IT'S THE BLUES GIRL

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Blues Girl Too goes after the $250,000 Millie Vessels Handicap(G1) on Saturday. Photo by Scott Martinez


Champion Blues Girl Too Takes Next Step in Friday's Millie Vessels

LOS ALAMITOS RACE COURSE, CYPRESS, CA—SEPTEMBER 19, 2007—

What's the deal with the rivalry between champions Blues Girl Too and FDD Dynasty? It seems like they're always trying to top each other.
FDD Dynasty beats Blues Girl Too in the Ed Burke Million Futurity in the middle of the year; Blues Girl Too comes back and beats him in the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity at the end of the year...FDD Dynasty wins the Governor's Cup Derby in his first derby final of the year, Blues Girl Too wins the Golden State Derby in her first derby final of the year....FDD Dynasty beats older males in the Grade 1 Go Man Go Handicap to earn an alternate berth to the $1 million Champion of Champions, Blues Girl Too is now aiming to beat older females in Friday's Grade 1 $250,000 Mildred Vessels Memorial Handicap, which carries a guaranteed berth to the Champion of Champions.

"It's not like if we're trying to outdo FDD Dynasty," said Joe Bassett, who trains last year's champion two-year-old Blues Girl Too. "I think it's more like we're both shooting for the same goals; I believe our mentality is similar to that of the connections of FDD Dynasty. We're both trying to win championships and we're taking similar paths to do it.

"We want Blues Girl Too to win champion 3-year-old filly," he added. "That's what we want. We feel that the Mildred Vessels is a race that will help us reach that goal."

Right after daughter of Corona Cartel won the Golden State on September 1, Bassett and owners Lucky Seven Ranch began considering Saturday's Millie Vessels.

"We thought about it right away," Bassett added. "The way we looked at it is that we could wait until the Los Alamitos Super Derby trials (in late October), but what if something happens and she's not as sharp for those trials? The filly is doing great right now, so we decided to take a chance and go after the Mildred Vessels. I think it's a chance worth taking."

Blues Girl Too will go over the $1.4 million mark with a win in the Mildred Vessels, a figure that has only been topped by 11 other horses in the sport's history. Blues Girl Too has a good omen in her favor, as the last two times that a sophomore has won the Go Man Go, a 3-year-old filly has won Los Alamitos' top race for distaffers. When Four Forty Blast won the 1993 Go Man Go, Down With Debt, who would be named World Champion in 1994, won the then Ann Burnett Invitational Handicap. Prior to 1993, sophomores Mr Jet Moore won the Go Man Go and Alamitos Angel won the Miss Princess Handicap in 1972.

Blues Girl Too, who'll be ridden by Saul Ramirez and will carry 124 pounds, will face an outstanding field headed by Juan Alberto Tirado Lizarraga's Apollitical Time, the 2006 champion aged horse and champion aged mare. Apollitical Time, who'll be going after her first win in four stats this year, will carry highweight of 126 pounds. Trained by Juan Aleman, she'll be aiming to become only the sixth mare to win the Millie Vessels in back-to-back years. Bardella (1953-54), She's Precious (1975-76), Sound Dash (1994-95), World Champion Dashing Folly (1996-97), and Flare For Toby (2000-2001) are the only mares to have successfully defended their Millie Vessels title.

A Regal Choice Inc's Five Bar Molly is looking to join an exclusive club as well. The nine-year-old Dash Ta Fame, who earlier this year defeated the opposite sex in the Vessels Maturity, is hoping to become only sixth mare to win both Vessels races in the same year.

The others are Dashing Folly (1997), Florentine (1988), Danville Station (1982), She's Precious (1975) and Elan Again (1974). A few other mares, like Down With Debt and Mongoose Jet Eye, won both races in their career, granted in separate years. Trained by Adan Farias, Five Bar Molly has been assigned 125 pounds in the Millie Vessels, which by the way represents her first start since winning the Vessels Maturity on June 22.

"We've been getting Five Bar Molly ready for this race," said Farias. "That's all we've been thinking about for her. She looks ready. I am surprised to see how well she's done this year, only because of her age. Physically you can't tell that she's nine. She has a good mentality and she's very sound. All Grade 1 races are tough, but I'm confident that she will perform well in the Millie Vessels. This time I'm not going in with a claimer, like in the Vessels Maturity. This time we have a horse that is a proven stakes winner."

Five Bar Molly already holds a berth to the Champion of Champions, which means that if she wins the Mildred Vessels, this berth will instead go to FDD Dynasty. That would leave Blues Girl Too chomping at the bit in the Super Derby. Right?

Felix Gonzalez's What A Performance, who upset Apollitical Time in the Grade 1 Charger Bar Handicap earlier this year, has also been assigned 125 pounds. Blazin Fire, the impressive winner of the John Deere California Distaff, is one of seven distaffers which have been assigned to carry 124 pounds. The field will be completed by Eyesa Country Miss, a half sister of champion aged stallion Country Chicks Man, Corona Crystal, California Breeders Matron Stakes winner Hold Me Now, and multiple stakes winner Mia Jones and Strength In Numbers.

Courtesy of www.losalamitos.com

PICKS FOR THE MILLIE VESSELS:

BLUES GIRL TOO
FIVE BAR MOLLY
APOLLITICAL TIME

TRI BOX

MISSED MY TRI BOX BUT DON'T EVEN CARE. THAT LITTLE GIRL IS SOMETHING ELSE. 19.30 TYING OCEAN RUNAWAY'S TRACK RECORD, WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH. BY DAYLIGHT AND UNDER WRAPS

WATCH OUT ALL YOU COLTS AND GELDINGS, GIRL POWER IS ON THE MARCH.............

