By Orlando Gutierrez

LOS ALAMITOS, CA—JANUARY 9, 2010—We are now well into the first month of a new decade in the 21st century. And as Los Alamitos embarks on a new decade, here's a toast to this great track showcasing twice as many great stars as it had the honor of displaying during the first decade of the 2000s!

And how many great stars we have had the privilege of witnessing at the "Track of the Sunsets and Stars" like Chris Kotulak likes to say on TVG. So now that the first decade of the new century has come to a close this space will take one observer's opinion on the 10 greatest stars to compete at Los Alamitos in the past decade.

First let's start with 25 horses that did not quite crack the top 10 but deserve honorable mention. Superstars all, they are in no particular order: AB What A Runner, Higher Fire, FDD Dynasty, Separatist, Secret Card, Hawkish, Foose, One Famous Eagle, Snowbound Superstar, Dashing Knud, Your First Moon, Little Bit Of Baja, Tailor Fit, Mini Rock, Hawkinson, Corona Kool, Stylish Jess Br, The Down Side, Cash For Kas, Deelish, Tres Passes, Sign Of Lanty, No Secrets Here, First Place Queen, and Carters Cartel. My top 10 in reverse order:

10th. Apollitical Time - She edges Corona Kool for the 10th spot in the 2000s, mainly because Corona Kool's Los Alamitos Million victory came in 1999. Meanwhile, Apollitical Time surely has to go down as the claim of the decade. After being plucked from the ranks, the Apollo TB filly went on to earn over $900,000 while winning the Los Alamitos Derby over Ocean Runaway and then as an aged mare she won the Los Alamitos Championship and Mildred Vessels Memorial Handicap.

9th. Catchmeinyourdreams - If he had only won the Champion of Champions he would have been number one this decade. Regardless, no horse won more national championships than Catchme', as he picked up five AQHA championships and a never-before-seen three Los Alamitos Invitational Championship wins. After his victory in the 2005 Bank of America Championship a knowledgeable crowd applauded the old gray's victory on that night.

8th. Wave Carver - At his best, few horses in history could take on the powerful colt. He was awesome in the Governor's Cup Derby, awesome in the Los Alamitos Super Derby, and awesome in the Champion of Champions. His Champion of Champions winning time of :21.18 was at the time the second fastest ever at Los Alamitos at 440 yards.

7th. Freaky - Quarter Horse fans witnessed one of the great campaigns of all-time in 2009 courtesy of the freakishly fast horse with that memorable splash of white paint on his face. Three track records, the first with a sub :19.20 clocking at 400 yards, a sub :21 at 440 yards, and wins in the Vessels Maturity, Robert L. Boniface Los Alamitos Invitational Championship, and Champion of Champions. The son of Tr Dasher is simply brilliant!

6th. Whosleavingwho - He's 12-years-old now but one still gets the feeling that Who could still leave a lot of horses in the dust right now. An iron horse, a throwback to the 1950s, a champion, a millionaire, a great one, he won the first ever Los Alamitos Winter Derby and the Los Alamitos Winter Championship twice. He won the Vessels Maturity and also the Go Man Go Handicap, plus the 2002 Champion of Champions en route to being Co-World Champion that year. You could never count Whosleavingwho out from any race. That's who Who was at Los Alamitos.

5th. Jess You And I - Can a winner of the Champion of Champions be considered an underrated superstar? Jess You And I might just fit that bill. Although he has championship titles galore, a million dollars in the bank, multiple track records, and is now prepping for a fifth campaign on the track, this high of a ranking on this list might still surprise some. To me, it was tough NOT to rate him higher. His victory in the Golden State Million Futurity remains one of the decade's best performances by a 2-year-old and even before that he was already setting records. Owned by Double Bar S Ranch , the 2-year-old son of Feature Mr Jess set a track record of :15.17 in only his second career start.

"When Jess You And I came to my barn I told my crew that he was probably the fastest baby in the barn," said trainer Jaime Gomez. "Now I think he's one of the fastest horses that I've ever trained."

