LOS ALAMITOS–DECEMBER 8, 2024–To be held for the 52nd time in its history, the Grade 1, $600,000 Champion of Champions at 440 yards will bring together the best lineup of Quarter Horses to face off in 2024. The field will feature champions, superstars and impressive Grade 1 winners, all looking for a win in the most prestigious race for older horses in the nation.

Jess Good Wine, the Remington Park Horse of the Meet, who is unbeaten this year with a stellar record of four wins from as many starts. His stakes wins have included the Grade 1 Debbie Schauf Remington Park Championship and the Grade 1 All American Gold Cup. No horse has given him a real challenge this year and if he duplicates his Oklahoma and New Mexico form at Los Alamitos, he will be very difficult to defeat on Champion of Champions night. Bred by Flag Ranch, the son of Good Reason SA is owned by Guns Up Racing. Heath Taylor will saddle him at Los Alamitos.

The 2022 AQHA World Champion Empressum, owned and bred by Steve Holt and Jess Jones, won the 2022 Champion of Champions in what was billed as “A Race for the Ages” and then ran second in the 2023 running of the Champion of Champions. Only Tailor Fit has won non-consecutive runnings of this race, winning the title in 1999 and then in 2001. Empressum’s 2024 resume features wins in the Grade 1 Vessels Maturity and Grade 1 Go Man Go Handicap. He’ll look to become the sixth horse to win multiple Champion of Champions runnings.

Empressum’s most familiar rival is Bobby Cox’s Jeriko, who defeated him in the Grade 1 Robert Boniface Los Alamitos Invitational Championship. The two met in the Go Man Go, a race in which Jeriko crossed the wire first before being disqualified due to interference while Empressum was moved up to first place in that race. Empressum and Jeriko also faced off in last year’s Champion of Champions, as Jeriko finished a strong fourth after breaking well behind the early leaders. Jeriko is the first horse to start more than once in the Champion of Champions for Cox, who is one of Quarter Horse racing’s all-time leading owners and breeders.

Bill Price is another highly respected and admired Quarter Horse owner and breeder and this year he’ll be a part of the Champion of Champions with his homebred BP Cartel Policy. The son of Favorite Cartel has been the top 3-year-old at Los Alamitos all season long and a stakes winner for every season of the year. He won the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Winter Derby, the Dillingham Handicap in the spring, the Grade 2 Golden State Derby in the summer, and the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Super Derby in the fall. The last 3-year-old to win the Champion of Champions is Zoomin For Spuds in 2016.

Dunn Ranch’s Pattys Saint is the nation’s top mare after winning every one of her starts in 2024. She’s a perfect four for four this year, winning the Grade 1 Mildred Vessels Memorial, the Grade 1 Charger Bar Handicap, the Grade 2 Miss Princess Handicap and the Abigail Kawananakoa Stakes. Pattys Saint will look to become the first aged mare to win the Champion of Champions since Dash For Speed in 1990.

Ed Allred has won the Champion of Champions twice before, first in 1973 with Charger Bar and then in 2019 with He Looks Hot. London Toby, who has been outstanding in his 2024 campaign, will look to give Allred a third victory in this race. London Toby has won the Grade 1 Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship, the Grade 1 Spencer Childers California Breeders Championship, and most recently the Z. Wayne Griffin Directors Trial.

Trainer Marc Jungers has had a sensational season this year. Jungers, who worked as a groom at the time that Sgt Pepper Feature was the top older horse at Los Alamitos, would love nothing more than to win a Champion of Champions of his own with Shakers No Secret, who won the AQHA Challenge Championship at The Downs at Albuquerque. Shakers No Secret is one of several major stars trained by Jungers this year. He’s also won graded stakes events with the top filly Asscher, the top sophomore Relentless Eagle, while also saddling Lethal Cowboy 123 to a pair of qualifying efforts to million-dollar futurities.

Ed and Von Zae McNelis’ Scoops Dynasty has been iron tough during his entire career. He’s knocked heads with Empressum, London Toby, Apollitical Pence, Jeriko, Flash Bak and many others during his racing career. He won the Go Man Go Handicap last year and is a five-time stakes winner at Los Alamitos. He’ll be making his second Champion of Champions start.

Regina Laymon’s Hooked N Gone, third in the 2023 All American Derby and the winner of the Z. Wayne Griffin last year, is another horse back in the Champion of Champions field. He qualified to last year’s race via his Z. Wayne Griffin victory and once again advance to the sport’s most prestigious race by qualifying via the Z. Wayne this year.

