemon Drop Kid and Real Quiet for $1-million wins and could pull within one of Skip Away, the record-holder, with a victory in the Travers.