Empressum headlines the Go Man Go on Sunday at Los Alamitos

© Los Alamitos

LOS ALAMITOS, CA–AUGUST 22, 2025–Steve Holt and Jeff Jones’ Empressum, a six-time AQHA champion, returns for 2025 racing debut while going after a stake record third victory in the Grade 1 Go Man Go Handicap when he faces a star-studded cast in the 400-yard race on Sunday at Los Alamitos.

The two-time Champion of Champions winner won the Go Man Go in 2022 and then in 2024 to become only the sixth horse to have won this race more than once in the 65-year history of the race. The other two-time winners are Heza Dasha Fire (2017-18), Jess You And I (2008-09), Charger Bar (1971 and 1974), Go Derussa Go (1968-69) and Duplicate Copy (1966-67). Empressum and Charger Bar are the only ones with their wins coming in non-consecutive years.

Empressum, who was named the 2022 AQHA World Champion following his first Champion of Champions victory, was named the 2024 champion aged gelding on the strength of three Grade 1 wins last year, which were his second Grade 1 Champion of Champions victories, his Go Man Go win. and his third consecutive Grade 1 Vessels Maturity win.

Now trained by Elena Andrade, the 7-year-old gelding by Apollitical Jess out of Crazy Down Corona will be going after 10th career stakes win at Los Alamitos. If he reaches that mark, he’ll be only the 17th Quarter Horse with this achievement in the 75-year history of Los Alamitos. Heza Dasha Fire is the last horse to reach 10 stakes wins at Los Alamitos when he won the Spencer Childers California Breeders Championship Handicap in 2018.

Bred by Holt and Jones, Empressum enters the Go Man Go with 25 wins from 36 starts and earnings of $2,458,873. He’s finished first or second 32 times in his career and only his maiden race as a 2-year-old in March of 2020 came in a race that was not a stakes or a stakes trial. Rodrigo Sigala Vallejo will ride Empressum from post number four.

The Go Man Go features one of the best Grade 1 fields assembled at Los Alamitos this season. Here’s the lineup from the rail out: Unrelentless, Yippee Ki Yey, Cattail Cove, Empressum, Shakers No Secret, Scoops Dynasty, Kevins Wise Corona, Edberg Verde, Rs Shere Khan, and Boardwalk.

Reliance Ranch’s Unrelentless, Link Newcomb’s Cattail Cove, Ethan and Abel Lopez and Manny Dutchover’s Shakers No Secret, and Ed McNelis’ Scoops Dynasty are four other Grade 1 stakes winners in this race. Unrelentless won the Grade 1 Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship in February, while Shakers No Secret scored his second career Grade 1 victory when taking The Championship at Sunland Park also in February.  A 10-time winner in his career, the Marc Jungers-trained Shakers No Secret has lit the board in 11 consecutive top races with his last six starts coming in Grade 1 stakes races.

His string of Grade 1 appearances also include winning the 2024 Grade 1 AQHA Challenge Championship, running third in the Grade 1 Champion of Champions last year and after winning his Grade 1 at Sunland Park, posting three straight runner-up efforts while racing in the Leo Stakes and Debbie Schauf Remington Park Championship and the Vessels Maturity here on July 6. Christian Ramos, the 2024 AQHA champion jockey, gets the call on the son of Five Bar Cartel for Jungers, who was named the 2024 AQHA champion trainer.

Still going strong, Scoops Dynasty outdueled Empressum in the 2023 running of the Go Man Go to win his second career Grade 1 race as well. A six-time stakes winner, the FDD Dynasty gelding arrives at Los Alamitos after winning the AQHA Turf Paradise Championship Challenge.   

The 8-year-old star Cattail Cove enters this race following back-to-back stakes wins, including his Spencer Childers win on July 26. The winner of the Independence Day Handicap in his previous outing, the veteran of 56-career starts has won five out of his last six outings.  Juan Aleman will saddle the gelding by Favorite Cartel.

The Brazilian star Edberg Verde joins Kaweah Bar Handicap winner Kevins Wise Corona to form a strong pair in this race for AQHA Hall of Fame member Paul Jones. Ed Allred’s Boardwalk, second to Cattail Cove in the Spencer Childers, could be a major challenger from the outside post 10, while Yippee Ki Yey and Rs Shere Khan both have a lot of experience at the stakes level.