Page 83 - December_2023

T T H H E E L L O O S S A A L L A A M M I I T T O O S S S S A A L L E E
In 2005, while at Los Alamitos, Dino
started working with Scoop Vessels and Doc Allred on the Los Alamitos Equine Sale.
“At that time, it was a small sale, and it was really Scoop’s vision to have a larger sale
to get people from around the country to come to a sale at Los Alamitos,” Dino says. “After Scoop passed in 2010, John Andreini and Double Bar S Ranch got involved, and currently Dr. Burns at Burns Ranch partners with Doc Allred on the Sale.”
The last three years, the Sale has auctioned the three highest-selling yearlings in its history—all from Favorite Cartel-Remember Me Rose breedings. In 2021, So So Beautiful sold for $520,000; in 2022, Allways Remember brought $300,000; and this past October, Rose Beaukay sold for $320,000.
The 2021 Sale brought gross sales of $6,109,000 for 198 yearlings, a $30,854 average. In 2022, the Sale grossed $6,151,400 with a sale average of $37,509 for 164 head.
T h i s y e a r ’s s a l e y i e l d e d m o r e t h a n $ 5 . 5 million in gross sales, with an average of $35,845, and with a total of 13 yearlings selling for more than $100,000 each.
Dino attributes his part in the Sale’s success—and in his success across the industry—to those people he has worked with. One of those was the late Dominic “Bud” Alessio, the former president of PCQHRA. “Bud taught me a lot about the industry,” Dino says. “He was involved in the racing, the simulcasting, the advance deposit wagering companies, the horse sale, the contracts with the racetrack and so on.
“He and Doc Allred have been most influential in my career so far,” he adds. “I’ve been working with Doc for coming up on 20 years and he knows how to run a racetrack. He does a great job here and I think we’ve got the best racing in the country because of him and his vast knowledge of how this industry works, be it breeding, running a track, or dealing with the politics.”
A A S S U U C C C C E E S S S S F F U U L L L L I I F F E E
Although Dino has had a very successful
career in the horse racing industry, he counts his greatest success in life as his family.
In college, Dino worked as a waiter at a Greek restaurant, and it was there that he met Talanna, who frequented the restaurant with her Greek family. “We started dating and I never looked back,” Dino says. They have been married 23 years.
During those years, the couple has raised two children: a son, Luke, 21, who will graduate from California Baptist University this year with a degree in sports analytics, and a daughter, Sofia, 19, who plans to transfer from the city college to
a four-year university next year to earn a communications degree.
“Luke likes the analytics part of horse racing but is more geared to football and basketball,” Dino says, “but Talanna, Luke and Sofia attend the races and enjoy coming out.
“My kids are great, and I love my wife; we have a great relationship and to me, that’s my biggest success. And then, being able to follow my dream and work in the horse racing industry—to enjoy coming
to work every day and to support my family while doing something I love—is a mark of success.”
He has gotten to this point by trying to work across the
Perez Family
Dino and wife Talanna with their son, Luke and daughter, Sofia
Dino and wife Talanna
Courtesy Dino Perez
Courtesy Dino Perez
lines with the horsemen, the racetrack and the California Racing Board. “I think it’s extremely important to try to get everybody on the same page,” he says. “Here in California, we’ve had a lot of changes recently and the horsemen have been
very receptive to it all. I’ve tried to keep them abreast of everything that’s going on and make these changes as smoothly as possible.
“Here at Los Alamitos, we’ve been the first to administer
hair testing, the first to ban clenbuterol, the first to run 2 year olds with no Lasix, the
first to have stand-down on intra-articular injections, and now we’ve got vet checks and regulatory checks. There have been a lot of new rules, basically
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