Town Policy Stakes winner Unrelentless will start in the $25,000 A Ransom Handicap for 3-year-olds on Saturday at Los Alamitos Race Course.

© Amber Mendez

LOS ALAMITOS, CA–DECEMBER 19, 2024–The closing weekend of the 2024 racing season will include three outstanding stakes races.

The meet’s closing night on Sunday will be headed by the Grade 2 Southern California Derby while the Saturday racing action will include the $25,000 A Ransom Handicap for 3-year-olds and $30,000 First Down Dash Handicap for 3-year-olds and upwards on Saturday night.                          

Scheduled as race seven, the A Ransom will feature eight sophomores at 350 yards and will include Town Policy Stakes winner Unrelentless and Grade 1 Los Alamitos Super Derby finalist RS Shere Khan.

A multiple Grade 1 finalists here during his freshman campaign, Reliance Ranches’ Unrelentless looks super his local 2024 debut, as he won the Town Policy by 3/4 lengths. Shane Giles’ RS Shere Khan ran a solid race when fifth in the Super Derby and has looked solid in all of his races this season.

The field will also include Keith Nellesen’s Political Rivalry, who is a perfect four for four in his starts at 350 yards. He won both the Grade 1 Ed Burke Million Futurity and the Grade 2 PCQHRA Breeders Futurity at this distance last year.                          

The First Down Dash has a full field of 10 racing at 400 yards and is slated as the eighth and final race on the card.

Aged runners in this event include Steve Burns’ Grade 1 winner You Can Run, who has won four races as a 7-year-old this year, and Link Newcomb’s Cattail Cove, the multiple stakes winner, who continued to perform at a high level at the age of seven.

Cattail Cove is one of two in this field with a runner-up finish in the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity

The other is Howard Nichols’ Jess Being A Friend, who ran second in the 2021 Two Million. Cattail Cove was second in the 2019 running.

Others in this race include California-bred stakes winners Space Flight and Always A Chance and the traveler Ima Sixy Man.
 

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For more information, please get in touch with larace@losalamitos.com. You can also follow us on Twitter or Instagram at @losalracing or visit us online at www.losalamitos.com.