Great Racing Weekend Ahead At Los Alamitos

COURTESY OF LOS ALAMITOS AND STALLIONESEARCH




Great Racing Weekend Ahead At Los Alamitos




LOS ALAMITOS RACE COURSE, CYPRESS, CA— A great week of racing is on tap at Los Alamitos starting with Thursday's eight-race program June 21.
No Secrets Here Vs. Jess You And I

All American Futurity winner No Secrets Here and champion 2-year-old gelding Jess You And I will battle it out in a 350-yard race worthy of stakes status Thursday at Los Alamitos. The two superstars will be involved in a mouth-watering $14,300 allowance test, which will go as the sixth race in the eight-race card.

Owned by Benny Rosset and Vessels Stallion Farm, No Secrets Here led the nation in earning's last season, having pocketed $1,375,745 in eight starts. His most memorable effort was his record setting performance in the All American, when Cody Jensen piloted him to a :20.88 second victory in the 440-yard race. Not only was this a stakes record, No Secrets Here became the first horse ever to break 21 seconds in the All American.

Sired by the great First Down Dash, No Secrets Here had several other important performances. Trained by Paul Jones, he also ran third in both the Grade 1 Ed Burke Million Futurity and the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity. No Secrets Here will go in this race after working 220 yards in :12.70 on May 11 and 350 yards from the gate in :17.90 on June 2.

"I was surprised to see Jess You And I in this race but No Secrets Here is ready to run," Jones said. "You have a couple of other good horses in that race so the competition is going to be tough. I think it's going to be a very fast race."

No Secrets Here will travel to Ruidoso Downs after this race in order to prepare for the All American Derby trials to be held in mid August.

"He'll leave here a week or two after this race," Jones added.

Racing for Double Bar S Ranch LLC and trainer Jaime Gomez, Jess You And I is expected to remain in California the entire year. The son of Feature Mr Jess won the Grade 1 Golden State Million Futurity in stakes record time last November and was fourth in the Los Alamitos Two Million, which was his only loss in his outstanding six-race freshman campaign.

"I figured that we would run into No Secrets Here in this race," Gomez said. "I heard that he was going to Ruidoso for the All American and this looked like a natural spot to run him. Jess You And I is not paid into any derbies until the Los Alamitos Super Derby in late fall but he's ready to run. We could have kept working in the morning again and again until the Super Derby but I figured that we might as well run him for some purse money. Plus, I think the fans will get a kick out of seeing a great race featuring Jess You And I, No Secrets Here and several other nice horses. We'll see what happens. I really want to win this race and I think we have a great chance to do so."

To be ridden by Alejandro Luna, Jess You And I worked 350 yards from the gate in :18 flat on May 29.

Ed Allred and Tom Seibly's Ten Oclock Scholar will also compete in this allowance race. A finalist in last year's Ed Burke Million Futurity, the son of Bono Jazz was moved up from fourth to third following a disqualification in the Town Policy Handicap in his season debut on May 26. Ten Oclock Scholar will be making his second start for trainer Dan Francisco. Rodrigo Aceves will ride. First Dinastia, a full brother to champion colt FDD Dynasty, Dutch Masters III's Check This Beduino and Oliverio Parra's Keep The Sign will complete the field. The latter was claimed for $16,000 in his previous start and now runs for trainer Jesus Nunez.

Vessels Maturity On Friday

A berth to the $1 million Champion of Champions is up for grabs on Friday night when 10 older horses will run in the Grade 1 Vessels Maturity. Paul Jones appears to be holding a solid hand in this race, as he'll saddle Los Alamitos Winter Championship winner Volcom and the talented graded winner Dutch Schultz.

Volcom already holds a berth to the Champion of Champions through his Winter Championship victory. Remington Park Championship winner Country Chicks Man is the only other horse that already secured his berth into the first ever million-dollar Champion of Champions race.

An interesting storyline in the Vessels Maturity is Five Bar Molly, who at the age of nine and with sons and daughters currently competing at Los Alamitos, would become the oldest horse ever to win the Vessels Maturity.

Ed Burke Million On Saturday

The identity of the winner of the first leg of the $1 million Los Alamitos Cash Bonanza will be revealed on Saturday evening when 2-year-olds compete in the $1,130,000 Ed Burke Million Futurity at 350 yards.

The Cash Bonanza is the track's version of the Triple Crown and in addition to the Ed Burke Million also consists of the Golden State Million Futurity in November and the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity in December. Any horse that can sweep these three races will earn a $1 million cash bonus. No horse has ever claimed the Cash Bonanza since its inception in 1998.

Carters Cartel, a Corona Cartel colt owned byDouble Bar S Ranch LLC, will look to become only the eighth horse to win both the Kindergarten and Ed Burke. The Kindergarten dates back to 1955 while the Ed Burke was known as the PCQHRA Futurity when it first started in 1951. Champion Hawkish is the last horse to sweep both races, pulling this futurity double in 2003. Bobbys Delight (1975), Town Policy (1977), Corona Chick (1991), Ah Sigh (1994), First Sovereign (1998) and Morning Snow (2002) are the others to accomplish the feat. Jaime Gomez, who trains Carters Cartel, won this race in 2005 with Higher Fire.

There are several other great storylines going into the Ed Burke, including that of trainer Blane Schvaneveldt. The Hall of Fame horseman has dealt a series of serious back surgeries over the past year and a victory in the Ed Burke would provide him with a glorious return to Quarter Horse racing's spotlight. Schvaneveldt will saddle Tres Spice in the Ed Burke in search of his seventh win in this race and first since '98. Eddie Garcia, the all-time leading stakes winner at Los Alamitos, will ride the Tres Seis filly in search of his first Ed Burke win ever. He will not, however, be the first Eddie Garcia to be associated with an Ed Burke winner, as he shares the name with the owner and trainer of the 1958 winner El Diablito.

Co-owners Ed Allred and T.J. Simers and the undefeated Kiddy Up provide another nice story going into the Ed Burke Million. The first $50,000 that the Corona Cartel colt earns will be donated to the Mattel's Children Hospital in Los Angeles. Kiddy Up will reach the $50,000 mark by finishing sixth or better in the Ed Burke. Simers writes the "Page 2" sports column in the LA Times and also has his own sports talk radio show.

Owner Abigail Kawananakoa will surely bring along her plant of clovers when she goes after her first Ed Burke victory with the undefeated Corona Cartel filly Wicked Royal Cartel. Kawananakoa had a plant of clovers with her when she won the All American Futurity with A Classic Dash in 1993. By the way, there are approximately 10,000 three-leaf clovers for every four-leaf clover.

Mike Joiner, who saddled the winner of last year's Ed Burke Million, will send out two horses this time around in Eye For Corona and the maiden Tailgunner Tom, both offspring of Corona Cartel.

Courtesy of www.losalamitos.com