LOS ALAMITOS : Pilkenton Has Classic Up-and-Down Night

Bruce Pilkenton’s condition sounded more like a football player’s than a jockey’s on Sunday morning, the day after the Breeders Classic races at Los Alamitos.

“I rode 10 head (Saturday) night,” he said. “When I got up, my shoulder hurt and my knees were stiff and I couldn’t get out of bed. But (that) was the night to shine. I’m at the point of my career that I’d like to ride only the good ones, but it takes all those other ones to pay the bills.”

Just about anything that could happen to a rider happened to Pilkenton on Saturday. He won four races, three of them stakes--the $100,500 Breeders Championship Classic with Refrigerator, the $122,000 Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Assn. Futurity with The Royal Prince, and the Breeders Marathon Classic aboard Griswold.

He also rode Jumping Tac Flash, a leading contender in the Juvenile Classic who lost all chance for a good showing when she acted up in the starting gate before the race. A few races later, Pilkenton pulled up Mr Bold Tac in the Sophomore Classic when the gelding suffered a fatal leg injury.

“It was a roller-coaster ride--down and up, down and up,” Pilkenton said.

Refrigerator and Griswold were his highlights and are certain to be named champions at the end of the year. Refrigerator figures to be named world champion, champion aged horse and champion aged gelding, titles he also won in 1992. Griswold is certain to be named champion distance horse, becoming the first horse to win that title three times.

Refrigerator won the 440-yard Championship Classic easily, leaving the 5-year-old gelding only $51,473 shy of Eastex’s earnings record of $1,869,406.

He beat Rare Form by three-quarters of a length in their first confrontation. Refrigerator will race only once more in 1993, in the $250,000 Champion of Champions on Dec. 11, a race he won last year.

Refrigerator may be unstoppable this year. On Saturday, Pilkenton never hit him with the whip and only coaxed the horse with the reins once about 100 yards from the wire.

“I (threw the reins at him) just to keep me awake,” he said. “I’ve seen jockeys go to sleep on horses in front. I did it more for me than the horse. He was running very powerfully.”

Pilkenton had a much closer race on his hands with Griswold, who was returning to 870-yard races after having lost twice at 400 yards this year. A 7-year-old gelding, Griswold won the Marathon Classic by a head over The Big Chili. Griswold, racing outside, was headed at the top of the stretch but fought back in the final eighth of a mile, something he has been reluctant to do.

Griswold, owned by the Legacy Ranch and trained by Daryn Charlton, has won 12 stakes races and will run next in the Marathon Handicap on Nov. 27.

Pilkenton rode his third stakes winner, The Royal Prince, in the PCQHRA Breeders Futurity, the only non-Breeders Classics stake of the evening. The Royal Prince won the futurity by 1 1/4 lengths for his third victory of the year.

Trainer Blane Schvaneveldt won three Breeders Classic races, running his total to six. It was the fourth time in the seven-year history of the Breeders Classics that he has won three stakes. He won with Refrigerator, in the Juvenile Classic with Totally Illegal and in the Sophomore Classic with High Easy Dash.

Totally Illegal and High Easy Dash had started at Los Alamitos earlier this year, but have run mostly in Utah, Wyoming and Idaho.

Schvaneveldt, 59, was born in Idaho and trains dozens of horses for people in that region. In the fall, those horses make up a large portion of his stable, but that wasn’t always the case.

“When I first came to California (in the late 1960s, track official) Curly Smith wouldn’t give me stalls for those horses,” Schvaneveldt said. “He’d just laugh at me.

“I said, ‘I know this horse is a good one. I’ve run against it.’ Finally, he’d let me bring it in late in the meet or he’d make me run it on the fairs. Third year I was here, he said, ‘Just bring them. You know them better than me.’ ”

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A group of California harness owners and breeders sent a proposal to Edward Allred, a 50% owner of Los Alamitos, earlier this week asking for additional racing dates for harness racing this winter.

The group is requesting racing dates from mid-December until the beginning of April. Harness horse owner Andy Perez and trainer Bobby Gordon met with Allred on Nov. 5 and discussed possible dates.

Allred said at the time that he would be willing to lease the track for harness racing from mid-December until March 12. He intends to open the track on March 15 for quarter horse training in anticipation of a mid-April start for a quarter horse meeting.

Harness racing promoters say they will need to run beyond mid-March to give horsemen a meeting of decent length and investors a chance of recouping some of their capital.

Gordon said there are 250 harness horses in California that could participate in the meeting and that at least 150 more would be needed to fill races. If a deal is struck, the harness meeting will probably open on Dec. 17.

Los Alamitos Notes

Trainer Bret Layne and owner Barney Leard of Campbell, Calif., won two stakes over the weekend, the Breeders Sprint Classic with Reign Of Terror and the PCQHRA Breeders Derby with Second Time Away.

Jockey G.R. Carter escaped injury in the Juvenile Classic when he fell from his mount, Earls Deer Eyes, shortly after the start. Carter was confused as to what happened, but thought his arm might have been caught in the gate, throwing him off balance. . . . Saturday’s handle of $1,840,656 was the sixth-highest in quarter horse racing history.

Jockey Manuel Loza, who was in critical condition for several days after a late August spill at Los Alamitos, presented the trophy in the Juvenile Classic. Loza hopes to return to riding next year. Calyptra, a 2-year-old filly he rode to victory in August, two days before the accident, ran seventh in the Juvenile Classic. . . . There is a carry-over of $41,145 in tonight’s twin-trifecta.