LOS ALAMITOS : Quarter Horse Meeting to Have Role in Deciding Champions

When the curtain rises on the winter quarter horse meeting Friday, not only Southern California horseplayers will be interested in the outcome.

Horsemen in the Midwest will also be closely watching the results of the 32-night meeting, because most of this year’s champions have yet to be crowned. The quarter horse industry crowns champions in 14 categories for all age groups and sexes, and only four--2-year-old filly Deceptively, 2-year-old colt Dash Thru Traffic, 3-year-old gelding Femmes Frolic and older mare Junos Request--have done enough to merit a championship.

The remaining categories will be decided over the next several weeks and most will be determined by the results of the Champion of Champions on Dec. 19. Last year, six of the 10 starters in the Champion of Champions accounted for nine titles, including race winner Special Leader, who was voted world champion, aged horse (an overall award for older horses) and aged stallion.

This year’s race is expected to mark the 14th time in 21 years that the Champion of Champions winner has become world champion. The American Quarter Horse Assn., whose 64-member Racing Committee selects the champions, also conducts an informal poll among racing officials and journalists and six of the poll’s top 10 horses are being readied for the Champion of Champions.

Three have automatic berths into the $250,000 finals because they won major races earlier in the year. They include Los Alamitos Championship winner Refrigerator, Breeders Championship Classic winner Bills Ryon and World’s Championship Classic winner Femmes Frolic. Ed Grimley, who won the Rainbow Derby, also has an automatic berth, but hasn’t been as impressive at 3 as he was last year.

The other six spots in the final will come from the Dec. 4 time trials. In an effort to bring older horses to California, the format for the Champion of Champions was changed this year. Horses that finished in the top three of a Grade I, top two in a Grade II or won a Grade III are eligible for the trials. Two-year-olds are not eligible.

The change enabled Rare Form, a 3-year-old colt, to be entered into the trials on the basis of his victories in the Grade I Remington Park Derby and Grade II Breeders Sophomore Classic. In his most recent start on Oct. 25, he set a 400-yard track record at Hollywood Park, winning the California Derby in 19.35 seconds. According to the most recent AQHA poll, he is the No. 1 quarter horse in the nation.

Other major races during the winter meeting include the Golden State Futurity for 2-year-olds on Dec. 26, the $100,000 Marathon Invitational at 870 yards on Jan. 15 and the $75,000 Horsemen’s Quarter Horse Racing Assn. Handicap on Jan. 16, closing night.

The fall harness meeting ended Saturday, but the work has only begun for Perry De Luna and Paul Reddam, who will seek California Horse Racing Board approval on Friday to lease Los Alamitos for harness racing in January.

The two were among those who addressed a horsemen’s meeting Saturday evening. Another speaker was Bob Murphy, a Vancouver businessman who also sought the 1993 lease and is seeking a long-term lease beginning in 1994, when De Luna and Reddam’s would expire.

De Luna said one of the biggest tasks facing his group would be finding more horses. At meeting’s end, the backstretch included only 400 horses, about 40% of the number promoters would be comfortable with. He said emphasis would be placed on California breds, some of whom did not participate in this meeting because their owners feared they weren’t competitive with the New Zealand and Eastern-bred horses.

“I think people are happy that their racehorses will get a chance, no matter what caliber the horse,” De Luna said. “I think we’ll (still) get horses from back East. We’re looking to get horses, but not necessarily the best.”

Murphy is concentrating his efforts on the long-term survival of harness racing in California, whether at Los Alamitos or another site in the state.

“I’d like to have a 10-year lease (at Los Alamitos) with a 10-year option and that would be the minimum,” he said. “That would be an ideal home base and that would help get the Cal-bred program (going). That’s where you’ll get the growth of the industry. You can’t rely on horses from out-of-state.”

Murphy said he would spend the next month in California, exploring his options. He said he planned to look at several racetracks in the state and wasn’t ruling out building one.

“It will take until 1994 to get a facility. If we have to build one, it will take longer,” he said. “I’ve got to sit down with (Reddam and De Luna). We’ll be discussing with them what’s going on. They’ve said they’re in for a short term and don’t have an interest in the long term.”

The discussions come on the heels of a summer-fall meeting that averaged only $584,853 in handle, the lowest since a 32-day meeting in the fall of 1987 that averaged $571,875.

Two track records highlighted the final night of harness racing on Saturday.

El Camino Real, who won the invitational in 1:52 4/5, broke the track record for 4-year-old pacing horses. In Saturday’s seventh race, Yankee Rocker set a track record of 1:54 3/5 for a 3-year-old pacing gelding.

El Camino Real has been one of the most consistent older pacers in California this year. He was in-the-money in 18 of 28 starts for owner-trainer Larry Alterman of Temecula and always raced in the invitationals.

Aside from the track record Saturday, he also set a track record at Sacramento--1:51 4/5--and finished a respectable third behind Odds Against and One Bad Boy in the American Pacing Classic last September.

Alterman and driver Bob Sleeth are shipping 15 horses to Fairmont Park, in Collinsville, Ill., near St. Louis, for the winter and might return to Los Alamitos in January.

“We’ll see how it is (at Los Alamitos) next year,” Alterman said. “We’ll leave 15 horses (in California) and take 15 to Fairmount Park. If there’s a home for us to come back to, we’ll be back. If not . . .”

Yankee Rocker has won seven of 10 starts for trainer Tim DiLiberto and driver Ross Croghan, both of whom topped the meet in their respective categories.

Croghan was the leading driver, winning 67 races, three more than Steve Warrington, giving Croghan a sweep of three California harness meets this year. DiLiberto won 50 races, two more than Rick Plano.

Croghan said he will send 12 horses to Freehold Raceway in New Jersey and several to Del Mar this week, but hasn’t committed to the size of stable he will have at Los Alamitos in January. Part of the decision concerns horses such as Yankee Rocker, who despite his seven victories has earned only $7,831.

Los Alamitos Notes

Rick Plano drove Roan Spirit to victory in Saturday’s $25,000 Presidential Series final for older pacers. Owned by Susan Tilden and Gerald Kruglik, the 5-year-old pacing horse tipped his form with a victory in a qualifying leg on Nov. 7. He is trained by Mickey DiFranco. . . . There will be no racing on Thanksgiving.