Leading Trainer Schvaneveldt Enters Hall of Fame

Blane Schvaneveldt, the winningest trainer in the history of Los Alamitos, was among seven inductees into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame Sunday night in New Orleans.

The all-time leader in money earned with more than $47 million in purses and 11 times the American Quarter Horse Racing Assn.’s champion trainer, Schvaneveldt, who will turn 67 on April 17, was honored along with C.T. Fuller, Matlock Rose, Sparks Rust Jr. and horses Charger Bar, Country Classic and Blondy’s Dude. The induction was done in conjunction with the AQHA’s annual convention.

Born in Preston, Idaho, Schvaneveldt, who has won more than 3,500 races at Los Alamitos since 1968, including 330 stakes victories, has trained some of the top quarter horses in history.

Included is two-time world champion Refrigerator, quarter horse racing’s richest horse. Other champions Schvaneveldt has conditioned are First Down Dash, who won the Los Alamitos Derby and Champion of Champions in 1987; Cash Rate, Jumping Tac Flash, Cash Perk, Splash Bac, Dashing Val, Town Policy, First Sovereign, Miss Thermolark, My Debut, Sign It Super and Dash For Speed.

Among the other human inductees, Fuller is a longtime owner-breeder, Rose an accomplished trainer of show horses and Rust a past president of the AQHA.

Charger Bar, bred in Oklahoma and owned by, among others, Dr. Ed Allred, won 28 of 43 between 1970-75 and 18 of her victories came in stakes races at Los Alamitos.

At one point, Charger Bar, who died in 1997, had 12 consecutive stakes victories and was the champion mare from 1971-74.

Country Classic, a sorrel gelding who died at 17 in 1986, collected 203 wins and 41 all-around titles while being shown, and Blondy’s Dude, who died in 1980 at 23, earned 18 grand champion titles and was a two-time AQHA leading sire.