LOS ALAMITOS : Corona Chick Quickly Eases Owner’s Fears

Owner Bob Etchandy was nervous before Corona Chick’s race Saturday.

It was the 3-year-old filly’s first since the La Primera Del Ano Derby final in January, where she flipped in the starting gate moments before the start and had to be scratched.

Etchandy was concerned about the filly’s long layoff, her knee surgery after the La Primera and her gate habits.

But in only 17.53 seconds, the time it took Corona Chick to win her 10th consecutive race, Etchandy was able to breath easier.

“I’d waited almost six months to see what was going to happen,” said Etchandy, of Anaheim Hills. “She’d worked good, but who’s to say what was going to happen in the gate?”

Corona Chick stood patiently in the gate under jockey Kip Didericksen, something she hadn’t done in previous races. She broke well, although a little behind Dollys Casanova, and drew off in the last half of the 350-yard race.

“We could hardly get her to settle down afterward,” Etchandy said. “She didn’t have to try very hard. She was ready to race again.”

The winning streak began on Aug. 6, 1991, at Los Alamitos in the Governor’s Cup Futurity trials. Through the rest of the year, she won the Governor’s Cup, Ed Burke, Kindergarten and Dash For Cash futurities and the trials for each race. Along the way, she set a track record of 17.22 seconds for 350 yards.

As a result, she was voted the nation’s champion 2-year-old and got the most votes for world champion on the first ballot. However, she failed to receive 50% of the votes, which is required of a 2-year-old, and Special Leader was chosen as world champion.

Voters did not consider the La Primero Del Ano Derby trial, which she won in early 1992, or the final, when she flipped in the starting gate. After that incident, she underwent knee surgery, which had been scheduled before the starting-gate accident.

Trainer Frank Monteleone delayed her summer debut a few times because of the recovery from surgery and a hoof abscess she suffered in early May. Monteleone considered the Bobby Doyle Handicap in June and the Dash For Cash Derby trials for Corona Chick, but chose Saturday’s allowance and the Governor’s Cup Derby trials on July 26.

“It couldn’t have gone any better after six months,” Monteleone said. “She came out of it absolutely perfect. She didn’t cool out until 3:15 a.m. She was that wound up for her first start.”

Didericksen, who sometime this year might have to choose between Corona Chick, the nation’s top 3-year-old, and Refrigerator, the nation’s top older horse, was impressed by the filly’s behavior.

“I was worried about the way she’d behave (in the gate), but she stood perfect,” he said. “She has to turn over in the starting gate to get beat.”

The Governor’s Cup Derby is expected to attract some of the better 3-year-olds on the grounds because of a scheduling quirk that left the Dash For Cash Derby finals and the Governor’s Cup Derby trials 24 hours apart. When the Orange County fair racing was canceled a few months ago, the dates of the Governor’s Cup Derby were changed so the final could be run Aug. 8, the closing weekend of the quarter horse meeting.

Owner Thomas Blandford and trainer Connie Hall’s plans for Oh Le Bo are going perfectly since the 3-year-old gelding was claimed for $4,000 after a maiden race for 2-year-olds in October.

Oh Le Bo is undefeated in four starts at 870 yards and scored a trial victory last Friday for the Gold Rush Derby on July 26.

After the claim, he lost three races at 350 and 440 yards before breaking his maiden in his first race at 870 yards. The gelding, by the thoroughbred sire Bolger, was rested until May 15, when he won an allowance race. Oh Le Bo also won the Cypress Handicap on June 5, his only stakes appearance.

“He couldn’t out-foot them going short, but with his breeding I thought he might be an 870-yard prospect because of Bolger,” Hall said. “I really think he can be a good horse. He doesn’t have any problems, and he loves to run.”

In the trials, he stalked Dashing Cleat on the backstretch and took the lead entering the stretch, drawing off to a 3 1/2-length victory. He was timed in 45.58 seconds, the fastest of three trials, but not much quicker than Chooglin’s winning time of 45.61. Both horses are trained by Hall and were ridden by Jim Lewis, who will ride Oh Le Bo in the final.

“This horses’s biggest asset is the (stretch) lane,” Lewis said. “He’s one of those racehorses that has as much late speed as early speed.”

Oh Le Bo is the first racehorse that Blandford has owned in several years. He owned horses in the 1980s that Hall trained, but left racing when he bought an 1,100-acre ranch in Oregon.

“I’d bought a remote place and didn’t have my ducks in a row,” he said. “It was tough financially.”

Blandford approached Hall last year about getting back into racing. He passed a few claiming opportunities before Hall mentioned Oh Le Bo.

“I had an older well-bred mare in mind,” Blandford said. “She said, ‘Wait, we’ll get a 2-year-old.’ I’d always wanted a marathon-type horse, not realizing we’d get a 2-year-old that could run this distance.”

Los Alamitos Notes

Firstdown Touchdown is the fastest qualifier for the $124,268 Dash For Cash Futurity on July 25. He edged the highly regarded Down With Debt and Mega Dash, the Kindergarten Futurity winner, in the trials. Bobby Beduino heads the field for the $92,800 Dash For Cash Derby, also scheduled for July 25. Both races had trials last Saturday. . . . Jockey Eddie Garcia, who suffered a broken collarbone in a spill June 21, is scheduled to ride three horses Thursday night. Garcia was leading the jockey standings at the time of the accident, but now trails Kip Didericksen and Ralph Seville.

This weekend’s stakes include the $25,000 Endurance Handicap on Friday and the $20,000 Josie’s Bar Handicap on Saturday. The Endurance features the best 870-yard horses in the nation, including Griswold, the 1991 champion distance horse, who was top-weighted at 123 pounds. The Josie’s Bar Handicap will be run over 550 yards. The 122-pound highweight is Time To Lead.