LOS ALAMITOS : Sables Secret Part of Winning Tradition

Five decades of breeding and owning quarter horses have given Spencer Childers several generations of stakes winners and champions that range from Los Alamitos’ early stakes to Saturday’s Dash For Cash Futurity.

Childers bred and raised Sables Secret, who won her first stakes Saturday in the $124,268 futurity. The 2-year-old filly’s bloodlines reflect Childers’ lifelong involvement, dating to Black Easter Bunny, the 1952 Los Alamitos Championship winner, whom Childers purchased in 1957.

Childers, who owns a breeding ranch in Fresno, traces some of his leading mares to Black Easter Bunny, including her daughter Bunny’s Bar Maid, the 1961 champion 2-year-old filly. Bunny’s Bar Maid, who was second in the 1961 All-American Futurity, was the dam of Four Forty Queen, who was fifth in the 1965 All-American.

The list continues with Lady Winsmore, a daughter of Four Forty Queen, who produced Black Sable, the 1979 3-year-old champion filly. Black Sable is the dam of Sables Secret as well as Sables Defender, a multiple stakes winner the last few years.

Sables Secret was well-respected before the Dash For Cash Futurity because the filly had finished second to Awesome Blossom in the trials despite a rough journey. In the final, she edged Mega Dash, the Kindergarten Futurity winner, by a nose, giving Childers, trainer Daryn Charlton and jockey Jim Lewis their first victories in the futurity.

“She’s a lot quicker than she showed in the trials,” Charlton said. “She’s just like her mother and her brothers (Sables Defender and Sables Select). The farther she goes, the better she is.”

Sables Secret won her first start on May 14 by half a length, but didn’t race again until an allowance race June 27, when she was third behind Down With Debt, who finished third in the futurity. A fever kept Sables Secret out of the Miss Kindergarten and forced Childers and Charlton to focus on the futurity.

Because of a knee chip, Sables Secret might not start again until the Golden State Futurity trials in December.

“I worried about that chip in her knee (during the race),” Childers said. “I still don’t think she ran the race she’s capable of. She’s a big filly. She’s over 16 hands (tall). I think she’s going to be a terrific 3-year-old.”

Throughout the spring and summer, Bobby Beduino has encountered top 3-year-olds at their toughest. Three times he earned spots in stakes finals, but was turned away each time. That ended Saturday night in the $100,000 Dash For Cash Derby, Beduino’s first stakes victory.

At 440 yards, however, he has been unbeatable. He set the fastest qualifying time for the Dash For Cash Derby on July 11 and backed it up in the final with a three-quarter-length victory over Song In My Dreams, the second-fastest qualifier.

“We knew we had the speed from the start,” Purcell said. “Bills Ryon only beat him by a neck.”

The Dash For Cash wasn’t the only derby of the weekend. Oh Le Bo extended his winning streak to five in the $73,100 Gold Rush Derby at 870 yards. Oh Le Bo, owned by Thomas Blandford and trained by Connie Hall, has not been beaten in five tries at 870 yards since December.

He ran to his 1 3/4-length victory Sunday over Stellar Trux in 44.68 seconds, a personal best, and might soon be facing older horses such as Griswold, Mr Azuthought and Speedy Lunch.

Refrigerator’s victory in Friday’s $100,000 Los Alamitos Championship has enabled owner Jim Helzer and trainer Blane Schvaneveldt to revise the 4-year-old gelding’s 1992 campaign.

Refrigerator beat Bills Ryon by half a length and won $55,000, plus an automatic berth in the Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos in December. Last year, as the 4-5 favorite, Refrigerator finished third in the Champion of Champions and, in the process, lost a chance at being voted world champion.

Helzer and Schvaneveldt say that Refrigerator runs better after a layoff and intend to run him sparingly before the Champion of Champions, perhaps only once or twice. Opportunities include the Breeders Championship Classic and the Go Man Go Handicap at Hollywood Park.

“I’m not afraid to train this horse up to a race,” Schvaneveldt said. “We’ll have to sit down and make a plan. One thing about (Helzer), he’ll do what’s best for the horse.”

Refrigerator has earned $1,454,622, which makes him history’s seventh-richest quarter horse. He won the 1990 All-American Futurity en route to being voted champion 2-year-old. Last year, he won the Kansas Derby at Ruidoso Downs and was champion 3-year-old gelding.

Ed Grimley, the Rainbow Derby winner, and Femmes Frolic, the World’s Championships Classic winner, have also earned automatic berths to the Champion of Champions, as will the Breeders Championship Classic winner. The other six spots will be determined by trials in early December.

Bills Ryon, the only 3-year-old in the Los Alamitos Championship, started on even terms with the fast-breaking Refrigerator, but faded in the final yards. The colt’s debut against older horses proved he should be a factor in months ahead.

“I thought I had (won) it,” jockey Bruce Pilkenton said. “He only got beat a neck. I thought it was a tremendous race for a 3-year-old to run that close to Refrigerator.”

For the sixth time in a year, Corona Chick is the fastest qualifier for a major stake at Los Alamitos. The 3-year-old filly extended her winning streak to 11 on Sunday with a three-quarter-length victory in the Governor’s Cup Derby trials.

Her 400-yard time of 19.69 seconds in the third and final trial bettered Speedy Chick’s time of 19.72 in the first trial. Corona Chick’s winning streak dates to the Governor’s Cup Futurity trials on Aug. 6, 1991. Since then she has been the fastest qualifier and winner of the Governor’s Cup, Ed Burke, Kindergarten and Dash For Cash futurities. She was the fastest qualifier for the La Primera Del Ano Derby last January, but flipped in the gates moments before the start and was scratched.

Owned by Bob Etchandy of Anaheim Hills, Corona Chick has been calm in the gates before both of her starts this summer, which trainer Frank Monteleone attributes to maturity.

“She’s smart,” he said. “She’s absolutely perfect. She just stood there and waited for them to open.”

Other derby finalists include Toltecas Lil Smash, Sir Austin Duncan, Holland Ease, First Down Freddy, Elie Rey Beduino, Dash Ta Fame, Hope To Dash and Tara Named Me. The final is Aug. 8.

Owner Jens List and trainer Caesar Dominguez will have a three-horse entry in the Aug. 9 Governor’s Cup Futurity, the closing night of the spring-summer quarter horse meeting. Dominguez saddled the top two qualifiers--First Hi Hope and Tacfully--as well as Kipta Lou My Darlin, the seventh-fastest qualifier in Sunday’s trials.

Other qualifiers include Oh La Secret, Chicks Susannah, Dashing Bay, Fames Last Chance, Zartec, Easily A Secret and Tango Cash.

Los Alamitos Notes

The Countess Adios pace for 2-year-old fillies from the Meadowlands will be part of the harness simulcast from Cal-Expo tonight. . . . Quarter horse racing at Los Alamitos concludes on Aug. 9 and resumes at Hollywood Park on Aug. 21. Harness racing at Cal-Expo ends Aug. 8 and resumes at Los Alamitos Aug. 14.