LOS ALAMITOS, CA—AUGUST 30, 2020—It was a winning weekend for Rosenthal Ranch LLC., the 2019 AQHA Owners of the Year. On Saturday, Connie Rosenthal, the matriarch of Rosenthal Ranch, had the winning bid of $215,000 at the Ruidoso Yearling Sale on Hip No. 553 Bomb Cyclone, a yearling colt by Favorite Cartel out of the outstanding broodmare Remember Me Rose.

Then on Sunday night, Bomb Cyclone's older brother, the outstanding Powerful Favorite, dominated an outstanding field of older horses to win the Grade 1, $100,000 Go Man Go Handicap contested at 400 yards at Los Alamitos.

With Eduardo Nicasio up for trainer Chris O'Dell, Powerful Favorite had a tremendous star in the 60th running of the Go Man Go, as flew out of the gate to establish an early ¾ length lead. Walker Family Trust's 7-year-old great Zoomin For Spuds was second at that point with recent graded stakes winners Bail Czech and Chocolatito also in the mix. However, the 4-year-old Powerful Favorite sealed his win by opening up a 1 ¼ length advantage with 110-yards to go and he maintained from there on the way to :19.420 clocking, the meet's fastest time at this distance.

"He had been doing super good coming into this race," O'Dell said. "He's one of the best, let me tell you. We've made a lot of good adjustments with him."

"I was waiting for him to run like that," Nicasio added. "I want this horse in the Champion of Champions this year. He can be in that race with the great horses like Chocolatito and the others. Tonight, this was the best start he has had a while. He broke perfectly and I did not use him too much. I just tried to maintain his attention. Probably around 100 yards into the race he was already clear. When I saw that I said, 'Okay, come on, let's go.' He is such a nice horse. I just love that horse. He is one of my favorite horses. I feel good for the owner. She bought the full brother to this horse in Oklahoma."

Sent off at 7-2 odds, Powerful Favorite earned $50,000 for his win in the Go Man Go. He is now five major stakes races at Los Alamitos with this race being his second Grade 1 victory at the Orange County oval. He also won the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Winter Derby last year plus the Governor's Cup Derby and the El Primero Del Año Derby. He won the Governor's Cup Futurity in 2018.

Rosenthal Ranch and O'Dell have certainly enjoyed a lot of success campaigning horses from the breeding of top stallion Favorite Cartel and the broodmare Remember Me Rose. In addition to Powerful Favorite, who has now won 12 of 21 career starts for earnings of $830,222, Rosenthal Ranch also owns his full brother Runforyourlife, who is now a 3-year-old and the winner of the 2019 Golden State Million Futurity and lifetime earnings of $597,403. Bomb Cyclone now makes for a tremendous addition to the stable.

"I'm in deep now," said Connie with a laugh while referring to her $215,000 purchase. "We thought we got a bargain. We thought he was going to go higher. I watch the horse sale online all day on Friday and Saturday. All I kept thinking was Bob would have been there."

Bob is Connie's husband, who died on March 5, 2018. Powerful Favorite made his racing debut a few weeks later on April 29.

"It was a big relief when we found out that we had bought (Bomb Cyclone) because we missed out on (Cyber Monday) last year," she said.

Also by Favorite Cartel and out of Remember Me Rose, Cyber Monday won the Ruidoso Futurity earlier this year and finished fourth in the Rainbow Futurity at Ruidoso Downs. So far, the colt has earned $516,241.

"I was at the sale on Saturday to buy Bomb Cyclone for Connie," O'Dell said. "All four of them that I have seen from this family are completely different. They are all different horses. This one (Bomb Cyclone) is a big, tall, Thoroughbred looking horse and Runforyourlife is a little bit that way."

"He's long," Connie added. "He's got a long back."

"Yeah, he's long everywhere," O'Dell added. "He covers so much ground when he walks. He's going to like the long races. That family is just full runners. Powerful Favorite and Runforyourlife have run out almost $1.5 million between the two of them. Hopefully, (Bomb Cyclose) is good, just like the rest of them. They all have good attitudes. They ease around. They do not get too excited. They just do their job."

It was certainly a win-win weekend for Rosenthal and O'Dell.

EG High Desert Farms' Bail Czech, an 18-1 longshot in this race, outfinished Zoomin For Spuds by a neck to earn the $17,000 second place share of the purse. With Mark Jasso aboard, the 4-year-old son of Corona Czech came into this race after winning the Grade 1 Spencer Childers Championship Handicap for trainer Jesus Nunez.

Ridden by Jose Nicasio for trainer Monty Arrossa, Zoomin For Spuds earned $10,000 for his third-place effort. Making his first start of the year, Zoomin For Spuds has now finished in the top three in 35 of his 44 career starts. He has now bankrolled $819,171 during his brilliant career, which has featured a total of 11 stakes wins at Los Alamitos, including Grade 1 wins in the Champion of Champions, Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship and the Vessels Maturity.

Ed Allred's Chocolatito finished fourth and was followed by Jess Macho Corona, Mister Appolitical, Jesstacartel, Transcend, Alamode and Corona Jumpin Mrl.

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The Go Man Go does not offer a direct provisional berth to the Champion of Champions, but it does offer its winner an opportunity for a berth in the prestigious $6000,000 race if one does become available. If the connections of a horse with a provisional berth turns down the berth or if a horse earns multiple berths, then in those situations then the provisional available berth goes to the winner of the Go Man Go.

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Courtesy of www.losalamitos.com.