Ecstatik (#8), under jockey Rodrigo Aceves, gets up over In The Mode (#1) to win the $35,000 La Pacifica Handicap at Los Alamitos Race Course Saturday night.

© Amber Mendez

LOS ALAMITOS, CA–MAY 4, 2024–Sent off as the longest shot on the board at odds of 26-1, Ecstatik completed a wild night of high-priced winners after taking the $35,000 La Pacifica Handicap by a neck on Saturday at Los Alamitos.

Owned by Nathali Pacheco. Ricardo Pineda and Salvador Pineda, Ecstatik was not even the biggest longshot winner of the night, as that honor belonged to Jeryl Hartley’s Fyrestorm, who won the fourth race at 36-1 odds.

The evening also featured two upset winners owned by Ed Allred, as Mitchum took the seventh race at 16-1 odds before Be Careful won the eighth at 14-1 odds. With Mitchum, Be Careful and Ecstatik closing out the nine-race card, the $1 Pick Four paid $13,021 and the Place Pick All returned $4,651.

No one had six or even five out of six in the $2 Pick 6. Tickets with four out of six returned $610.60. 

Trainer Adan Farias and jockey Rodrigo Aceves were ecstatic with their longshot winner Ecstatik in the La Pacific for 3-year-old fillies, as the daughter of Favorite Carte left sharply from post eight, took the lead at the midway point and held off Allred’s In The Mode to win for the second time in nine career starts. The Steve Burns-bred filly is on a roll after picking up her maiden victory in her previous start.

"Recently, every time we’ve been (around) 25-1, we’ve won the race," said a smiling Farias. "She’s been doing things better and better. She’s always excited and she’s a hot filly. She put it all together today. When she broke well, I thought that she was going to be tough at the end. Rodrigo always does a good job for us. He rode Ecstatik’s mother, My Lady First, and made like $500,000 with her. He knows that family already."

With Farias training her, My Lady First earned $526,933 during her 29-race career. Her achievements included 11 victories and graded stakes wins in the 2010 Grade 2 Bank of America Los Alamitos Championship Challenge and in 2009 Restricted Grade 3 California Breeders Matron Stakes.

She also won six qualifying trials to Grade 1 stakes races and was second in the Grade 1 Mildred Vessels Memorial Handicap.

Ecstatik earned $19,250 for the win to take her career earnings to $29,248. For Aceves, who earlier on the night picked up this mount in place of Ricardo Ramirez, this marked his 1,924 Quarter Horse win. Aceves ranks 18th all-time in career earnings on Quarter Horses with $27,499,588. This was Farias’ 1,164th Quarter Horse training win.

Ridden by Gabriel Lara for trainer Scott Willoughby, In The Mode earned $7,875 for her runner-effort. A finalist to the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Oaks in her last start, In The Mode has earned $51,490 in her career.

J. Francisco Diaz’s Checkn Cartel finished third and was followed by Angel Soul, Budderhomesngarden, Trending Right, Pacifica, Market Analyst, and Keep Going.

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