LOS ALAMITOS, CA—DECEMBER 10, 2011—What a way to say goodbye. Making the final start of his racing career, Good Reason Sa posted an upset victory against a world class field of older Quarter Horses to win the 40th running of the prestigious Grade 1 $750,000 Champion of Champions on Saturday at Los Alamitos.

Racing for Brazilian owner Gianni Samaja and saddled by nine-time AQHA champion trainer Paul Jones, the 15-1 longshot broke sharply from post number eight and then flew in final 100 yards to outduel the surprising Sparky E Boy by a nose in the 440-yard classic.

Ridden by Eduardo Nicasio, who was winning the Champion of Champions for the second year in a row, Good Reason Sa covered the distance in :21.440 while earning a first place check of $375,000. Chivalry SR finished third and was followed by Jess You And I, who was the 5-2 favorite, Louisiana Senator, Llano Teller, Miss Racy Jess, Snitcher, Favorite Cartel and Fovee.

The victory makes Good Reason Sa only the third horse to win the two most important races currently being conducted at Los Alamitos Race Course – the Champion of Champions and the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity. The other two are 2007 World Champion Blues Girl Too and multiple champion Ocean Runaway, who won the 2004 Los Alamitos Million Futurity and the Champion of Champions the following year. Good Reason Sa, Blues Girl Too and Ocean Runaway all retired from racing after completing the track’s most prestigious stakes double.

Good Reason Sa will begin the next phase of his life, as he’ll stand at stud at Royal Vista Ranches in Wayne, Oklahoma, where he’ll join 2006 Champion of Champions winner Wave Carver in the ranch’s stallion lineup.

“The greatest thing is that he’s going out in the best way possible, as winner of the Champion of Champions against some great competition,” said Vince Genco, who manages the horse racing interest in the United States for Samaja.

Good Reason Sa’s victory was a great way to end an otherwise painful day for Samaja, who suffered a broken leg earlier on Saturday.

“I’m not sure how it happened, but I believe it’s like an upper femur injury,” Genco said. “Gianni is in his late 70s and those things happen. I do know that he’s very excited about this race. I just talked to him and he said that he’s feeling a heck of a lot better right now. I didn’t have planned to go to Brazil in the near future, but now I might have to go visit pretty soon. Maybe I’ll go next week to deliver this beautiful silver Champion of Champions trophy.”

Genco has made plenty of trophy deliveries to Samaja thanks to Good Reason Sa’s tremendous talent. Perhaps one of the most underrated horses of his generation, the son of Favorite Trick, who was Thoroughbred racing’s Horse of the Year, retires having also won last year’s Golden State Derby and this year’s Los Alamitos Winter Championship. He leaves the track with a record of seven wins in 15 starts and earnings of $1,446,620, which makes him the 21st richest Quarter Horse of all-time.

“We’ve had our ups and downs with this horse,” Genco continued. “As a 2-year-old, he had problem with a tibia and we started him late. Now, you have to understand that Paul hardly ever uses an expletive when he talks so when he called me in August (2009) to tell me that we had a (heck of a) runner in Good Reason Sa I knew we had something special. He qualified with the fifth fastest time to the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity and I backed him then like I backed him tonight. I’ve always believed in this horse.”

Good Reason Sa beat Champion of Champions winners Freaky and Jess You And I in the Los Alamitos Winter Championship to become the first horse to earn a berth to this year’s big race. He struggled from that point on, finishing fourth in the Vessels Maturity, Go Man Go Handicap and Robert Boniface Los Alamitos Invitational Championship. Yet, Paul Jones was open in telling several observers that Good Reason Sa was training as well as any of his three horses running in the Champion of Champions.

“He had a 350-yard workout (on November 19) and I thought that was one of the best workouts that I’ve ever seen in my life,” Jones said. “He can be a bull. He can get pushy around the gate. Today when I was checking my horses, he was acting like he wanted to do something. He’s been amazing and I’m going to miss him in my barn. Good Reason Sa and Favorite Cartel were both sired by Favorite Trick and will both be going to stud in 2012. Favorite Trick has since passed away, but hopefully his legacy will continue with these two young stallions. Stylish Jess Br was also retired and left the barn. It’s hard to watch those nice horses leave the barn. I’ll have some of their babies in my barn one day, but the bad thing is that so will other barns.”

