LOS ALAMITOS, CA—NOVEMBER 22, 2017—Spackman Racing’s Time For Jess will make her final start before racing in the Grade 1 $750,000 Champion of Champions when she takes on a full field of top distaffers in the Grade 3, $50,000 Las Damas Handicap on Saturday at Los Alamitos.

The 400-yard feature is scheduled as the eighth and final race on the evening card.

Lin Melton, who trains Time For Jess, has said in the past that the Grade 1 winning mare does not like to train. “She prefers racing,” Melton has said in the past.

With that in mind, Melton has opted for running her in the Las Damas instead of giving her another work prior to the Champion of Champions, which will be held at 440 yards here on Saturday, December 16.

Time For Jess won her berth to the Champion of Champions after beating Jess Good Reason in the Grade 1 Mildred Vessels Memorial Handicap on September 24. The Las Damas marks her first start since winning the Mildred Vessels. Cesar De Alba will ride the Apollitical Jess mare from post number seven.

Other top names in the Las Damas include Matron Stakes winner Maggie Durant, who earlier this year finished second to her stablemate Time For Jess in the Merial Distaff Challenge.

Oscar Andrade and Steve Burns’ Jess Mas, the fourth place finisher in the Los Alamitos Super Derby on November 12, will start from the outside post 10 in the Las Damas.

Parsons Family Limited Partnerships’ Thermonuclear Energy, fourth in the Mildred Vessels and sixth in the Grade 1 Robert Boniface Los Alamitos Championship, is among the 10 females in this race.

Courtesy of www.losalamitos.com.