In the Golden State Million Futurity, Jess You And I improved his record to four wins in as many starts, while posting the second fastest clocking the history of that stakes. He also defeated a field that included champions FDD Dynasty and Blues Girl Too. After an okay sophomore campaign, Jess You And I had a remarkable 4-year-old season, winning the Go Man Go Handicap and then setting a 440-yard track record of :20.94 in the Champion of Champions, becoming the first horses ever to eclipse the :21 second barrier at Los Alamitos. In 2009, Jess You And I won the Los Alamitos Winter Championship and became the first horse to defend his Go Man Go crown in 40 years. And even after all that this superstar is still clicking, as he is expected to compete in the 2010 trials to the Los Alamitos Winter Championship. We are watching a great do his work. Let's savor his every start.

4th. Be A Bono - The Clown Prince of Quarter Horse racing had a wicked final kick. Be A Bono was simply all business in the final 220 yards of a race.

"He's a clown," Dan Francisco used to joke about Be A Bono. "He does all these goofy things, he'll try to chomp on you when he's in his stall, he won't pay attention half of the time, but when he gets going he's something else to watch."

Owned and bred by Spencer Childers, the Bono Jazz gelding consistently won big races at Los Alamitos, most of them by coming from behind. As a 2-year-old in 2003, he won a then richest running ever of the $812,958 Golden State Futurity. As a 3-year-old, Be A Bono was lights out, winning the Los Alamitos Winter Derby and Spencer Childers California Breeders Championship Handicap before taking home to Fresno the richest running ever of the $579,40 Los Alamitos Super Derby. He finished the year by finishing a nose behind Cash For Kas in the fog in the Champion of Champions. The "clown" was crowned the World Champion of 2004.

And that's when things got even interesting with Be A Bono. He won the Vessels Maturity and the Spencer Childers for the second time, but then struggled the remainder of 2005. Almost light-years ahead of his time, Childers gave the green light for Be A Bono to undergo a revolutionary stem cell procedure that rejuvenated his career. It also helped him gain tremendous explosiveness. In 2006, Be A Bono won the Vessels Maturity for the second time and Spencer Childers for the third time, while also adding the Go Man Go Handicap. His final 220-yard clockings during some of these races were among the fastest ever recorded at Los Alamitos. He finished second by a nose in that year's Champion of Champions to become the first horse to ever finish second twice in the sport's most prestigious race.

After losing his first five starts of 2007, Be A Bono would close out his career with a victory in an allowance race. True to form he would do so in rallying form while moving up from fifth to first.

3rd. Ocean Runaway - It was the gamble of the decade. Gary Muller had just seen his prized horse miss a chance to qualify to the 2005 Champion of Champions after losing to Apollitical Time in the Los Alamitos Super Derby. Muller mulled it over and just seven days after the Super Derby, he entered Ocean Runaway in the Z. Wayne Griffin Directors Trials.

"I thought to myself, what would Ocean Runaway say if I asked him if he wanted to run in the Z. Wayne Griffin Director's Trials?" Gary Muller said. "I tell you what Ocean Runaway would have said, it would have been something like 'you bet I do.'"

Ocean Runaway responded by running 400 yards faster than any horse had ever run the distance in the first 55 years of Los Alamitos Race Course after stopping the clock in a time of :19.305, breaking Takin On The Cash's 15-year-old track record. A couple of weeks later the son of First Down Dash won the Champion of Champions to take his lifetime earnings to $1,642,498. The sum made him the sport's ninth all-time leading horse by money earned at the time and the third richest colt/stallion ever - behind Mr Master Bug and Ronas Ryon. Ocean Runaway also moved ahead of Corona Cash to become the richest runner ever sired by all-time leading stallion First Down Dash.

And the list of accomplishment does not stop there. Ocean Runaway became the first horse to complete the Los Alamitos Million-Champion of Champions double. He was also the first to win two different races with a million dollar purses. He also won Golden State Million Futurity, Governor's Cup Futurity and PCQHA Breeders Derby. He is the older brother of Wave Carver.

