State-bred Quarter Horses will be showcased on July 30-31 during California Breeders Champions Night weekend at Los Alamitos Race Course.

© Los Alamitos Race Course

LOS ALAMITOS, CA—JULY 27, 2022—State-bred Quarter Horses will be showcased on July 30-31 during California Breeders Champions Night Weekend. The two-night extravaganza will be headed by the running of the $285,000 Governor’s Cup Futurity on Saturday night and the $180,000 Governor’s Cup Derby on Sunday night. This will be the 23rd edition of this event.

Nominations for the rest of the stakes events to be held over the weekend closed on Thursday morning and are available here.

Several of the nominated horses will look to win on California Breeders Champions Night for the second straight year, including She Goes Up, the winner of the Governor’s Cup Futurity last year, who will be in action in the Governor’s Cup Derby.The Seperate Interest filly hopes to become the first filly to sweep the Governor’s Cup Series since the AQHA champion Corona Cash in 1997-98.

In the Restricted Grade 1, $100,000 Spencer Childers California Breeders Championship Handicap, Ed Allred’s Circle City will look repeat in this race, while hoping to become the first to win back-to-back runnings of this race since the great AQHA World Champion Be A Bono won three straight Spencer Childers from 2004 to 2006.

Circle City is one of four horses nominated from the stable of Ed Allred. The Hall of Fame owner and breeder could also be represented in this race by Monopolist, Up And Atem, and Gentleman Chuck.

EG High Desert Farms’ Bail Czech, winner of this race in 2020, has also been nominated. He’ll look to join the likes of Be A Bono, He Looks Hot and A Ransom. He Looks Hot is the only one of the three to win twice but in non-consecutive years.

Steve Burns’ You Can Run, winner of the Sprint Stakes last year, has been nominated to the Spencer Childers as well as the Sprint. Vic3tory LLC’s Other World, winner of the Jens List Memorial Handicap last year, is another of the top Spencer Childers nominees.

Gentry Farms’ Kiss Thru Fire, winner of the Matron Stakes in 2021, is also listed among the Spencer Childers nominees. The multiple Grade 1 winner is also one of nine mares nominated to the Matron Stakes this year. Thermonuclear Energy is the only mare to win consecutive runnings of this race when winning in both 2018 and 2019.

Kiss Thru Fire’s main competition in the Matron could come from EG High Desert Farms’ La Estrella Corona, who was the only mare to take on older males in the Grade 1 Vessels Maturity on July 3. Haras Portofino’s Rite On Time, winner of the Debutante Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on California Breeders Champions Night last year, has been nominated to the Matron Stakes this year.

The Sprint Stakes looks like the strongest list of nominees. Among the 19 nominated, Link Newcomb’s Cattail Cove stands out, fresh off his first stakes win in the Independence Day Handicap on July 2. Others nominated include Mister Tornado, BF Outfoosed, plus several names also nominated to the Spencer Childers.  

Nineteen have been nominated to the $25,000 California Breeders Freshman Stakes led by Jesus Navas’ Navaja, who has already qualified to both the Ed Burke Million Futurity and the Robert Adair Kindergarten Futurity. She’s also one of 11 to be nominated to the $25,000 California Breeders Freshman Stakes for Fillies.

For Past Performances of horses nominated to California Breeders Champions Night CLICK HERE. 

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For more info, please contact larace@losalamitos.com. Follow us on Twitter or Instagram at @losalracing or visit us online at losalamitos.com.