LOS ALAMITOS, CA—JUNE 27, 2016—The Grade 1 Vessels Maturity to be held on Sunday night (July 3) at Los Alamitos will award its winner a berth to the Grade 1 $500,000 Champions Of Champions to be held on December 10.

The winner will be the third horse to earn a berth to this year’s Champion of Champions, but unfortunately the horse will be only the second possible starter to the 440-yard classic following the death of the great Moonist following complications from colic.

Moonist was the first horse to earn a berth to this year’s Champion of Champions when he won the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Winter Championship on February 15. The other horse to already hold a berth is Zoomin Effortlessly after winning the Remington Park Championship on June 4.

Moonist’s passing does open up a berth to the Champion of Champions. It’ll first go to any horse that is involved in a dead-heat in any of the remaining six Grade 1 races offering automatic starting berths to the Champion of Champions. If there are no dead-heats, then the berth will go to the winner of the Go Man Go Handicap on September 4.

Here are the six other races that Grade 1 races that will offer Champion of Champions berths: The Vessels Maturity on July 3, The All American Derby on September 4, The Mildred Vessels Memorial Handicap on September 25, The Robert L. Boniface Los Alamitos Invitational Championship on October 9, The Bank of America Challenge Championship to be held at Los Alamitos Race Course on October 29, and The Los Alamitos Super Derby on November 6.

The final two berths will be up for grabs in the Z.Wayne Griffin Directors Trials on November 13. The horses with the two fastest times in the trials will advance to the Champion of Champions. If the connections of a horse with a starting berth decline their spot in the Champion of Champions, that berth would also revert to the winner of the Go Man Go (again as long as there are no dead heats in any of the other qualifying races).

Any other available berths would be decided in the Z. Wayne Griffin Directors Trials.

The Champion of Champions was first contested at Los Alamitos in 1972 when Mr Jet Moore edged champions Kaweah Bar and Charger Bar. Since then, 28 of its 43 winners have been crowned World Champion by the AQHA, including last year's Champion of Champions winner and World Champion Heza Dasha Fire. Easy Date, Dash For Cash, Refrigerator, SLM Big Daddy, Tailor Fit and Blues Girl Too are among the World Champions that have won the sport's most prestigious race for older horses.

Courtesy of www.losalamitos.com.