"(Ocean Runaway) is one of the most magnificent horses that's ever lived," said trainer Denny Ekins.

2nd. A Ransom - The first superstar of the 2000s is in my opinion the decade's greatest horse. After a lackluster campaign as a 2-year-old colt in 1998, A Ransom began to show the racing world a hint of his talent as a 3-year-old gelding with a stretch of four straight victories in the middle of the year, including a pair of handicaps.

As Y2K began, John and Kathie Bobenrieth's A Ransom turned it up a notch. Beginning in June of 2000, the son of First Down Dash would go on to win a remarkable 14 of his next 16 starts over a 28-month span. He was undefeated in 2000, highlighted by a victory over one of the greatest field of horses in the history of Champion of Champions. His half-length victory in the Champion of Champions came over a field that included seven other AQHA Champions in Deelish, Willie Wanta Dash, Separatist, Chicks First Policy, Hes My Dasher, A Delightful Dasher, and Corona Kool. He also won the Vessels Maturity and Los Alamitos Invitational Championship to be named World Champions.

In 2001, A Ransom won another five of seven starts, winning the Vessels Maturity again and the Spencer Childers Championship Handicap. He even traveled across state lines to win the Championship at Sunland Park in New Mexico. A Ransom began 2002 with another four race winning streak, all against the best in the business once again. He beat Whosleavingwho three straight times during that stretch, beating him in the Spencer Childers, Vessels Maturity, and Los Alamitos Championship. His final race of his career was a 10th place finish in the Champion of Champions. Not one to hang around when he was anything but absolutely dominant, A Ransom would never race again.

And a couple of final stats about his greatness; his final 16 career starts all came at either 400 or 440 yards, and he was a winner in 13 of those starts. He also managed to earn over $1 million without ever winning a futurity or derby. What a special horse.

1st. Blues Girl Too - Baseball has a Mr. October. Horse racing has a Ms. December. Owned by Lucky Seven Ranch, the little filly by Corona Cartel had some of the greatest moments of the decade during Los Alamitos' championship month of December, starting with a victory in the first ever running of the $2,000,000 Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity. When she won the sport's richest race over a great field that included champion FDD Dynasty, All American Futurity winner No Secrets Here, and champion Jess You And I, Blues Girl Too, Blues Girl Too also became the winner of what was at the time the richest race ever held at Los Alamitos Race Course. She accomplished that feat a series of hard-fought races where she ran second in the Ed Burke Million and second in the Golden State Million Futurity. She would go on to be named champion 2-year-old and champion 2-year-old filly.

That was only the beginning for Blues Girl Too. She returned as a sophomore filly and was tremendous, first by beating the boys in the Golden State Derby and then by beating older mares in the Mildred Vessels Memorial Handicap. Line them up and she'll knock them down. Blues Girl Too beat champion aged horse Apollitical Time, Vessels Maturity winner Five Bar Molly and seven other stakes winners in the Mildred Vessels.

After running fourth in an unbelievable Los Alamitos Super Derby, Blues Girl Too delivered probably the single most amazing effort of the decade at Los Alamitos, as the she defeated champion sophomores Little Bit Of Baja and FDD Dynasty to win the richest running ever of the Champion of Champion, which that year offered a $1 million purse. Blues Girl Too accomplished that victory in track record style, covering the distance in an amazing time of :21.13 to eclipse the famed :21.17 posted by Dash For Cash in the 1976 Champion of Champions. The victory made Blues Girl Too not only a millionaire but also a winner of $2,032,328 - at the time the second highest figure ever. A five-time AQHA Champion, Blues Girl Too still ranks the richest female in Quarter Horse racing history and one of only three runners with more than $2 million career earnings.

Less than $100,000 away from becoming the sport's richest runner and with a campaign as a 4-year-old mare looming, Blues Girl Too instead called it a career. There was nothing left for her to prove. She is the decade's best horse in my opinion.