Cattail Cove headlines a field of seven older horses in the $35,000 Moonist Stakes on Sunday at Los Alamitos

© Los Alamitos

LOS ALAMITOS, CA-MARCH 13, 2025–Link Newcomb’s popular and ageless stakes winner, Cattail Cove, will make his 53rd career start while looking for his third win in a row when he heads a strong field of seven older horses in the running of the $35,000 Moonist Stakes on Sunday at Los Alamitos.

The Moonist is a special for Cattail Cove, as the now 8-year-old starter was the recipient of the Moonist Award in 2022. The Moonist is presented by the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association to a stakes or allowance type Quarter Horse that shows excellence while racing in California. Cattail Cove did just that in 2022, winning a pair of stakes races while finishing third or better in seven races while facing stakes-caliber competition.

A 10-time winner, the Juan Aleman-trained gelding by Favorite Cartel raced in either a stakes race or a stakes trial race in 48 of his career starts. Cattail Cove is also hoping that the third time is the charm in the Moonist Stakes, as he finished third in this race in 2022 and second in the 2023 renewal. Martin Arriaga will pilot the Steve Burns-bred fan favorite from post number five.

It’s an excellent Moonist field, as the lineup also includes Kevins Wise Corona and Edberg Verde, the fourth and seventh-place finishers, respectively, in the Grade 1 Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship on February 16. Owned by Parsons Ranch, Kevins Wise Corona won his Brad McKinzie trial and finished about a length behind the Grade 1 winner Unrelentless.

Juniors Quarter Horses’ Ready For It will make his season debut after running in the Grade 2 Southern California Derby on December 22. The two-time stakes winner has won five of 13 career starts. Howard Nichols’ Jess Being A Friend, a stakes winner and a career earner of $453,123, will also be in action. The field from the rail out is as follows: Edberg Verde, Jess Being A Fried, Doin It Just For Fun, Kevins Wise Corona, Cattail Cove, SM Jess Corona, Ready For It, and Price Fixer.

FOUR ALLOWANCE EVENTS ON SATURDAY NIGHT

Four allowance events led by a talented field of older Quarter Horse facing off at 350 yards will headline the Saturday night action at Los Alamitos. The first post is 7:05 p.m.                    

The main event on the card is race number nine which features a field of six stakes caliber sprinters. Among the horses in action is Enrique Medel Garcia’s Noon It Is, winner of the Jack Clifford Stakes at the California State Fair in Sacramento in July. The Paul Jones trainee was second in an allowance event during this meet’s opening night before running sixth in a race to forget on February 23. Martin Arriaga will ride at Noon. It Is from post six.   

Clanfield Act Stables’ Special Two Corona only has three career starts, but he’s been terrific in those races. Two of them have resulted in victories, while the other was a second-place finish against the talented LJ Lucky 7. He’ll start from post-five.

The others in this race include Juan Carlos Chavez and Mario Sanchez’s Sneaky Kid, winner of a Governor’s Cup Futurity trial in 2023, and Chester Carlson, who was part of the 2023 El Primero Del Año Derby. Steve Burns’ Winners Share, second in the James Smith Memorial and a finalist for the Governor’s Cup Derby last year, will also be in action in this race. Jorge Landeros’ Bigg Casino, a two-time winner here last year, will complete the field. The other allowances are in races 2,4 and 7.

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