LOS ALAMITOS, CA—FEBRUARY 6, 2020—The first provisional berth to the 2020 Champion of Champions will be decided on Sunday night when nine older horses face off in the Grade 1, $159,550 Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship at 400 yards.

Run for the first time in 2001, past winners of the Winter Championship have included an impressive list of AQHA champions that includes Zoomin For Spuds, Matabari, Moonist, Rylees Boy, Good Reason SA, Freaky, Jess You And I, Volcom, Corona Kool, Hawkinson and more.

The only two-time winners in the race BH Lisas Boy and 2002 Co-World Champion Whosleavingwho.

Now in its 20th running, the Winter Championship will feature a nice mix of familiar stars and fresh faces squaring off for a chance at a starting berth in the most prestigious race for older Quarter Horses, the $600,000 Champion of Champions to be held on Saturday, December 12.

Rosenthal Ranch’s Powerful Favorite and Mark and Peggy Brown’s Jess My Kiss will get top billing in this race as they’ll each look to sweep the Winter Stakes Series. Powerful Favorite won the (G1) Winter Derby in 2019, while Jess My Kiss was the winner of the (G1) Winter Derby in 2018. Whosleavingwho and A Stoli Mare are the only horses to have won both the Winter Derby and Winter Championship.

To be ridden by Eduardo Nicasio for AQHA champion trainer Chris O’Dell, Powerful Favorite had a monster season in 2019. The son of Favorite Cartel won seven of eight starts with the Winter Derby being his first of three derby victories last year.

After winning the Winter Derby, Powerful Favorite won the Grade 3 El Primero Del Ano Derby and the Governor’s Cup Derby. He finished a nose behind millionaire and three-time AQHA champion Flash And Roll in the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Super Derby in his only loss of the year. Powerful Favorite will start from post number 10 as he looks for his 11th career win in 19 starts. He’s earned $756,676 in his career and enters this event after a second place finish to Bail Czech in the trials.

Jess My Kiss, who’ll be ridden by Oscar Andrade, Jr. and saddled by Roman Figueroa, finished third to 2018 South American Champion Corona Jumpim MRL in the trials. He ran third in the Grade 1 Bank of America Challenge Championship last year and was an allowance winner at Los Alamitos on September 22.

Haras Portofino’s Corona Jumpim MRL, a major stakes winner in Brazil in 2018, has looked sharp in his last three starts at Los Alamitos. He was an allowance winner on November 2 and then finished third in the First Down Dash Handicap to the talented Jest Famous. He came back to post a nose victory over Grade 1 All American Derby runner-up Jess Macho Corona in their Winter Championship trial. O’Dell will saddle the Samba star, who’ll be ridden by Jose Nicasio.

Trainer Paul Jones, meanwhile, will go after a record sixth career win in the Winter Championship when he saddles Turner Farms and Gary Nutt’s Jess Macho Corona and Dee and Gary Hoovestal’s Bos Time Machine in this race. The underrated Bos Time Machine is a two-time local stakes winner and he’s performed well when stepping up to face Grade 1 caliber opposition.

EG High Desert Farms’ 4-year-old homebred Bail Czech enters as the top qualifier after winning his trial in :19.76 at 17-1 odds. The gelding by Corona Czech had a nice sophomore season last year, winning the Vandy’s Flash Handicap and also qualifying to the Grade 2 Golden State Derby and the aforementioned Los Alamitos Super Derby. Bail Czech retains the service of hot-rider Juan Pablo Leon, who’ll ride him for trainer Jorge Farias.

Owner Martha Wells will have two horses in this race in the stallion Red Hawk Cartel and the gelding My Favorite Cartel. Both are trained by Matt Fales. Red Hawk Cartel qualified to four major derbies last year and finished second to Powerful Favorite in the Winter Derby, while My Favorite Cartel finished third in the Kaweah Bar Handicap and was a two-time allowance winner last year.

HRT Stables LLC’s HTR Miamor Tequilla will complete the Winter Championship field. He’ll be making his second career start at Los Alamitos after racing all over the country, including Remington Park, Prairie Meadows, and Canterbury. A stakes winner in Canterbury, he’s won six of 17 career starts. Juan Aleman will saddle the son of Heart Of The Cartel.

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Mark McKinzie, brother of the late Brad McKinzie, will present the trophy. Brad McKinzie was a 30-year executive at Los Alamitos Race Course, a co-founder of the Finish Line Self Insurance Group, and one of the driving forces to bring daytime Southern California Thoroughbred racing back to Los Alamitos. He died August 6, 2016 from renal carcinoma. He was 62.

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Courtesy of www.losalamitos.com.