COURTESY OF STALLIONESEARCH.COM & LOS ALAMITOS.COM


Blues Girl Too equals Ocean Runaway's 400 yard track record in :19.30 seconds. Photo by Scott Martinez

Blues Girl Too Equals Track Record With Millie Vessels Win



LOS ALAMITOS RACE COURSE, CYPRESS, CA—SEPTEMBER 22, 2007—Trainer Joe Bassett did his homework and the result was an historic victory for Blues Girl Too in the richest running ever of the Mildred Vessels Memorial Handicap Friday night at Los Alamitos.

Owned by Lucky Seven Ranch, Blues Girl Too earned an invitation to the $1 million Champion of Champions after tying the 400-yard track record with a length victory over Apollitical Time in the $250,000 Mildred Vessels Memorial. Blues Girl Too, ridden by Saul Ramirez Jr., won in a time of :19.30 to equal champion Ocean Runaway's clocking in the Z. Wayne Griffin Directors Trials in November of 2005.

The Corona Cartel filly also holds the fastest 400-yard time ever for a 2-year-old at Los Alamitos of :19.31, which she set in the 2006 Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity.

"We decided to nominate her to this race but we were 75 percent sure that we were not going to enter her," said owner Russell Stooks. "Then Joe called me and said that he had looked at the replays of previous races for each of the horses in the Millie Vessels, plus he had analyzed their split times of the final 1/8th of a mile. He said 'I have all the information right here and we can beat these horses.' He wanted to run her in this race."

With the decision having been made, it was then up to Blues Girl Too to defeat a field that included last year's champion aged horse Apollitical Time, Vessels Maturity winner Five Bar Molly and seven other stakes winners. Sent off as the 8-5 favorite, Blues Girl Too came through with a wire-to-wire victory.

"Joe said that Blues Girl Too was ready to run and he was confident about her chances," Stooks added. "If we didn't go in this race then he would still have to put a strong work in her to get her ready to the Los Alamitos Super Derby trials (on October 20). He said that we might as well go for the money. I've learned to listen this young man. You have to give him credit. He did his homework and it paid off."

With Bassett's job done, it was up to Ramirez to make sure that the filly's strengths on paper translated to a strong performance on the track. Ramirez, just like Blues Girl Too, was up to the task.

"She missed a step at the start," Ramirez said. "She lost her back end but she quickly regained her composure and got going. This was a tough race with a lot of nice horses. But once she broke on top, I said 'We got it.' "

Blues Girl Too, last year's champion 2-year-old, became the first sophomore filly to win the Millie Vessels since AB What A Runner in 2003. Her winning effort added $125,000 to her career bankroll, which now stands at $1,475,479. That figure makes Blues Girl Too only the 12th Quarter Horse in history to go over $1.4 million in earnings. Prior to this race, Blues Girl Too defeated the opposite sex in the Grade 1 Golden State Derby (on September 1).

"I feel that we have a really good training program in bringing a horse back from a trial race to a stakes final," Bassett said. "Right after she won the Golden State Derby, I began to think of that race as a trial and the Millie Vessels as a stakes final. We put Blues Girl Too in the training program I use after a horse qualifies to a stakes race and she responded. The first couple of days after the Golden State we kept a close eye on her to make sure that she was doing okay. I talked to her vet, Rick Overly, and asked for his opinion. He felt that she was doing great. We galloped her every other day. We wanted to keep her at her peak."

Blues Girl Too's win helped keep an obscure stat alive. Dating back to 1972, the last three times that a 3-year-old has defeated older horses in the Go Man Go Handicap, a 3-year-old filly has also defeated older mares in the Millie Vessels. Just a week ago it was Blues Girl Too's archrival, champion FDD Dynasty, winning the Go Man Go. This sophomore double also happened with Four Forty Blast and Down With Debt in 1993 and with Mr Jet Moore and Alamitos Angel in 1972.

A winner of seven of 10 career starts, Blues Girl Too will now set her sights in next month's Super Derby trials. The likes of champion FDD Dynasty and Jess You And I plus A Mere Splash, Tac It Like A Man and Valiant Hero are among the top names expected to run in the trials. Blues Girl Too will then finish what is looking like another championship campaign by facing the likes of Remington Park Championship winner Country Chicks Man, All American Derby winner Dont Let Down, Vessels Maturity winner Five Bar Molly, and Los Alamitos Winter Derby winner Volcom in the prestigious Champion of Champions on December 15.

Three-time AQHA champion Apollitical Time finished second in her bid to defend her Millie Vessels title. Owned by Juan Alberto Tirado Lizarraga and trained by Juan Aleman, Apollitical Time ran her best race of the year in the Millie Vessels. The Apollo mare earned $42,500 to take her career earnings to $888,422. She is likely to make her next start in the Los Alamitos Invitational Championship on October 15. Apollitical Time won that race last year.

Benny Rosset's Strength In Numbers ran a surprising third at 29-1 odds. "It's my daughter's birthday this week," Rosset said. "She's here watching Strength In Numbers' race, so this is a nice present for her. It's an honor to finish third in this race." The filly is a daughter of Strawfly Special.

What A Performance, winner of the Grade 1 Charger Bar Handicap earlier this year, and Five Bar Molly finished in a dead-heat for fourth. Blazin Fire, Mia Jones, Hold Me Now, Corona Crystal and Eyesa Country Miss completed the field.

Courtesy of www.losalamitos.com

She is AMAZING!!!!

It really does seem like the girls are HUGE this year!