LOS ALAMITOS : Meet to Close in Championship Style

The 1995 Los Alamitos quarter horse meet will end Sunday with the $250,000 Champion of Champions, which features 10 of the top older horses in the country.

The program pages for the Champion of Champions read like a Who’s Who in quarter horse racing. In the field are Refrigerator, who is looking for his fourth consecutive victory in the Champion of Champions; Avison, who is trying to guarantee himself a year-end award; Los Alamitos Invitational Championship winner My Debut, Breeders Championship Classic winner Pies Royal Request, and six other contenders, among them Seals.

Owned by the mother-daughter team of Pheenix Shaw and Sylvia Shaw Pitman, Seals finished in a dead heat for second in last year’s Champion of Champions, a nose behind Refrigerator. Pitman and Shaw are hoping it will be Seals’ nose that is in front at the wire in his second Champion of Champions.

Seals earned his way into the Champion of Champions with his victory in the 400-yard Z. Wayne Griffin Directors Trials on Nov. 25. He was also second in the Los Alamitos Championship and fourth in the Chicado V Handicap, both times behind My Debut.

“[The distance, 440 yards] doesn’t make much difference to [Seals],” said trainer Blane Schvaneveldt. “He runs good every time. Everyone thinks he wants to go a quarter of a mile, but I don’t think it makes much difference to him. He’s a tough horse. He’s a racehorse, and he’s a good one.’

For the Shaw family, Seals’ success is the result of years of hard work in the quarter horse breeding industry. The family’s involvement started with Pheenix Shaw’s late husband, John. When he died in 1977, Pheenix decided to keep their horse operations intact, and introduced her children, John Jr. and Sylvia, to the sport.

Seals is not the only top horse the Shaws have had. They also bred Elliptical, the 1986 champion 2-year-old gelding, and Power Train, 1989 champion 2-year-old colt, and were partners in the breeding of 1988 world champion Merganser.

“They’re super-nice people, and they’re really devoted to racing,” said Schvaneveldt, who has trained for the Shaws for about six years.

Schvaneveldt will be seeking a record ninth victory in the Champion of Champions. Besides Seals, he will also saddle Refrigerator, My Debut and Ronas Sound.

The complete field for the Champion of Champions: Refrigerator, Avison, Pies Royal Request, Seals, My Debut, Ronas Sound, Meter Me Gone, Do Ya Disco, Higher Goals and Special Phoebe.

Los Alamitos Notes

The closing weekend at Los Alamitos will feature three major stakes races, starting with the $107,000 Golden State Derby on Friday night. Champion Ah Sigh is expected to start, along with six other nominees. . . . The inaugural Los Alamitos Million will be run Saturday night, with 10 2-year-olds racing for $1,050,000 in purse money. The race is the second-richest quarter horse race of the year nationally. Fastest qualifier Free Thinker will be joined by Sky Chicks, Temerity Wrangler, Evening Snow, Chickawilla, Brisco County Jr, Drone, Take Odds, Mega Storm and Million Dollar Down. . . . Grand opening of the Vessels Club at Los Alamitos will be celebrated this weekend. Admission to the club is $6.