Francisco Diaz’s Emperador D leads a wide-open field of eight two-year-olds set to meet in Sunday’s $54,000 Los Alamitos Claiming Futurity at 350 yards.

© Los Alamitos

By Orlando Gutierrez

CYPRESS, CA–AUGUST 14, 2026–Francisco Diaz’s Emperador D leads a wide-open field of eight two-year-olds set to meet in Sunday’s $54,000 Los Alamitos Claiming Futurity at 350 yards. Under the conditions of the race, all starters in the final will be eligible to be claimed for $16,000, which means that the claiming box will be one of the most popular spots at the track on Sunday night.

Trained by Jaime Gomez, Emperador D posted the second-fastest qualifying time in the trials while posting a sharp ½-length upset victory at nearly 9-1 odds. The Docs Best Card gelding was a winner in his racing debut at 220 yards, showing a solid late kick when flying in the final 100 yards to win by a neck. Martin Arriaga, who has ridden him to both wins, is back aboard the California homebred from post number two.

Gomez knows the potential of this race well, having famously claimed Hay Shaker out of the Claiming Futurity final before that runner went on to qualify for the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity, Grade 1 Golden State Million Futurity, and Grade 1 Los Alamitos Winter Derby.

Over the years, the Claiming Futurity has proven to be a launching pad for future graded stakes stars. Most recently, Show N Tell Cartel was claimed out of this event before qualifying for the 2024 Grade 1 Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity and winning the Grade 2 El Primero Del Año Derby. Undoubtedly, plenty of horsemen and horsewomen will be interested in having a chance to claim one of these top prospects.

Ed Allred’s Female Flyer posted the top qualifying time in the trials, but similar to El Tio Angel, who set the fastest time in the 2021 trials for this race, her connections have opted to skip the final. El Tio Angel’s connections also bypassed the final and instead pointed him to the PCQHRA Breeders Futurity trials, which worked out well as he qualified for that Grade 2 event.

Allred and trainer James Glenn, Jr. will still hold a strong pair in the final thanks to trial winner Favorite Shine (:18.200), who turned in a dominant, wire-to-wire score under jockey Oscar Peinado, along with maiden runner Irately (:18.261), who gets the services of Cesar Ortega. Allred also owns Shes Difficult, who qualified as well, but like Female Flyer, she will not compete in this final.

EG High Desert Farms LLC’s Luna Sofia, a game runner-up behind Emperador D in her trial, is among the others in the final. The field will be completed by Adolfo Alarcon’s Keep A Secret Jess, Jesus Cuevas’s Otherworldly, Bradbury Racing’s Shining Bright, and M & G Farms’s Mp Express, who closed steadily behind Favorite Shine.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Would you like more industry news delivered directly to your inbox? Click here to sign up.