Owner, 73, Earns First Stakes Win

Brian Solden, one of the youngest horsemen on the California circuit, and owner Gunnar Rasmussen, who bought his first horse last summer at 73, combined for their first stakes victory with Miss Primrose in the $24,600 Breeders Championship for 3-year-old filly pacers last week at Los Alamitos.

Catch-driver Rick Kuebler set the pace with the Solden-trained filly to win by 2 1/2 lengths in a lifetime best of 1:58.

“Mr. Rasmussen approached me at Sacramento and asked what it would cost to buy this horse,” said Solden, 28. “I bought her for $5,000, made some equipment changes and parlayed it into $18,000.”

Solden, a Sacramento native who earned his trainer’s license a year ago and his driver’s license in June, was particularly grateful that Rasmussen’s first and only horse has proved successful. “He watched the race on television in Sacramento,” Solden said. “His wife is sick, and when he plays videotapes of Miss Primrose’s races, it makes her smile.”

Miss Primrose, a daughter of Jonny A Heritage, broke the monopoly of stallion Denali, who sired the winners of the other three Breeders Championship pacing events. Denali, the leading stallion in California who stands at KB Farms in Bakersfield, sired 2-year-old filly winner Pip’s Profit, 2-year-old colt winner Saddle The Wind and 3-year-old colt winner Gold Pursue. They were three of nine winners sired by Denali during the last three programs.

Harness Racing Notes

Pip’s Profit won her fourth consecutive start in the $16,700 race for trainer Rudy Sialana as the 3-5 favorite, but Sialana saw an even shorter-priced favorite lose when 3-10 choice Gee Gee Digger was unable to withstand the stretch challenge of Saddle The Wind who finished in 1:56 1/5 in the $18,500 race. “The only better 2-year-old I have ever driven was Direct Flight,” said Chip Lackey, driver of Gee Gee Digger, who won seven of nine starts at Sacramento and took a mark of 1:54 2/5. Direct Flight won eight of nine starts, including a mark of 1:52 1/5 at Lexington, before breaking as the 1-2 favorite in the 1991 Breeders Crown 2-year-old pace.

“Off a month’s layoff, his race was nothing to be ashamed of,” said Lackey. “Obviously, Plano’s horse [Saddle The Wind, driven by Rick Plano] is a nice colt and he sat right off my back.”

Plano acknowledged that circumstances helped him win that race as much as they cost him the next event, in which favored Maxaden finished second to Gold Pursue in 1:55 4/5 in a $24,600 test. “We were parked for a half mile; we got beat by an entry,” said Plano, whose Maxaden was no match in the stretch for Gold Pursue and driver Steve Warrington after being softened up by the winner’s stablemate, King Charming, who held on for third. . . . Jim Perez, trainer of Gold Pursue, also won the $17,000 non-betting 3-year-old colt trot with Suds Lite as driver and trainer. . . . R Nestegg, winner of the $21,500 3-year-old filly trot for driver Frank Sherren, is another daughter of the blue-hen broodmare White Nest Egg, who has produced stakes winners Googie, Eggwhite and Little Eggie. She has another colt nearing the races named It’s No Yolk Jack. They have been trained by Sherren’s father, Jack, co-owner of the mare. . . . Jack Sherren also trained Lil Joe, who won the $13,300 2-year-old colt trot for Ken Williams. . . . Little Arnetta won the $14,000 2-year-old filly trot for Carlo Fisco.

Hattie, runner-up in the 1994 Breeders Crown 2-year-old filly pace but a disappointment since, won the filly and mare feature pace, but driver D.R. Ackerman is much higher on the potential of Italian Crown, a late-developing 3-year-old trotter who won his second in a row. “Hattie got sick last summer and we had to operate on her throat,” said Ackerman, son of Hall of Fame trainer Doug Ackerman. “She will be bred after this meet. Italian Crown had a horrendous attitude. In the middle of a training mile, he would pull up and just stop. We castrated him, turned him out in June and he came back a new man.” . . . Tom Lighthill, nephew of veteran trainer Joe Lighthill, won his first race on this circuit with River City Sur, a 4-year-old trotter who picked up a check in all 30 of his 1995 starts. . . . Robitaille, a promising pacer in the Nicol Tremblay stable, is named after hockey star Luc Robitaille, a friend of the Montreal-born horseman.

Best Effort won the $10,000 feature pace for the second consecutive week in a meet-best 1:54 1/5 for Warrington and owner Lloyd Arnold. Opening-night handle of $1,496,321 Dec. 22 was close to the all-time track harness handle record of $1,606,238, set on March 13, 1987, before the era of intertrack and out-of-state wagering. . . . Racing this week will begin a Thursday-through-Sunday-night format for the remainder of the meet through April 7 with the exception of Super Bowl Sunday.