Preview Racing


63 To Race In Grade 2 Robert Adair Kindergarten Futurity Trials
Reliance Ranches’ Grade 3-placed SC Money Maker will head eight trials on Sunday for the Grade 2 $321,800 Robert Adair Kindergarten Futurity at Los Alamitos.

© Coady Photography
63 To Race In Grade 2 Robert Adair Kindergarten Futurity Trials

LOS ALAMITOS, CA—MAY 4, 2018—Reliance Ranches’ homebreds SC Money Maker and SC Coronada, a pair of runners out of AQHA champion mare Spit Curl Diva, are among the 63 juveniles that will compete in trials to the $321,800 Robert Adair Kindergarten Futurity on Sunday at Los Alamitos.

A total of eight Kindergarten heats will be contested as part of the 10-race card with the 2-year-olds with the 10 fastest times in the trials advancing to the Grade 2 final to be held here on Sunday, May 20.

First post is 5:45 p.m. with the opening Kindergarten trial scheduled as race number three to be contested at 6:41 p.m. A Thoroughbred event and a maiden race for 2-year-olds will precede the Kindergarten trials.

Sired by Pyc Paint Your Wagon, SC Money Maker gets top billing in the trials by being the only runner with stakes experience. The Okahoma-bred gelding won a trial to the $371,000 Oklahoma Futurity in his racing debut on March 10 at Remington Park before finishing third in the futurity final two weeks later at 2-1 odds.

Trained by Mike Robbins, SC Money Maker arrived at Los Alamitos shortly after the Oklahoma Futurity and posted an easy 220-yard turn and work in :12.70 on April 19. With $46,670 already in his bank account, SC Money Maker is living up to his name early on in his career and will be one to watch in the ninth race on the card. This will be the seventh of eight 300-yard trials. Oscar Peinado will ride SC Money Maker from post number three.

SC Coronada broke her maiden while posting a 1-¾ length win at Los Alamitos Race Course on April 8.
© Scott Martinez
SC Money Maker’s half-sister is SC Coronada, an Oklahoma-bred filly by Coronado Cartel who shined in her racing debut when posting a 1 ¾ length win on April 8, while also posting the meet’s fastest 300-yard clocking by a 2-year-old when covering the distance in :15.53.

Robbins’ charge came into her debut after posting some terrific gate works. She had the third fastest of 25 works (:12.30) on March 6 and then had the fastest of 50 works (:12.20) on March 20. She’ll be in action in the sixth race of the night (trial number four) with leading rider Jesus Rios Ayala aboard from post number two.

SC Money Maker and SC Coronada’s dam is the great Spit Curl Diva, a multiple graded stakes winner of $829,353 in her career. Spit Curl Diva won 12 stakes races in her career with her top wins coming in the Grade 1 Refrigerator Handicap and Grade 1 AQHA Distaff Challenge in 2010. Spit Curl Diva is the dam of multiple stakes winners SC Vapor Trail (by Corona Cartel) and Stevie B First Cash (by First Down Dash).

SC Money Maker will face Legacy Ranch’s Wicked Affair in race nine. A filly by One Sweet Jess, Wicked Affair won her debut in come-from-behind fashion in a sharp time of :15.56 on April 14. To be ridden by Rios Ayala for trainer Terry Knight, Wicked Affair had bullet drills on both March 13 and March 27 and has impressed at every turn.

"Terry has liked this filly from the very beginning,” said Pete Parrella of Legacy Ranch. "We have a training track at the ranch and we had her breeze there and Terry would said, ‘We have something with this filly.’ I would say, ‘How can you tell? We’ve only just started.’ We’ve just started and now we need some racing luck from here.”

Wicked Affair will start from post number seven.

SC Coronada’s chief rival in race six figures to be Ruth Barbour, Colton O’Dell and Wendy O’Dell’s Tac Me Up, a Kiddy Up gelding with a 2 ¼ length victory in his racing debut on April 15. To be ridden by Eduardo Nicasio for trainer Chris O’Dell, Tac Me Up won his first start in :15.60. He’ll start from post number five in this trial.

"With this guy is one of those dreams come true kind of deals,” O’Dell said. "We bought him after the (Los Alamitos Equine Sale) from Firth Ranch. We’ve given him a lot of attention and he’s shown us a lot from day one. John Firth did a good job breaking him. I have a friend, Ruth Barbour, in Canada and she wanted to go in partners with me on this horse. I let her have half of the horse and (wife) Wendy and (O’Dell’s son) Colton own the rest of him. He’s a family project and we’re happy with the results. That’s what it’s all about.”

Jimmy and Marilyn Harrel’s Thrillofbeingfirst, who ran second to SC Coronada in their debuts, will face her again in this trial heat. He’s drawn the rail in this race to place him right next to SC Coronada in this event.

In addition to SC Money Maker, SC Coronada, Wicked Affair, and Tac Me Up, there are seven other winners participating in the trials. Three of those winners have been drawn together in race five (trial three) with Reliance Ranches’ Conquering Marie, Gary and Jeralyn Messenger’s Fames Prize Stone, and Salvador Pimienta’s One Berry squaring off.

Also from the barn of Mike Robbins, Conquering Marie won the first race for 2-year-olds of the season back on April 7, as she cruised to a 1 ¼ length victory in a time of :15.69. Monty Arrossa’s trainee, Fames Prize Stone, was a surprise winner in his April 15th debut at 27-1 odds while covering the distance in :15.80, while One Berry dueled throughout in her first start before coming out on top by a head for trainer Felix Gonzalez on April 20 in a time of :15.84. One Berry’s mother is Blackberry Czech, who won the Kindergarten Futurity in 2012.

EG High Desert Farms’ Fast Amanda Rose and Dennis Jensen and Randy Young’s Budbreak and, a pair of debut winners here on April 13, have been drawn together in race four (trial number two) on Sunday. Fast Amanda Rose won in a time of :15.55 on that night, while Budbreak covered the distance in :15.56.

"Dennis Jensen and Randy Young bought Budbreak here at the Los Alamitos Equine Sale and we took him back to Idaho,” Arrossa began. "Romero Fregoso, who runs my operation in Idaho broke him. (Budbreak) was a bit of a tough customer. He wanted to buck. He gave us a little bit of trouble early. Once he got going, the guys told me that they really liked him. They shipped him down here and he put in two great works. I thought he ran pretty professional on the outside.”

Budbreak will start from the outside post eight, while Fast Amanda Rose has drawn the number four post. He’s from the family of Grade 1 winning champions First Sovereign and Royal Quick Dash and Los Alamitos Million Futurity winner A Regal Choice.

Reliance Ranches will be represented by another homebred winner in the form of Pack Light in the eighth race (trial number six). The One Famous Eagle filly won her debut by a half length in a time of :15.68.

She’ll be facing the highly regarded Coe Man 47, who was second to Budbreak in his debut, and Andrea and Eddie Jensen’s One Way Woman, who finished second to Fast Amanda Rose.

Arrossa trains One Way Woman and will also saddle Stevieb Flashofcash in the final race of the night. The First Moonflash gelding has drawn the outside post eight in this event and will take on a field that includes Ed Allred’s Like His Chances and Reliance Ranches’ Charging Corona. The remaining two trials will feature Quick To Royalty, Jess Motions, First Habits plus five others in the opening trial and All Told, Legally Hott and five others in the seventh race (trial five).

For the Kindergarten Futurity trials consensus selections CLICK HERE.

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Courtesy of www.losalamitos.com.