Racing


Love To Reason Br Holds Off Defending Winner To Take Las Damas Handicap At Los Alamitos
Love To Reason Br (#4) runs down Thermonuclear Energy (#5) Jess Mas (#1) in the $50,000 Grade 3 Las Damas Handicap at Los Alamitos Race Course.

© Scott Martinez
Love To Reason Br Holds Off Defending Winner To Take Las Damas Handicap At Los Alamitos

LOS ALAMITOS, CA—NOVEMBER 24, 2018—Mario Hurtado's Love To Reason BR stopped Thermonuclear Energy's bid to win back-to-back runnings of the Grade 3, $50,000 Las Damas Handicap after outdueling her talented rival by a head in the 400-yard race on Saturday at Los Alamitos.

Ridden by Jose Nicasio, Love To Reason BR was first at the start of the Las Damas, but Thermonuclear Energy quickly recovered to take a slight lead during the middle part of the race. Love To Reason BR rallied back in the final yards to score her second stakes victory in three career starts at Los Alamitos.

Bred by Benny Rosset, the 5-year-old mare, by two-time AQHA champion Good Reason SA and out of the Grade 1 stakes winning Strawfly Special daughter Strength In Numbers, covered the distance in :19.854. This was her fifth win in 18 career starts and her Las Damas earnings of $27,500 pushed her lifetime bankroll to $67,949.

The winning connections of Love To Reason Br, owner Mario Hurtado (left) and trainer Monty Arrossa accept the Las Damas Handicap stakes trophy at Los Alamitos Race Course Saturday night. © Scott Martinez
Trained Monty Arrossa, Love to Reason BR won the Blane Schvaneveldt Handicap against the boys in her local debut on October 5 before running fourth, again versus the opposite sex, in the John Ward Handicap on October 27. She was also a stakes winner at Sun Downs in Kennewick, Washington earlier this year.

"I bought her here in California as a 2-year-old (in 2015)," Hurtado said. "Monty trained her and ran her during her 2-year-old campaign. She got a little bit hurt. We turned her out and brought her back as a 3-year-old and ran a couple of races. She was not quite herself so we turned her out. We put her out in the pasture and just turned her out for almost (two) years. One day I just looked at her in the field and just decided to bring her back. Here we are."

Love To Reason Br, who has won three of seven starts in 2018, has breeding lines oozing with class. Her sire, the late Good Reason SA, won the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity in 209, the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Winter Championship in 2011 and the Grade 1 Champion of Champions also in 2011. Her dam is the last mare to win the Grade 1 Robert Boniface Los Alamitos Invitational Championship when accomplishing the feat in 2007.

"I didn't know the mother," Hurtado said. "I knew the father was coming out with his first crop and I wanted one. I bid on a couple of them and didn't get them. Then I got her. This will be my sixth year (racing) horses. I've run mostly in Idaho. I've been coming to Los Alamitos for the last two or three years. (She) is my second one here. She's been doing (well). I like it."

It was Nicasio vs. Nicasio down the straightaway in the Las Damas, as Thermonuclear Energy was ridden by Jose's older brother, Eduardo.

For a few moments it looked like the 5-year-old Walk Thru Fire mare was going to sail past Love To Reason BR and claim her second straight Las Damas victory. In the end, Thermonuclear Energy settled for strong second for trainer Chris O'Dell. She earned $11,250 for the effort to take her career earnings to $332,882. A winner of nine of 25 career starts, the Parsons Family Limited Partnership-homebred has finished in the money in 19 of those outings.

Oscar Andrade Sr. and Steve Burns' Jess Mas finished third for the second year in a row in the Las Damas. The One Sweet Jess mare has hit the board in 14 of 27 career starts. She was ridden by the 17-year-old pilot Oscar Andrade, Jr.

Elicity, Splendid Cause, Zendaya, Matilda Czech, and Remember To Dash completed the field.

Courtesy of www.losalamitos.com.