CARTER'S CARTEL

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Double Bar S Ranch's Carters Cartel will run in Saturday's trials at Los Alamitos. Photo by Scott Martinez



Carters Cartel To Run in Rich Breeders Cup Trials



LOS ALAMITOS RACE COURSE, CYPRESS, CA—SEPTEMBER 20, 2007—Double Bar S Ranch LLC's Carters Cartel, one of the top two-year-olds in the nation, and certainly the number one freshman at Los Alamitos, will headline Saturday's sixth of seven trials to the richest running ever of the PCQHRA Breeders Futurity.
The Breeders Futurity final will have an estimated purse of $484,000 - 7.5 percent higher than the previous stakes record purse of $450,000 posted last year. The 350-yard Breeders Futurity final will be held on Saturday, October 6.

Carters Cartel, trained by Jaime Gomez and ridden by Alejandro Luna, has won the two open Grade 1 futurities contested at Orange County this season. He won the $366,100 Kindergarten Futurity by a neck before coming away victorious in the $1,130,000 Ed Burke Million Futurity on June 23. His Ed Burke win made the son of Corona Cartel eligible to the $1 million Los Alamitos Cash Bonanza, which serves as the track's version of the Triple Crown.

Carters Cartel would earn Double Bar S Ranch LLC a $1 million bonus if he goes on to win the Golden State Million Futurity in November and Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity in December. With the Cash Bonanza chase looming ahead, Carters Cartel's entry in the Breeders Futurity trials was a bit surprising. Gomez believes that these trials would set up Carters Cartel perfectly for the Golden State trials to be held on October 19.

"Carters Cartel is ready to run right now," Gomez said. "That's why he's going in Saturday's trials. He's fresh and extremely sound. We want Carters Cartel to have a race before the Golden State trials because it's not easy to qualify to the Golden State without racing since the Ed Burke. You're talking four months without a start between the Ed Burke and Golden State trials. That's a tough task."

Gomez gave Carters Cartel a brief vacation before calling the bay colt back to training. "We've been bringing him along slowly," Gomez said. "We've been galloping him for a while now. We gave him a work and he did well. We're going to school him in the paddock this week. I want to make sure that he's feeling ready for Saturday."

Two years ago, Gomez was in a similar spot with Higher Fire, who at the time was also eligible to win the Cash Bonanza. The brilliant champion filly had run third in the Kindergarten before scoring a superb victory in the Ed Burke Million. After that race, Gomez rested Higher Fire until the Golden State trials, a strategy that nearly backfired as she ran third in that qualifier, while nearly missing out on the final. Higher Fire did go on to win the Golden State Million and only a huge effort from Value The Man kept her from also claiming the Los Alamitos Two Million.

"What I learned from the Higher Fire experience is how difficult it is for a horse to qualify to a race of the quality of the Golden State without a race between June and October. Look at the great FDD Dynasty last year. He also won the Ed Burke and didn't race again until the Golden State trials. Like Higher Fire, he nearly missed qualifying as well. I love Carters Cartel. He's an awesome horse and I think running him in these trials give him the best chance to do well in the Golden State trials."

Carters Cartel will face the talented TR Dasher gelding Freaky in the sixth trial. Owned by Ed Allred and trained by Scott Willoughby, Freaky ran in both the Kindergarten and Ed Burke Million finals.

Eye For Corona, the runner-up in the Ed Burke Million, and Bikers Bono, who finished third in the Governor's Cup Futurity, will square off in the seventh division of these trials. Eye For Corona, another Corona Cartel offspring, has also been away from the track since taking on Carters Cartel in that $1,130,000 race on June 23, while Bikers Bono, a gelding by Bono Jazz, has not raced since the Governor's Cup on July 28. Owned by Keilani Farms, Eye For Corona did post a sizzling :11.80 gate work on September 1 in preparation for this race. Allred, Cozby, Smith, Vessels, Et Al's First Icy Morn, who ran fifth in the Governor's Cup, will compete in this trial.

Allred's Daddy Dasher, the Kindergarten runner-up, will headline the third trial. Also sired by TR Dasher, the sorrel gelding was an easy winner in his first two starts before running a heck of a race in the Kindergarten. He broke ahead of Carters Cartel but then lost the lead to his now famous rival. Daddy Dasher trailed by a half-length with 220 yards to go before eventually closing ground to only lose by a neck. Daddy Dasher figures to love the extra distance here. Willoughby trains the gelding, who drilled 350 yards from the gate in :17.80. Perksandmiracles and Nolan Riley, a pair of horses that ran in the Ed Burke Juvenile stakes, figure to be among Daddy Dasher's main rivals.

Allred could have a huge night in these trials, as Really A First will represent him in the opening division and Shrug in the second. The latter is a half-brother to champions Hawkish and Hawkinson. Hawkish won the Breeders Futurity in 2003. Keilani Farms' Tailgunner Tom, who is back to Los Alamitos after running in the All American Futurity trials last month, will headline the fourth trial, while Double Bar S Ranch LLC's Azure Down There is one to watch in the fifth heat. By the way, there are 16 horses in the trials that went through the sale ring at last year's Los Alamitos Equine Sale.

Courtesy of www.losalamitos.com