LOS ALAMITOS, CA—MAY 13, 2018—The Revenant, Ditto Head, and Yanque are all familiar faces in major stakes races at Los Alamitos. Over the course of their respective careers, the three California-bred geldings have each qualified to four major stakes races at the Orange County oval, but are all still searching for a stakes win.

That could change for at least one of them on Saturday night, as The Revenant, Ditto Head, and Yanque are three of the top contenders in the evening’s feature event, the $25,000 Dillingham Handicap at 400 yards.

A total of nine horses will be in action in the Dillingham with the aforementioned sprinters coming in as the three richest among the Quarter Horses in this race.

Ron Hartley’s The Revenant has by far and away the biggest money winner in the Dillingham field. To be ridden by Cesar De Alba for trainer John Cooper, The Favorite Cartel gelding has earned $169,507 from four wins in 11 starts.

His top stakes efforts have come in the Governor’s Cup Futurity and PCQHRA Breeders Futurity, where he finished third in both. He also qualified to the Grade 1 Golden State Million Futurity and most recently ran fourth in the Grade 3 El Primero Del Ano Derby. He’ll start from post two in the Dillingham.

With $90,883 in his bank account, Fortuna Properties, Inc’s Ditto Head is the next leading money winner in the Dillingham lineup. The Mike Casselman-trainee has qualified to the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity and Grade 1 Los Alamitos Winter Derby and also the Grade 3 El Primero Del Ano Derby and Governor’s Cup Futurity. His best finish in those events was a fifth place in the El Primero on March 31.

However, the Foose gelding has won three of his stakes trials and ran second in the other one. Perhaps, the fact that he’s fresh heading into the Dillingham could lead for him to have a big race from post one on Saturday night. Likewise, Martha Wells’ Yanque is a perfect four for four in stakes trials, but has yet to return to win a final. But the Dillingham could be right up his alley, as he’ll also come in fresh as his last start also came in the El Primero.

The son of Favorite Cartel has been impressive in winning trials to the Governor’s Cup Futurity, Wild West Futurity, Los Alamitos Winter Derby, and El Primero Del Ano Derby, and to his credit he did run a huge race in the Winter Derby rallying from 10th at the start to finish second by a neck to Jess My Kiss. To be ridden by Erasmo Gasca, the Matt Fales-trainee will be going after his sixth win in 14 career starts.

Randy Dickerson and Nick Lowe’s CM Boom Shakalaka and Spackman Racing and Lin Melton’s Dont Foose With Me finished 1-2 in the James Smith Memorial Handicap on April 6 and now return to action looking for big results in the Dillingham Handicap.

The Lowe-trained and Oregon-bred CM Boom Shakalaka showed a big late kick in rallying to win the James Smith. He displayed a similar punch when winning his Los Alamitos Winter Derby trial, but in the final the Carters Cartel gelding flew away from the gate to take the early lead but was overcome by the field on the way running fifth. In his career, CM Boom Shakalaka has shown a penchant for winning races. He has seven wins in 10 starts and figures to contend here from the outside post nine.

Dont Foose With Me has finished in the money in three of his stakes outings, most notably when running second in last year’s Robert Adair Kindergarten Futurity. In the James Smith, Dont Foose With Me made an even bigger closing move than CM Boom Shakalaka, rallying from fifth place to run second by a nose.

The Foose gelidng is not the fastest out of the gate, but if he gets going and has running room, he’ll make his presence known in the later stages of this 400-yard stakes race.

Rosenthal Ranch LLC’s Effortless Effort, also by Favoirte Cartel, will be looking to regain his winning ways after not visiting the winner’s circle in his last five starts. Effortless Effort won his first three career starts, but his best result since then is a third place finish in a trial to the PCQHRA Breeders Futurity last September.

The Dillingham will be his second start of 2018 and could fight for a top spot after being drawn next to Ditto Head and The Revenant. Ed Allred’s Kindergarten finalist Seems Even Better, Paul Otavio Freire Macedo’s PCQHRA Breeders Futurity finalist King of Appeals MV, and Butte Crest Ranch and James Glenn Jr’s No Kiddin will complete the nine horse field in the Dillingham.

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Courtesy of www.losalamitos.com.