Doodah Cartel hits the wire first to post fastest time.

© William Zuazo

By Orlando Gutierrez

CYPRESS, CALIFORNIA–JANUARY 25, 2026– A sensational come-from-behind win by Thompson Racing, Inc., Alexis Andrade, and Paul Jones’ Doodah Cartel and an emotional victory by Shane Giles’ SG Jacob Jay were among the best efforts on the night of trials to the Grade 1, $201,000 Los Alamitos Winter Derby here on Saturday.

Thirty-two sophomores competed in four trials at 400 yards with those with the 10 fastest times returning here on Valentine’s Day on Saturday, February 14. The purse for the Winter Derby is the highest since 2022, and the number of entrants is 39% higher than the number of entrants last year.

Doodah Cartel was the horse of the night, as the colt by Favorite Cartel recovered from a very troubled start to make up about 1-¾ lengths on Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity finalist Surprise Temptation to win the second trial by a nose. With Henry Reynoso Lopez up for trainer Paul Jones, Doodah Cartel covered the distance in :19.899 to give him the fastest qualifying time to the Winter Derby.

There’s no way anyone could have predicted victory for Doodah Cartel after the type of trouble he had to contend with at the start. The Jones and Thompson Racing-bred runner was bumped after leaving the gate, pushing him inwards to into Surprise Temptation, who continued flying from post number six.

Trailing by daylight at that point and positioned directly behind Surprise Temptation, Reynoso Lopez angled Doodah Cartel towards the inside where he found room to chase after Surprise Temptation. Doodah Cartel was still ¾ lengths behind the strong running leader, and yet someway, somehow Doodah Cartel found another gear. The brown colt out of the graded stakes placed mare Suite Expectations made up a ton of ground in a hurry, flying to the wire to out nose Surprise Temptation at the wire.

 “When he broke a little slow and they bumped him and knocked him around, he was two lengths behind the field,” Jones said. “I thought we were done. I was upset. I said, ‘Darn, we’ve got no chance. We are out of it. Usually when you get a start like that, you know it’s like one in a million that you recover from something like that. He’s always been a good finisher. He came on running and Henry said he was trying to get outside of (Surprise Temptation) but that horse kept getting out. He finally had to duck inside of him, and he just kept running strong. It’s amazing. You just don’t see race like that very often.

“I’m just happy he got the win. It looked like he was going to qualify to the final. That’s all that matters today. Obviously, you’d like to see your horses get a better break than that. Hopefully he gets a better break in the final and a clean trip. I think he’ll be a tough horse to beat. He’s been a good horse for us.”

Doodah Cartel has now qualified for four graded stakes races, and he had previously posted the fastest qualifying time to the Grade 1 Golden State Million Futurity. As a juvenile he also raced in the Grade 1 Ed Burke Million Futurity and the Grade 2 PCQHRA Breeders Futurity. This was his third victory in 11 starts.

LA Racing Stables, LLC’s Surprise Temptation finished with the second fastest qualifying time of :19.901 following another solid effort. Bred by McColee Land & Livestock, LLC, Surprise Temptation is a gelding from Utah by Tempting Dash out of VF Red Surprise. He has finished second or better in six of his seven career starts.

SG Jacob Jay gave the Giles Family a win that they’ll never forget. Racing from the outside post eight, the Favorite Cartel colt out of Ancient Empress outdueled the stakes winning Jarvis V by a nose on the way posting the third fastest qualifying time of :19.928. In the winner’s circle the Giles Family was well represented with owner Shane Giles standing proudly to have his photograph taken with a big smile on his face and tears in his eyes.

“We named that horse after my dad died right when the (horse) was born,” Giles said. “It meant a lot to us to name the horse after him. We fly out here from Utah and it’s worth it on days like this. We always love (AQHA champion) Tarzanito and he’s a full brother to Tarzanito. My wife and two girls, my cousin from Tabiona, Utah, my brother and sister, everybody is here to get a chance to watch him. It was good.”

 “We’ve been with the horses my whole life. That’s what my dad did,” Giles added. “My dad trained racehorses horses in Utah, in Wyoming, in Elko, Idaho. Our whole family has been into it. The Giles have been racehorse people. When my dad got sick with cancer, we had to quit. We just decided to try one more and here it is.”

Jacob Jay Giles, who passed away in late October of 2023, worked in construction, then in pipe fitting, and later installed fire sprinkler systems for nearly four decades It was the horses that he loved most. He enjoyed team roping as well and built the Giles Arena in Utah. His namesake will now look to win one more for “The Big Guy” on Valentine’s Day at Los Alamitos. Henry Reynoso Lopez also piloted SG Jacob Jay to victory for trainer Adan Farias.

Farias was also the winning trainer in the opening trial thanks to Santos Montemayor and Omar Torres’ Sm My Valentine, the winner of the PCQHRA Breeders Futurity last year. Bred by Montemayor, SM My Valentine led most of the way in this trial, holding off Grade 1 Texas Classic Futurity finalist Politician V by a neck to pick up his third win in nine starts. Ridden by Eduardo Nicasio, the gelding by Kiss My Hocks finished with the seventh fastest time of :20.073, while Politician V had the eighth fastest clocking of :20.10.

“At the beginning when we brought him here, he was green, feisty,” Farias said. “Little by little he’s been getting better and has matured. He wants to go further. Today he didn’t show it because Nicasio said that he got the lead easily and then he was searching for another horse. Once he felt alone, he kind of backed off a little bit. I was hoping that one of the horses would break in front of us so we could fight him and hopefully pass him at the end. It worked out.”

Here's the complete list of qualifiers to the Winter Derby: Doodah Cartel (:19.899), Surprise Temptation (:19.901), SG Jacob Jay (:19.928), Jarvis V (:19.932), Shinning Favorite (:20.01), Notoryous (:20.035), SM My Valentine (:20.073), Politician V (:20.10), Walk When I Walk (:20.104), and Got You Figured (:20.118).

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

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