LOS ALAMITOS : The News on Shiny Six Was Good

Myrna Rheudasil woke up in the early-morning hours last Saturday and did the first thing that came to mind: She telephoned the Los Alamitos results line to see how her 4-year-old filly, Shiny Six, had fared in Friday night’s Las Damas Handicap.

The race had started well past midnight at Rheudasil’s Lewisville, Tex., home, but when the lifelong horse owner has a contender in a major West Coast quarter horse race, insomnia takes hold.

The phone call produced good news. Shiny Six, a 6-1 shot, had pulled away from a strong field of fillies and mares for her second consecutive stakes victory, upsetting Isaws Sugar Bear, who later this month will be named 1991 champion aged mare.

“I have a habit: I’ll call the results line in the middle of the night,” she said. “When I found out we won, I just screamed. It sounded good to me. I tried to think of who I could call at 4 a.m.”

Her partner, Jerry Whittle of Aubrey, Tex., had received a 1 a.m. phone call from a West Coast friend who had seen the race. Whittle and Myrna’s late husband, Jerry, bred the Streakin Six filly, who has won her last two starts, including the Breeders Sophomore Classic (fillies division) last November.

Her victory in the Las Damas Handicap, the first of 40 grade I races for quarter horses nationwide, can be credited to her quick start and the ease with which she handled the muddy surface.

“When I was gone, I loved my chances,” said Henry Garcia, who took the lead from the gate on his way to his 10th stakes victory of the meeting.

As recently as last summer, Shiny Six was breaking poorly so frequently that is was compromising her chances. She qualified for the All-American Derby and the Rainbow Derby at Ruidoso Downs, N.M., but managed only an eighth and a 10th. As a 2-year-old in 1989, she was good enough to qualify for the All-American Futurity, but hopped at the start and settled for seventh.

On the other hand, the muddy track last Friday night did not affect the lighter, agile Shiny Six as much as it bothered Isaws Sugar Bear, the 2-5 favorite who ran fifth the entire race despite jumping tracks halfway through the 400-yard race.

“Shiny Six is qualified to basically everything we’ve ever asked her to,” Whittle said. “But every time the money was down, she got outrun. She should have won twice as much money. All the trainers and jockeys have said that she barely hits the ground. She runs like a sewing machine instead of having to dig it out.”

Whittle and Rheudasil have been acquainted for 20 years and have owned horses together for the last 12. Like many prominent owners in the Southwest, they have campaigned their horses at Ruidoso Downs at 2 and 3, and then at Los Alamitos after that.

Whittle’s horses have been trained by Bob Gilbert, while Rheudasil, who co-owned 1983 All-American Futurity winner On A High, has used leading trainer Blane Schvaneveldt, who handles Shiny Six.

“Shiny Six ran a good race,” Schvaneveldt said. “It looked like Isaws Sugar Bear was fighting the race track, but this mare was skipping right along.”

Jerry Rheudasil was a prominent Texas veterinarian and active in the state’s push for parimutuel betting approval in the late 1980s. After his death in April 1989, Myrna Rheudasil continued to campaign a small stable of quarter horses. This year, she’ll have only four 2-year-olds--two she owns outright and two she owns in partnership, including a half-brother to Shiny Six, co-owned by Whittle, that recently went into training.

As for Shiny Six, Schvaneveldt and the owners are hoping for an invitation to the Horsemen’s Quarter Horse Racing Assn. Invitational, a $75,000 race at 440 yards on Jan. 17, the closing weekend of Los Alamitos’ quarter horse meeting. If she starts, the owners indicated that they’d be at Los Alamitos in person, instead of relying on late-night phone calls.

“If they invite us, she’ll be there,” Schvaneveldt said of Rheudasil. “There’s nothing else to do all winter.”

Rheudasil and Whittle are planning the remainder of Shiny Six’s 1992 schedule, which includes probable stops in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and perhaps California next fall.

Schvaneveldt is the leading trainer at the current meeting in overall victories, but he is tied with Daryn Charlton for most stakes victories with nine. The night after Schvaneveldt’s victory with Shiny Six, Charlton answered with Pouvoir in the California Championship.

Charlton, 28, is fourth in the trainer standings but has a 21% winning record, the highest among the top 10 trainers. The California Championship was Pouvoir’s second stakes victory of the meeting and it gave Chalrton’s barn its fourth double-stakes winner. The others are Apprehend, Jazzing Hi and Griswold, who is high weighted at 124 pounds for this Friday’s Bull Rastus Invitational Handicap at 870 yards.

Other Bull Rastus nominees are Raise An Impudent, Sables Defender, Bailarin, Six Figures, Wings Of The Dove, Barrymore Special and Speedy Lunch.

Griswold and Apprehend, full brothers owned by the Legacy Ranch, are expected to be named champion distance horse and champion aged gelding for 1991, respectively, on Jan. 22 by the American Quarter Horse Assn.’s Executive Racing Committee, which votes on year-end honors. Apprehend is also among the leading contenders for world champion, the title that goes to the quarter horse of the year.

See Me Gone, the favorite for the 1991 3-year-old filly title, has been retired, according to her trainer, Bob Gilbert.

See Me Gone finished 10th in her last start, the Champion of Champions on Dec. 21, when she injured a knee. Successful surgery was performed the next day. “It was relatively easy,” Gilbert said.

Last summer, See Me Gone won the All-American Derby and the Rainbow Derby impressively, and came to California as the favorite to be named world champion. She was winless in four Los Alamitos starts but did finish second to Apprehend, beaten by a head, in the Breeders Championship Classic.

“I think it was better than her Ruidoso races, because it was against older horses,” Gilbert said.

The last set of trials for the 1991-92 quarter horse meeting will be held Thursday with two divisions of both the La Primera Del Ano and El Primero Del Ano Derby trials.

The La Primera Del Ano trials for 3-year-old fillies features Corona Chick, the leading 2-year-old of 1991 and a contender for world champion. She has won eight races in a row, including three of California’s most prominent futurities.

Dash Ta Fame, who won the Golden State Futurity on Dec. 28 in his most recent start, will be a strong favorite in Thursday’s ninth race, the first of two divisions of the El Primero Del Ano Derby trials for 3-year-old colts and geldings.

The finals for both races will be on Jan. 18, closing night of the meeting.