LOS ALAMITOS / STEVE ANDERSEN : Texas Couple Go Extra Miles to Acquire a Top Arabian Filly

Rick and Suzanne Flammer are from Siminton, Tex., but they went all the way to Poland to get into horse racing.

The Flammers, who had been active in showing Arabians, went there in 1989 to buy a pregnant Arabian mare named Orlica, who was related to a Polish triple crown winner.

That all sounds odd until one considers that some of the finest Arabians in the world trace their bloodlines to Polish horses.

The Flammers shipped the mare back to the United States, at a cost of $6,000, and her foal, eventually named HF Orzonna, is undefeated in three races. She will race again Saturday in the $151,810 Daughters of the Desert Futurity for 3-year-old fillies, one of two major stakes for Arabians this weekend at Los Alamitos.

On Friday, the $172,584 Drinkers of the Wind Futurity for 3-year-old colts and geldings will be run over six furlongs, the same distance as the fillies’ race.

HF Orzonna was worth the time and effort the Flammers put into acquiring her dam, who has since died. Trained by Felix Payne and ridden by Henry Garcia, who is also the fourth-leading quarter horse rider at Los Alamitos, HF Orzonna won her first race by a neck on Aug. 15 over 4 1/2 furlongs. She returned on Sept. 9, winning an allowance race by 11 1/2 lengths.

“We’ve had Polish (blood) lines (previously in show horses) and we thought the best opportunities were in Poland,” Rick Flammer said. “Just for the lines we were looking for, that was the place. (HF Orzonna) will be the kingpin of our future broodmare program.”

HF Orzonna already is a two-career horse, race and show. Before she started race training earlier this year, she was a halter champion, winning the Gulf Coast Futurity Championship.

“We were excited to buy the mare and this is the first baby we’ve (raised) that we’ve had make it to the track,” Rick Flammer said. “We had her in training nine months before her first race, and it’s really paid off.”

The purses at stake this weekend are the richest in Arabian racing this year. HF Orzonna probably will be the second choice in the betting behind the three-horse entry owned by Mansoor Bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates: Streaks Keishah, Bryans Time and Unchainedd Melody.

Unchainedd Melody is a sister of Victorias Secrett, 1992 Arabian horse of the year. Both are undefeated and, with the exception of the times that Victorias Secrett carried 20 pounds more than the competition, untested.

Unchainedd Melody’s perfect record in six starts combined with Victorias Secrett’s unbeaten streak in 14 races has led many in the Arabian community to doubt the authenticity of their parentage. Officials with the Arabian Horse Registry of America in Westminster, Colo., however, say that both have been blood-typed and are pure-bred Arabians.

Unchainedd Melody won a division of the Daughters of the Desert Futurity by 14 1/2 lengths, setting a six-furlong track record of 1 minute 17 seconds. She was bred in Florida by Bill and Dianne Waldron. The filly raced in Dianne’s name during the summer at Delaware Park and was trained by Bill. She was sold to Zayed before the trials and he turned her over to trainer Yancey Carter Jr.

The Drinkers of the Wind Futurity includes a three-horse entry owned by Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley Stud Management, which is best known for its extensive thoroughbred holdings, particularly in Western Europe.

Darley Stud owned Tomanchie, Juan De Prix and Thunder Tiki. Tomanchie is a 3-year-old brother of TC Tomtyr, the leading older Arabian in California this year. Tomanchie was bred in Kentucky by Thomas and Eunice Luckett, who ran the horse in their name this summer in Delaware. He was sold in late summer.

Tomanchie won his fifth race in six starts in the trials on Oct. 7, running six furlongs in 1:20, the fastest of three divisions. Zayed won the other two trials with Justajoyy and Muhulis Revenge. During the summer, Tomanchie won the Delaware Arabian Cup Juvenile and last month won a division of the same stake in California.

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Sound Dash finally has a major stakes victory.

The 4-year-old quarter horse filly had won two minor stakes in the Midwest and had been second or third in 11 others.

On Saturday, she won the $50,000 Horsemen’s Quarter Horse Racing Assn. Championship Handicap, her first Grade I victory. It makes her a leading contender for national champion aged mare.

Sound Dash has had several close finishes in Grade I races. In 1992, she was second in the Graham Farms Derby, a Grade II race, and the Champion of Champions, finishing a length behind Refrigerator at odds of 40-1.

For two months of 1992, she was also the winner of the All American Derby at Ruidoso Downs in Ruidoso, N.M. She finished second in that race, but was moved up to first when Femmes Frolic was disqualified and dropped to second. Femmes Frolic’s owner, Roger Knight Jr., appealed to the New Mexico State Racing Commission, which two months later overturned the ruling. Sound Dash was demoted back to second. She also finished second in the year-end voting for champion 3-year-old filly, losing to Corona Chick, 31-27.

The runner-up finish behind Refrigerator in last year’s Champion of Champions surprised her trainer, Carlos Lopez, and her owner, Leonelo Trevino of Monterrey, Mexico, who bought the Dash for Cash filly for $12,700 at an Oklahoma City yearling sale in 1990.

This season, with the exception of a victory in the non-graded Oklahoma Challenge Championship, she has been second in two major stakes and third in three others.

On paper, Saturday’s race also didn’t appear very promising. She was in against Rare Form, the 1992 champion 3-year-old. But Sound Dash ran the race many expected Rare Form to run, covering 440 yards in 21.56 seconds. In the last two years, Sound Dash, who was ridden by Texas-based Raul Ramirez, has been in the top three in 20 of her 21 starts.

Sound Dash won the HQHRA Handicap by half a length over Grand Package, who finished a nose in front of Childish. The victory was worth $27,500 for Trevino, increasing the filly’s earnings to $290,268. She might stay at Los Alamitos for the rest of the year or be shipped to New Mexico for the $50,000-added Challenge Championship at Sunland Park in November.

Lopez, who trains the filly when she runs in California, hopes she will stay here and try the Champion of Champions.

“It’ll be the owner’s decision,” he said. “But I wish they’d leave her here because she’s so good. She’s always beating the best in the world. She’s tried hard every time.”

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The Dream Doctor won the American Quarter Horse Assn.’s Regional Challenge Championship on Friday, which qualified the 6-year-old Merridoc gelding for a $50,000 race at Sunland Park, N.M., in November. Ridden by Eddie Garcia for trainer H.J. Visscher, The Dream Doctor has won nine of 17 starts. He is owned by Kathleen Clift of Orange Park Acres.