LOS ALAMITOS, CA—JULY 9, 2017—Dutch Masters III’s Chazaq, the winner of the Grade 1 Ed Burke Million Futurity last year, enjoyed a sensational 2017 debut after posting a two-length victory in a meet’s best 300-yard time of :15.159 on Sunday at Los Alamitos.

Making his first start since the trials to the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity on November 20, Chazaq flew from post number four on the way to winning the fifth race, a $12,000 allowance for 3 and 4-year-olds which had not won a race in 2017, with jockey Rodrigo Aceves aboard. Chazaq’s winning time bettered the meet’s previous fastest time of :15.161 set by Ed Allred’s Bemused on January 20.

Trained by Jaime Gomez, Chazaq came into this race after a tremendous morning gate drill of :17.60 on June 13. The gate work was a big clue that Chazaq was back in his Grade 1 winning form after having surgery to clean up some bone chips.

"I’ve been doing this for almost 40 years and I haven’t had good luck (with horses) coming back after surgery, but Chazaq showed us so much talent." owner James Streelman said. "His injuries were minor, very tiny, like a cloud of (bone) chips. It’s been eight months since he’s run and my goodness he was ready."

Bred in Texas by Bobby Cox, Chazaq has won five of eight career starts with second place finishes in his other three outings. He earned $6,000 for the win to take his lifetime earnings to $537,415. The bay colt is by Corona Cartel out of All About Ease, by First Down Dash.

"He’s in the rest of the derbies, the Golden State Derby, Los Alamitos Super Derby, Southern California Derby," Streelman added. “We’d love to see him in the Champion of Champions."

We Like Corona, Strawfinders Jessee, Racy High Roller, and Free Swinger completed the field.

Courtesy of www.losalamitos.com.