Preview Racing


18 Top Older Horses To Race In Brad Mckinzie Trials On Sunday
BH Lisas Boy will be among 18 hopefuls staring in trials to the Grade 1, $157,200 Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship on Sunday night.

© Scott Martinez
18 Top Older Horses To Race In Brad Mckinzie Trials On Sunday

LOS ALAMITOS, CA—JANUARY 19, 2019—Idaho-breds BH Lisas Boy and Zoomin For Spuds, who were recognized this past Thursday at the AQHA Racing Champions Ceremony for having earned Supreme Race Horse honors, will make their 2019 racing debuts when they join a tremendous lineup of 18 older horses in the trials to the Grade 1, $157,200 Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship on Sunday night.

A pair of 400-yard trials – each featuring a star-studded nine-horse field - will be contested with the horses with the 10 fastest times advancing to the Winter Championship final to be held on Sunday, February 10. The winner of the Winter Championship will earn a provisional berth to the 2019, $600,000 Champion of Champions.

Bill Hoburg’s BH Lisas Boy will start his quest towards the first ever three-time winner of the Winter Championship when he races in the second of two trials. The gelding by Mighty Invictus will be piloted by Cesar Franco for the first time, as Franco takes over the mount in place of another Cesar, the recently retired leading rider Cesar De Alba.

Franco has experience aboard BH Lisas Boy, as he has worked with the horse during morning training hours. BH Lisas Boy earned the Supreme Race Horse title last year. The award recognizes Quarter Horses that earn $500,000 or more, win two or more open Grade 1 stakes races and at least 10 races. BH Lisas Boy, who was bred and is trained by Hoburg of Kennewick, Washington, checked the final box for Supreme Race Horse title when he won the Brad McKinzie Winter Championship, as his first place earnings from that race of $66,045 took his career earnings to $519,243.

The now 7-year-old superstar out of the Snowbound (TB) mare Apollo Snowbound has 37 career starts with 20 wins and total earnings of $757,662. In addition to his back-to-back Winter Championship wins, he’s won the 2017 Grade 1 Vessels Maturity and the 2018 Grade 1 Bank of America Championship Challenge. He’s also won a total of eight stakes races at Los Alamitos. BH Lisas Boy will start from post number two in the second trial.

The other top runners in this race include former Champion of Champions finalists He Looks Hot, Yanque and Da One Two Special plus 2018 AQHA South American champion Corona Jumpin MRL.

Ed Allred’s He Looks Hot will go over the $1.2 million mark in career earnings with a victory in this trial. The 7-year-old gelding by Walk Thru Fire and out of the Check Him Out mare Look Her Over is only $1,981 shy from that lofty earnings mark. Only 60 Quarter Horses in the sport’s history have gone over $1.2 million in career earnings.

To be ridden by Vinnie Bednar for trainer Scott Willoughby, He Looks Hot is the richest racehorse currently stabled at Los Alamitos. A winner in nine of 28 career starts, He Looks Hot is only one win away from earning the AQHA Supreme Race Horse title. The three-time open Grade 1 winner, He Looks Hot will start from post number nine in this trial.

Katies Easy Moves and Royaltys Authority, a pair of stakes winners at Los Alamitos in 2018, Firey Colt and My Favorite Check will complete the field for this trial.

There are four 2018 Grade 1 winners in the second trials headed by Jim Walker’s homebred Supreme Race Horse Zoomin For Spuds. The now 6-year-old gelding has won 12 of 35 career starts and has earned $709,566. He’s one of only 15 Quarter Horse to have 10 stakes wins at Los Alamitos. He’s also a two-time Grade 1 winner at the Orange County track, scoring in the 2016 Champion of Champions and 2018 Vessels Maturity. Sired by Zoomin For Bux and out of the Corona Cocktail mare A Perfect Cocktail, Zoomin For Spuds was named the AQHA champion 3-year-old gelding in 2016. Jesus Rios Ayala will ride the Monty Arrossa-trainee.

The other major 2018 winners in this race are A1A Racing’s Tarzanito, the newly named the AQHA champion aged stallion and Grade 1 Go Man Go Handicap winner; Lesley Joyner’s Jesstacartel, the winner of the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Super Derby and runner-up to 2018 AQHA World Champion Bodacious Eagle in the Champion of Champions last year; and EG High Desert Farms’ Jess Ravin, the winner of the Grade 1 Mildred Vessels Memorial Handicap plus six other stakes races at Los Alamitos. Zoomin For Spuds, Tarzanito, Jesstacartel, and Jess Ravin are all coming out of the Champion of Champions. Valeriano Racing Stables LLC’s LD Is Back will also be in action in this trial and like the aforementioned four is also exiting the Champion of Champions, where he finished a solid fifth after challenging for the early lead.

Eyes The Favorite is the sentimental choice in this race, as he raced for Tom Bradbury, who passed away over a week ago. Bradbury owned the Favorite Cartel gelding in partnership with his children Tom Bradbury Jr. and Lisa Beauprez and Paul Jones. Eyes The Favorite finished second in the Southern California Derby in his last start on December 14. Chance To Fire, Apollitical Stone, and Clondike will complete the field.

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Courtesy of www.losalamitos.com.