LORETTA LOEBS

        The story behind horses such as Dont Dink With Me, Dont Dink Around, Ynot Bar and The One I Am began 14 years ago when Frank Pregelli took his 20-year-old daughter, Loretta, to Los Alamitos Race Course.

     "She just fell in love with the horses, their quickness and the whole atmosphere," Pregelli said.  "So she said she wanted to own a horse. What a dad wouldn't do for a daughter?" he added.

     After consulting with jockey Eddie Garcia, Pregelli claimed the mare Fames Easy for $4,000. "She had good breeding, and we checked into it.  Loretta wanted to have (a mare)." Pregelli, a native of Italy, says in an Italian accent.

     Fames Easy has gone to become a successful dam.  She produced Dont Dink With Me, who was second in the 2001 Kindergarten Futurity, and now has the filly Ynot Bar in line as one of the fancied runners in this year's Governor's Cup Futurity to be held on California Breeders Champions Night on Saturday, July 30.

     And Loebs has created a winning racing operation.

     "I'm so proud of her," said Pregelli, now the racing manager for his daughter.  "When you have a kid, you never know how they're going to turn out.  She's the best."

     Ynot Bar was foaled in January 2003, and Pregelli said that when the filly was only a few weeks old, Loebs received an offer for $125,000.

     "Loretta loves the horse," Pregelli said.   "It was the first filly ever by (Fames Easy), and she got attached to it.  Look at how good it turned out."

     Loebs is a schoolteacher in Palmdale, Calif., and has plans to go back to school to get a master's degree and eventually a doctorate.

     Pregelli lives in Wilton, Calif., near Sacramento.  He is originally from a small town called Galisda in the Italian Alps and came to the United States in 1964.  Pregelli says he learned about horses from his grandfather on a farm in Italy.

     "When I lived there, the town had nine houses," Pregelli said.

     As excited as Pregelli and Loebs are about Ynot Bar's upcoming race in the Governor's Cup Futurity, Loebs will not be able to attend Champions Night to watch her horse run.  She had already purchased tickets six months ago to go to Florida with her family.

     "You never know how things are going to turn out," Pregelli said.