LOS ALAMITOS : Dominguez Thrives on Extra Work

Trainer Henry Dominguez has discovered that sleep lost is a small price to pay for races won.

Dominguez saddled five winners Friday and Saturday nights during the opening weekend of the Horsemen’s Quarter Horse Racing Assn. meeting at Los Alamitos.

Dominguez, 32, was thrust into a role of expanded responsibility when his brother, Caesar, was suspended from training in August. The elder Dominguez, 41, was fined $5,000 and suspended for a year by the California Horse Racing Board on Aug. 27 because Barium, a horse he had run in a May race at Los Alamitos, tested positive for a derivative of cocaine.

Caesar, one of the leading trainers at Los Alamitos, finished second to Blane Schvaneveldt in the summer meet standings, 75-69. Henry had worked as his assistant since 1984.

“Caesar is working at farms in Perris and Fresno and driving his wife crazy,” said Henry. “He’s been training for 18 years and never had one bad test. We think he was framed. He’s been in contact with lawyers to appeal. He’s banned from the track. He doesn’t even have grandstand privileges.”

Henry, though, has done his demanding new job admirably. In addition to overseeing one of the largest quarter horse stables at Los Alamitos, Dominguez also supervises a growing thoroughbred operation that began three years ago.

“I have 40 horses at Los Alamitos and 118 in training altogether,” he said. “I also have six thoroughbreds at Santa Anita and another 17 at Pomona.”

Dominguez, a chunky 200-pounder, rode quarter horses for nine years before losing a battle with the scales in 1983. Ruben Payan, his assistant, supervises the morning routine at Los Alamitos so Dominguez can be at Santa Anita and Pomona.

“On Friday night, I didn’t get home to Arcadia from here until 1,” said Dominguez. “I was in the barns at Santa Anita the next morning from 5 to 8, then went to Pomona for two hours.

“Before I became an assistant to my brother, I worked for Wayne Lukas. One thing I learned from him is you have to work hard. There’s a saying in Spanish, ‘He who gets up early, the good Lord helps him.’ ”

Dominguez’s work also has helped him to a fast start during the Oak Tree thoroughbred meeting. He has won with four of eight starters, including longshots Simple Surprise and North Stage.

Dominguez saddled three winners at the Los Alamitos opener Friday, then won twice more Saturday. One of his Saturday winners was Hez Class, who sprang a $38.20 surprise in a $20,000-added division of the Garden Grove Handicap for 3-year-olds at 350 yards.

“He had knee surgery as a 2-year-old and missed six months and had some problems this summer with the altitude at Ruidoso (N.M.),” Dominguez said. “But he had been training super recently. He’s owned by Felipe Tiscareno, one of our primary clients from Fresno.”

Purchased for $20,000 as a yearling, Hez Class has earned more than $180,000.

Trainer H.L. Hooper is also off to a fast start with four victories. The Mississippi-born conditioner won the Inaugural Handicap for the second straight year with Heisajoy, then swept the first three races on the Saturday card with Smashed Wrangler, Gloriously and Jettin Gene.

Alvin Brosette, a Louisiana native who once teamed with Hooper at Delta Downs, rode the consecutive triple Saturday. Those in a costumed Halloween night crowd who supported the three winners were treated to a $2-triple worth $525.

Heisajoy overcame a poor start to beat Sandys Love Bug by a head in :17.57 for the 350 yards and earn a start in the $125,000 Breeders Championship Classic Nov. 17.

Heisajoy, a 5-year-old sorrel gelding, scored his 13th victory in 21 races. He has won five stakes in eight tries since Hooper got him last year from owner-breeders Claude and Bessie Lea Jeane.

“They’re from a small town called Evans (in Louisiana), north of Vinton, near Delta,” said Hooper. “They’re very superstitious and have never been to California. I think they’ll make their first visit for the Breeders Championship.”

Trainer Bob Baffert won the other division of the Garden Grove Handicap Saturday with heavily favored Ourautograph. The 3-year-old son of The Signature scored his 12th victory in 19 starts for owner-breeders Mike and Mac Hastings of Queen Creek, Ariz.

“He broke a little flat-footed but that was expected,” said Baffert. “He’s been off since July and I hadn’t really jammed on him. He knows where the wire is. He’ll come back on Nov. 17 but I’m not sure if he’ll run in the big one, the sophomore race or the sprint. I’m pointing him to the Champion of Champions on Dec. 15.”

Baffert, who like Dominguez also trains thoroughbreds at Santa Anita, can be found there every morning aboard Gold Coast Express, 1986 World Champion. The 7-year-old palomino gelding was recently given to Baffert during the Oak Tree meeting as his pony.

Schvaneveldt, who will give star mare Dash for Speed her first start since July Saturday in the Charger Bar Handicap, posted his first Santa Anita victory as a thoroughbred trainer Sunday when Temptation Time finished in a dead heat in the fourth race. Schvaneveldt, who has dabbled in thoroughbreds in recent years, owns Temptation Time.