Francisco Lopez’s One Stolin Eagle also qualified via the Z. Wayne. The son of One Fabulous Eagle has finished in the top three in five of his six starts this year with his most important effort being a winning one in the Grade 2 SLM Big Daddy at Remington Park. Trainer Eddie Willis will look to win the Champion of Champions for the first time in his accomplished career.

The Champion of Champions will be held on Saturday, December 14. The next night on Sunday, December 15, Los Alamitos will host the meet’s richest Quarter Horse race, the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity.

********************

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, 29 of its winners have been crowned World Champion by the AQHA, including Empressum. He Looks Hot, 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.

Los Alamitos has set up a special website with wall-to-wall Champion of Champions information here. For more, please larace@losalamitos.com.

The Champion of Champions Insider
The field is set for the Champion of Champions and here is how the field shapes up:

This year’s field features very eclectic breeding lines. There are nine different sires and 10 different broodmare sires represented in this year’s race.

Favorite Cartel is the only sire in this race with more than one horse in the Champion of Champions. He is the sire of BP Cartel Policy and London Toby. The other eight sires represented are Apollitical Jess (Empressum), Pyc Paint Your Wagon (Hooked N Gone), One Famous Eagle (Jeriko), Good Reason SA (Jess Good Wine), One Fabulous Eagle (One Stolin Eagle), Jess Got Easier (Pattys Saint) FDD Dynasty (Scoops Dynasty) and Five Bar Cartel (Shakers No Secret). Apollitical Jess is a past winner and track record holder of the Champion of Champions.

The 10 broodmare sires in this race are First Down Dash (Empressum), Shazoom (Jeriko), Dashin Bye (Scoops Dynasty), and Pretty Boy Perry (Hooked N Gone), No Secrets Here (Shakers No Secret), Corona Cartel (BP Cartel Policy), Walk Thru Fire (London Toby), Mr Jess Perry (Jess Good Wine), Stoli (One Stolin Eagle), and Saint Shackleton (Pattys Saint). First Down Dash won the Champion of Champions in 1987.

There is only one 3-year-old in this race in Los Alamitos Super Derby winner BP Cartel Policy. There is five 4-year-olds: Hooked N Gone, Jeriko, Jess Good Wine, One Stolin Eagle and Shakers No Secret. There is one 5-year-old: Scoops Dynasty;  There is three 6-year-old: Empressum, London Toby and Pattys Saint.

Nine of the 10 horses in this race is a gelding. Pattys Saint is the only mare.

BP Cartel Policy and Scoops Dynasty share the same birthday. They were both born on March 19.

This is the first year since 2020 in which a pair of siblings have not raced in the Champion of Champions. Half-brothers Flash Bak and Whiskey Creek were in the 2023 Champion of Champions and before that full brothers Powerful Favorite and Bomb Cyclone qualified to the 2022 running, while full brothers Circle City and Nomadic qualified to the 2021 running.

The 10 horses in the Champion of Champions field were bred in four states: Oklahoma (BP Cartel Policy, Empressum, Hooked N Gone, Jess Good Wine and One Stolin Eagle);Texas (Jeriko and Shakers No Secret); Idaho (Pattys Saint and Scoops Dynasty) and  California (London Toby).

There is one millionaire in this race in Empressum, who is a actually a multi-millionaire with $2,158,873.  Jeriko is less than $52,000 shy from reaching the million dollar mark in earnings while Jess Good Wine will become a millionaire with a victory in the Champions of Champions. The winner will earn $300,000 and Jess Good Wine has earned just over $704,000.

Each horse in this race is by a different breeder. There are six homebreds in this race led by Ed Allred’s London Toby, Bobby Cox’s Jeriko, Bill Price’s BP Cartel Policy, Regina Laymon’s Hooked N Gone, Ed and Von Zae McNelis’ Scoops Dynasty, and Steve Holt and Jeff Jones’ Empressum,. The other breeders with a hore in this race are Gary Shelton (Shakers No Secret), R.L. Harrison (Pattys Saint), Darling Farms (One Stolin Eagle) and Flag Ranch (Jess Good Wine).