Jones has now won five runnings of the Champion of Champions. He won three in a row from 2002 through 2004 with Whosleavingwho, The Down Side and Cash For Kas and also won the 2006 running with Wave Carver. “The Champion of Champions is my favorite race,” Jones said. “It may not have the biggest purse, but it’s the ultimate race as far as I’m concerned. It’s been my favorite race since I was a kid. I was here when Dash For Cash won the race and I’ve been here since I was 7-years-old watching the Champion of Champions. I haven’t missed one yet. It’s the premiere race in the sport. It’s my favorite race.”

Racing for Reed Pierson, the 26-1 longshot Sparky E Boy earned $120,000 for running second in the Champion of Champions. A multiple stakes winner at Los Alamitos, Sparky E Boy improved his record to nine wins from 24 starts while doubling his earnings to $247,835. Alex Bautista piloted the Hawkinson gelding for trainer Francisco Ramirez.

Stern Ranches’ Chivalry SR earned $75,000 for his third place finish in his first start for trainer Juan Aleman. The track record holder at 400-yards, the Walk Thru Fire gelding finished the year with seven in the money finishes in seven starts – all coming in Grade 1 stakes level competition. Francisco Rubio piloted Chivalry SR.

Double Bar S Ranch’s Jess You And I added $52,400 to take his career bankroll to $1,807,227. The Feature Mr Jess gelding is the 8th Quarter Horse in history to go over $1.8 million in earnings.

“Jess You And I drifted out and it looked like he went off stride,” Jones explained. “He got rolling a little too late. I thought he was my best chance tonight. When you have three horses that can win a race you just want to win it with any one of them. I am thrilled for the one that won, but I’m sad for the ones that lost.”

Sixth place finisher Llano Teller, a Teller Cartel gelding who races for Wootan Racing and Reed Land and Cattle, picked up a $26,250 check to take his career earnings to $1,575,609.

Second Champion Of Champions Win For Nicasio
Is Good News During A Tough Time

For the second year in a row, jockey Eduardo Nicasio piloted the winner of the Champion of Champions. In 2010, Nicasio rode Apollitical Jess to a track-record setting victory in the 440-yard Champion of Champions of :20.93 and now he’s picked up his second victory in this race with Good Reason Sa.

The Champion of Champions brought some joy to Nicasio in the midst of a difficult period of his life. The jockey had to travel to Mexico for family reasons at the end of October, which forced him to lose the mount on fastest qualifier Last To Fire in the Golden State Million Futurity, plus his mounts in the Bank of America Racing Challenge, but that was nothing compared to what he went through after he returned from Mexico. A week after Nicasio coming back, his wife, Mayra, had a stillborn baby boy.

“My little boy’s name was Evanroy, but he was born dead on November 16,” said Nicasio only minutes after riding in the Champion of Champions. “When we got to the hospital the doctors couldn’t hear a heartbeat. We had the same thing happened to our baby girl Samantha three years ago. My wife means everything in the world to me and it’s been tough for us. We do have a healthy 2-year-old boy named Eduardo Jr. I dedicate this win and all other wins that will hopefully come in the future to the little babies that we lost.”

Three days after Evanroy’s passing, Nicasio jumped on Good Reason Sa for a morning gate workout at 350 yards.

“Paul gave me an opportunity to be on this horse and the horse had a great workout,” Nicasio said. “I told Paul that we were going to win the Champion of Champions with this horse. Good Reason Sa did it. I have to thank Paul for the opportunity. Juan Aleman gave a great opportunity last year and I’m still so thankful to him for that chance.”

Nicasio now joins the legendary Jerry Nicodemus as the only riders to win this race in back-to-back years with different horses. Nicodemus won the 1980 running with Lady Juno and then came back in 1981 to win it with Denim N Diamonds. In fact, other than Nicasio and Nicodemus (who also won back-to-back Champion of Champions with Dash For Cash in 1976-77), the only other riders to pilot consecutive winners are Bruce Pilkenton (with Refrigerator in 1993-94) and Jacky Martin (with SLM Big Daddy in 1997-98).

Courtesy of www.losalamitos.com