Asscher will head the $400,000+ Grade 1 Los Alamitos Oaks on Saturday night.

© Amber Mendez

LOS ALAMITOS, CA–MARCH 20, 2024–A Grade 1 stakes race for the second year in a row, the running of the Los Alamitos Oaks on Saturday night will feature a total purse of over $400,00 for the fifth straight year as another outstanding field squares off in the meet’s richest race for sophomores fillies.

Nine fillies will be in action in the Los Alamitos with Lance Bland and Jimmy Barton’s Asscher entering the 400-yard race in top form after posting the fastest qualifying time in the trials on March 3.

The daughter of FDD Dynasty will start from post number eight while looking for her third win in a row at Los Alamitos. Trained by Marc Jungers, Asscher landed in Orange County after running second in her 440-yard trial to the (G1) All American Futurity.

Upon her arrival, Asscher raced in the trials to the (G1) Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity. She brushed early on and had to settle for fourth. She’s only settled for victories since then, picking up a strong victory against males in the running of the Holiday Handicap on the meet’s opening night on December 30 before returning to score a dominant gate to wire victory in her trial to the Los Alamitos Oaks.

In all three of her starts, Asscher has been ridden by Christian Ramos, a multiple graded stakes winning young rider with 146 Quarter Horse wins and over $4.2 million in earnings. Ramos, whose first full year as a jockey came in 2021, has scored victories in the Grade 2 Isaac Hobbs Stakes and the Grade 2 West Texas Maturity. He will now look to pick up his first Grade 1 stakes victories with the daughter of the great mare Astica.

Jungers, who groomed the Champion of Champions winner Denim N Diamonds at Los Alamitos, as trained winners in Grade 2 and Grade 3 races, but he’ll also look to saddle his first Grade 1 winner with Asscher.

Astica, of course, was the AQHA champion 3-year-old filly in 2015 after winning the Lou Wooten-Sydney Valentini Handicap while setting the 400-yard track record at The Downs at Albuquerque. Astica’s dam is the champion 3-year-old filly Alice K White.

The total purse for the race is $404,000. The field from the rail out is as follows: Seperate Heart, Checkn Cartel, Market Analyst, In The Mode, Favorite City, Double Down 123, Silver Bac, Asscher and Southern Divine. The field will not include trial winner Hubba Hubba, who has been retired to be a broodmare according to trainer Elena Andrade. 

Taos River Ranch and Randy Young’s Double Down 123, voted the PCQHRA champion 2-year-old filly last year, will look to secure her third stakes victory at Los Alamitos after scoring in the Grade 2 Robert Adair Kindergarten Futurity and the John Deere AQHA California Juvenile Challenge.

She’ll be one of the three fillies from the barn of trainer Monty Arrossa, who also qualified Dunn Ranch’s Southern Devine and the talented Favorite City, who is a half-sister to two-time Champion of Champions winner Apollitical Pence. Southern Devine was second in the Grade 2 PCQHRA Breeders Futurity and qualified to the Two Million.

Asscher’s trial race was highly productive as it also featured J. Francisco Diaz’s Checkn Cartel, who followed Asscher in their trial and was the second fastest qualifier, while Ed Allred’s In The Mode, finished third and was also the third fastest qualifier.

A Favorite Cartel filly, In The Mode is a full sister to Governor’s Cup Derby winner Future Version and the multiple graded stakes winner New Look. Checkn Cartel was a solid fourth in the Two Million final.

 Five of the nine fillies racing in the final are exiting this trial with the other two being Steve Burns, Mark and Marta Winslow and Jose Flores’ Silver Bac and Levings Racing LLC’s Favorite City. Silver Bac won her trial to the Two Million and finishing solidly in her Oaks heat.

Gentry Farms, which year after year campaigns one of the best group of fillies in the country, will be represented by the Seperate Interest filly Seperate Heart, who qualified to the Grade 1 Ed Burke Million Futurity last year, and has posted two solid runner-up efforts.

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

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