Eight of the 10 horses are already Grade I winners.The only two  still looking for a Grade 1 win are  Hooked N Gone and One Stolin Eagle. Empressum is a 10-time Grade 1 winner, while Pattys Saint has won four Grade 1 races. London Toby and Jess Good Wine are three-time Grade 1 winners. Jeriko, Scoops Dynasty and BP Cartel Policy are two-time Grade 1 winners. Shakers No Secret joined the Grade 1 winners club after taking the AQHA Challenge Championship.

There are four horses who have already won Grade 1 races at 440 yards: Empressum has four Grade 1 wins at 440 yards. He won the 2022 Champion of Champions, 2023 Robert Boniface Los Alamitos Invitational Championship, and the 2021 Texas Classic Derby and Rainbow Derby at 440 yards. Jess Good Wine is a two-time Grade 1 winner at a quarter of a mile after winning the 2024 All American Gold Cup and 2024 Debbie Schauf Remington Park Championship. Jeriko won 2024  Robert Boniface Los Alamitos Invitational Championship and Shakers No Secret won the  2024 AQHA Challenge Championship at 440 yards.

BP Cartel Policy is the only runner in the Champion of Champions that has not raced at 440 yards.

This will be the first appearance in the Champion of Champions for five of the 10 horses in the field. There have only been two runnings in which every one of the Champion of Champions participants were debuting (1972 and 2015). Empressum, Jeriko and Hooked N Gone and Scoops Dynasty started in the race last year. Pattys Saint and Empressum ran in the 2022 running.

Thirty one times since the race’s first running in 1972 the winner has been named that year’s World Champion by the AQHA. The last one to do it is Empressum in 2022.

Notes and Numbers
How Favorites have fared...
Runnings: 51 Wins: 19

Shortest Prices
12-17-77 Dash For Cash $2.60
12-17-77 Dash For Cash $2.60
12-11-93 Refrigerator $2.60
12-5-87 First Down Dash $3.00
12-12-16 Heza Dasha Fire $3.20
12-12-09 Freaky $3.20
12-19-81 Denim N Diamonds $3.40
12-17-00 A Ransom $3.40

Longest Prices
12-16-17 Mr Pyc To You $123.00
12-22-79 Mr Doty Bars $46.20
12-11-05 Cash For Kas $44.60
12-22-74 Don Guerro $40.00
12-16-91 Special Leader $38.90
12-13-09 Jess You And I $32.00
12-13-04 The Down Side $30.20
12-15-13 Rylees Boy $26.20

Longest Margin of Victory
12-5-87 First Down Dash 1 3/4 lengths
12-20-98 SLM Big Daddy 1 1/2 lengths
12-17-77 Dash For Cash 1 1/4 lengths
12-14-85 Cash Rate 1 1/4 lengths
12-21-97 SLM Big Daddy 1 1/4 lengths
12-13-04 The Down Side 1 1/4 lengths
12-15-07 Blues Girl Too 1 1/4 lengths
12-14-13 Last To Fire 1 1/4 lengths
12-12-16 Heza Dasha Fire 1 1/4 lengths

Fastest Winning Times
12-11-10 Apollitical Jess :20.93
12-13-08 Jess You And I :20.94
12-12-09 Freaky :21.06
12-14-13 Last To Fire :21.09
12-15-07 Blues Girl Too :21.13
12-19-76 Dash For Cash :21.17
12-09-06 Wave Carver :21.18
12-13-04 The Down Side :21.18

Ages and Sex (In 51 runnings of the Champion of Champions)
 

AGE             WINS  MOST RECENT WINNER   
3 year old     18      2016 – Zoomin For Spuds
4 year old     19      2022 – Empressum
5 year old     7        2023 – Flash Bak
6 year old     5        2018 – Bodacious Eagle
7 year old     2        2019 - He Looks Hot

SEX                     WINS     MOST RECENT WINNER
3-year-old colt        6        2010 – Apollitical Jess
3-year-old gelding   4        2016 - Zoomin For Spuds
3-year-old filly       7        2007 - Blues Girl Too
Older mare             5        1990 - Dash For Speed
Older stallion         5        2017 – Mr Pyc To You
Older gelding           24      2023 – Flash Bak

Multiple Winners Of The Champion Of Champions
Refrigerator (1992, 1993, 1994)
Dash For Cash (1976, 1977)
SLM Big Daddy (1997, 1998)
Tailor Fit (1999, 2001)
Apollitical Pence (2020-2021)

**********************

Would you like more industry news delivered directly to your inbox? Click here to sign up.