LOS ALAMITOS, CA—JANUARY 4, 2020—The fifth and sixth races on Friday night at Los Alamitos served as previews of the 350-yard trials to the Maiden Stakes for 3-year-olds to be held here on Sunday, January 26.

Horses are eligible to enroll to the Los Alamitos Maiden Stakes if they are still maidens as of December 1st of their 2-year-old racing campaign. After the December 1st deadline, horses can continue to race and even win without affecting their eligibility to the Maiden Stakes trials. Sixty horses remain eligible to compete for the January 26 trials with the Maiden Stakes final set for Sunday, February 16.

Back to Friday night’s races, 13 of the 14 horses that competed races five and six are Maiden Stakes eligible runners. Friday’s fifth race was won by Inaugurator, the only one of the group not eligible to the Maiden Stakes.

Ron Hartley’s Favorite Cartel gelding Jespinky and Legacy Ranch’s Favorite Cartel filly Baltas Babe finished second and third, respectively, in this race and will both should be back for the trials on January 26. Trained by John Cooper, Jespinky waited until December 13 to make his debut. She’s now finished second in his two starts.

All seven starters in race number six are Maiden Stakes eligible runners. Ed Allred’s Bono Is Good was first across the wire in this race, covering the 300 yards in :15.569. The son of Favorite Cartel, who had been off since July 27, ran third in a trial to the Governor’s Cup Futurity and also finished third in a trial to the Ed Burke Million Futurity.

Legacy Ranch’s Trents Toys finished second and Porfirio Carrasco’s Vegas Corona finished third. Trents Toys also ran second in a maiden race on December 13, while Vegas Coronas arrived at Los Alamitos after running in the trials to the Texas Classic Futurity at Lone Star Park.

Live racing continues at Los Alamitos on Saturday with an eight-race card. First post is 6 p.m. (PST).

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Courtesy of www.losalamitos.com.