Preview Racing


California Breeders Champions Weekend Kicks Off On Saturday Night
Fastest qualifier Frivolous will head the Restricted Grade 1, $285,000 Governor’s Cup Futurity on Friday at Los Alamitos Race Course.

© Amber Mendez
California Breeders Champions Weekend Kicks Off On Saturday Night

LOS ALAMITOS, CA—JULY 29, 2022—The first of two great nights of Quarter Horse stakes racing action is set with the Restricted Grade 1, $285,000 Governor’s Cup Futurity headlining an all-stakes Late Pick Four sequence on the opening night of California Breeders Champions Weekend on Saturday at Los Alamitos.

First post for the 9-race program is 7:35 p.m.

The Governor’s Cup Futurity will held at 350 yards and is the closing race on the card. The field will be headed by Clanfield Act Stables’ Frivolous, a full sister to Grade 2 stakes winner Monopolist and the fastest qualifier to this race.

To be ridden by Henry Reynoso Lopez for trainer Felix Gonzalez, Frivolous was purchased for $80,000 at the Los Alamitos Equine Sale last year. She’s already earned $55,550 in five career starts, the bulk of that coming when she finished strongly when sixth in the Grade 1, Ed Burke Million Futurity on June 19.

Frivolous qualified to the Ed Burke Million thanks to a big finish when winning her Ed Burke trial. She was closer to the lead in her Governor’s Cup trial and from there she cruised home to win by a half-length.

“She’s such an honest filly, but also has a great deal of talent,” Gonzalez said. “She won her trial from post number one, and I was most impressive in the nice rhythm she maintained the entire way. That helped carry her through the 350 yards and helped her finish strongly. Fortunately, she faced no trouble or had any issues from post number one. I was a little nervous, but I was pleased to see her leave the gate in such nice form. She’s getting better and better and to be honest, I just want her to break with the field. She’s proven that she can finish strongly.”

Frivolous will start from post number eight and will be situated between Oscar Parra’s Attacker, who has shown quickness out of the gate in her last two outings, and Steve Burns, Guadalupe Bujanda and Jose Flores’ Interesting Eagle, who posted the third fastest qualifying time when crossing the wire in front of Grade 2 Robert Adair Kindergarten Futurity finalist Mornings With Maria. Interesting Eagle has floated to the inside in some of her starts, but she usually leaves the gate in good form.

George and Ruben Villalobos’ Required First bumped at the start when running second to Frivolous in the trials but could benefit from drawing the rail. The First Down Dash colt has been fast out of the gate and the horse to his right is Future Version, who flew out of the gate when winning his trial by 1 ½ lengths.

Future Version, purchased for $73,000 at the Los Alamitos Equine Sale, is owned by Rojas Racing, Javier Chavez, and Juan H. Moya.

The Favorite Cartel colt Up For Everything will look to give Allred his sixth win in the Governor’s Cup Futurity. Victorious is each of his last two starts, the homebred is out of Allred’s outstanding broodmare Up For It, who won the Governor’s Cup in 2013.

Up For It is the dam of the Seperate Interest filly She Goes Up, who won this futurity last year.

The nine in this race from the rail are:
  1. Required First
  2. Future Version
  3. Turbeau
  4. BF Lizzierageous
  5. Up For Everything
  6. Mornings With Maria
  7. Attacker
  8. Frivolous
  9. Interesting Eagle

The Saturday card will feature two other stakes events for 2-year-olds in the $25,000 California Breeders Freshman Fillies Stakes and the $25,000 California Breeders Freshman Stakes. Felix Gonzalez could play a big role in the Freshman Fillies Stakes, as he’ll saddle two-time graded futurity finalist Navaja.

Owned and bred by Jesus Nava, the Walk Thru Fire filly comes in having earned $79,295 in her five-race career. Other top contenders here include Allred and Tom Seibly’s Corona Rose, who ran second to Future Version in their Governor’s Cup Futurity trial, and Simmons Racing’s Reminder, a full sister to Grade 1 winners Powerful Favorite, Bomb Cyclose, Runforyourlife, and Cyber Monday.

Colts and geldings will be in action in the other event for juveniles, the Freshman Stakes, and this group will feature Rojas Racing’s Smokin Hot Fire, a finalist to the Kindergarten Futurity. Recent winners Who Kares, owned and bred by Steve Burns, Lisbon Crystal, owned and bred by EG High Desert Farms, and Mr Secret Cartel, owned by Margarito Farias and bred by E.J. and Mark Thompson, are among the other seven that will compete in the Freshman Stakes.

Top sophomores will race in the $25,000 Jens List Jr. Memorial California Breeders Stakes at 400 yards. Slated as the eighth race on the card, the field of six will include two-time Grade 1 finalist Eye On The Sky, two-time stakes winner Up The Ladder, and the red-hot Da Special One. Owned by Francisco Garcia, Burns and Moya, Eye On The Sky returns to action after running fifth in the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Winter Derby on February 19. He also raced in the Ed Burke Million last year.

Allred’s homebred Up The Ladder was a solid allowance winner in his last start and was part of five stakes races in a row before that win. His stakes wins include a half-length score in the Dream A Secret Handicap last year and a head victory in the Holiday Handicap on the opening night of this meet. Alfredo Alonzo’s Da Special One has won each of his last two starts and has finished in the top three in each of his last six starts. The Kids A Cowboy, Look Up, and Benevolent are the other three sophomores in this race.

California Breeders Champions Weekend continues Sunday night with another four stakes races plus trials to the Los Alamitos Claiming Futurity. The stakes events on tap are the $175,000 Governor’s Cup Derby, the Restricted Grade 1, $100,000 Spencer Childers California Breeders Championship Handicap, the Restricted Grade 3, $40,000 Matron Stakes, and the $25,000 Debutante Stakes.

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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.