LOS ALAMITOS : Schvaneveldt Suspended for Switch

Blane Schvaneveldt, the leading quarter horse trainer since national records were first kept 11 years ago, was suspended for 30 days by the stewards at Los Alamitos on Thursday after he admitted using a substitute horse in a workout for a race.

The stewards said Schvaneveldt told them that a July 1 workout credited to Rebuttal was actually done by another horse, Six Royal Chicks.

“I told them the truth, and that’s the only thing I can tell them,” Schvaneveldt said. “I did a stupid thing. But sometimes you get your back against the wall. Sometimes the pressure is on you, and you just do a stupid thing.”

The stewards learned of the horse switch from a fan who watched a tape of the drill in the Los Alamitos video library. Rebuttal is a gray and Six Royal Chicks is a bay.

Rebuttal, a 2-year-old filly, needed two recorded works to be eligible to run in a maiden race July 6. She won the race but has been disqualified by the stewards, and the purse money has been redistributed.

A victory in the July 6 race would have qualified Rebuttal for the Ed Burke Memorial Futurity Trials on July 14, but the stewards had notified Schvaneveldt of the discrepancy by then, and he scratched his horse from the trials.

Schvaneveldt’s suspension starts Monday and runs through Aug. 29.

“I don’t think it [the ruling] was close to fair,” he said. “I think it was outrageous. But I was wrong, I did a stupid thing.

“Sometimes you do things for people you shouldn’t. I enter 25 horses a day and only get three or four in.”

Schvaneveldt said he is considering appealing the suspension. “I think they made a very, very bad ruling, but that’s their decision,” he said.

Schvaneveldt has saddled 2,919 winners at Los Alamitos, including the 68 that put him in first place at the current meeting. He has also won 282 stakes races at the track.

Of his approximately 125 horses currently in training, about 60 are stabled at Los Alamitos.