Heartland is one of ten finalists heading to the $77,800 Wild West Futurity on Saturday at Los Alamitos.

© Los Alamitos

LOS ALAMITOS, CA–OCTOBER 22, 2024–The big question heading into the running of the $77,800 Wild West Futurity will be if J Lazy Six Racing’s Heartlande can repeat her sensational performance in the trials to the Wild West Futurity.

If the filly by Favorite Cartel can be anywhere close to duplicating that thrilling effort, then it’s tough to imagine any horse outdueling her in Saturday's 350-yard final at Los Alamitos.

Simply put, Heartlande dominated her trial race. She won her heat by 3 1/4 lengths, and her time of 17.742 was 45/100ths of a second faster than the next quickest finalist. Of course, that's why they run the race and Heartlande still needs to be at the top of her game to secure her first stakes win.

The Wild West is for juveniles who have raced in the Intermountain and Northwest regions, as well as Nevada, Arizona, and Canada.

Heartlande started her career with two outings at Turf Paradise. She ran second in her trial to the AQRA Turf Paradise Presidents Open Futurity and was seventh in the $56,000 final. Making her way to Los Alamitos, she finished third in the John Deere California Juvenile Challenge on August 10.

Her next start came in the Wild West trials on October 6, where her impressive effort made her the standout of the night. In that race, Heartlande had a 1 1/2 length lead at the start, which quickly became a 2 1/2 length lead as she crossed the race's midway point. At the wire, Heartlande was all alone with no rival around her as she picked up the first victory of her career.

The Wild West field will also feature Ralph and Carolyn Fales’ homebred filly Say Somthing, who won the other trial of the night in the second fastest time of 18.190. Sired by AQHA champion Tell Cartel, who stands at Fales Ranch, Say Somthing was also picking up her first career victory.

Like Heartlande, Say Something also had previous stakes experience at Turf Paradise, where she ran fifth in the Desert Classic Futurity. The Fales will look to win their second Wild West after scoring with Ms Patty Cake in 2019.

Gary and Jeralyn Messenger’s Go Tell Carter will look to pick up her maiden win in the Wild West final. She has been close to earning her diploma several times before, as she was second in a trial to the Bitterroot Futurity in Idaho and also when running second to Say Somthing in their Wild West trial here.

Go Tell Carter went on to finish eighth in the Bitterroot Futurity final, but she should do better than that here after her solid race in the Wild West trials.

The field will be completed by Tf One Dashn Lajolla, M E Closing Time, Prize Winning Chick, Notin Missing Here, Remembered Well, Goodbye Tyme, and Ruff An Rowdy. Post positions for the Wild West will be drawn on Wednesday afternoon.