Preview Racing


One Proud Eagle Leads Top Group In Los Alamitos Winter Derby On Saturday
Kindergarten Futurity winner One Proud Eagle will be among a full field of hopeful's set to start n Saturday's Grade 1 $224,900 Los Alamitos Winter Derby.

© Scott Martinez
One Proud Eagle Leads Top Group In Los Alamitos Winter Derby On Saturday

LOS ALAMITOS, CA—FEBRUARY 10, 2017— Headed by stakes winners One Proud Eagle, Bannister and Jess Hawk, nine talented sophomores with a combined record of 33 wins in 78 career starts will face off in the Grade 1, $224,900 Los Alamitos Winter Derby at 400 yards on Saturday night.

First post is 6 p.m. with the Winter Derby scheduled as the ninth and final race on the card.

Denny and Sandy Weigt's Bannister will come into the race with the most victories to his name with seven. A pair of those wins came in stakes races. The Maknmoves gelding won the Wild West Futurity here last autumn and the Beehive Futurity on a Friday afternoon at Webber Downs in Ogden, Utah.

Bred in Oklahoma by J. Garvan Kelly and Nancy Yearsley, Bannister was purchased for $6,200 at the Heritage Place Sale in 2015. Bannister's dam is Goddess Artemis, a half-sister to El Primero Del Ano Derby winner Dutch Schultz and Southern California Derby winner Spike It And Fly.

Monty Arrossa will saddle the talented Bannister, a winner of $96,541 in his 10-race career. Cesar De Alba, the leading Quarter Horse rider at Los Alamitos last season, will ride Bannister from post three.

The biggest stakes winner of the group is Ron Hartley's One Proud Eagle, as the dashing gray by One Famous Eagle has already won three stakes races at Los Alamitos. The homebred runner won the Kindergarten Futurity in the spring and John Deere Juvenile Challenge Championship in the fall. He capped the year off by winning the Holiday Handicap during the final weekend of the year on December 30. Tony Guymon will ride the John Cooper-trained runner from post six.

EG High Desert Farms' Jess Hawk raced to her fifth career victory while posting the fastest qualifying time to Los Alamitos Winter Derby. The homebred filly by One Sweet Jess led from start to finish and defeated qualifiers Imaptpie and One Proud Eagle in the process. ,p> Her dam is Merridoc Hawk, which won five stakes races at Los Alamitos for EG High Desert Farms, including the Grade 1 Mildred Vessels Memorial Handicap in 2010. Like her mother, Jess Hawk is a stakes winner at Los Alamitos. She won the Pat Hyland Handicap over colts and geldings last year and was third in both the Holiday Handicap and Autumn Handicap. A winner of five races, Jess Hawk has hit the board in seven of her eight stats. Jesus Rios Ayala will ride the filly for trainer Yanet Rodriguez.

Dutch Masters III will be represented by two runners in the Winter Derby final. Imaqtpie, a filly by One Famous Eagle out of the three-time stakes winner Sizzling, finished with the third fastest qualifying time, while Katella Deli, which Dutch Masters III co-owns with Paul Blanchard, is another top contender in this race.

The fifth fastest qualifier come into this event, Katella Deli ran third in the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity last year. He's the only horse in the Winter Derby to have raced in the Two Million Futurity. Jaime Gomez trains Imaqtpie and Katella Deli.

Abigail Kawananakoa will also have two runners in this event. Jouet With Fire has caught the eye of many sharp handicappers in his last two starts, including his superb finish in the trials when moving up from fifth place to second when taking on multiple stakes finalist Kiddy Up Cowgirl. Staggering Stride, from the family of champion FDD Dynasty, will also run for Kawananakoa.

The aforementioned Kiddy Up Cowgirl and Blueeyedeagle will complete the field.

Courtesy of www.losalamitos.com.