Norco, is one of several tremendous juveniles run in the Grade 1 $1,000,000 Ed Burke Million Futurity finals on Sunday at Los Alamitos.

© Amber Mendez/Los Alamitos

LOS ALAMITOS, CA– JUNE 13, 2024–Ed Allred’s Norco, who has been sensational in his two career starts, Keith Nellesen’s My Budd, the runner-up in the Grade 2, $256,000 Robert Adair Kindergarten Futurity, and Dunn Ranch’s Up To Party, the fastest qualifier and a bargain purchase at the 2023 Los Alamitos Equine Sale, are just three of the headliners among a tremendous field of 2-year-olds facing off in the Grade 1, $1,000,000 Ed Burke Million Futurity at 350 yards on Sunday at Los Alamitos.

Norco, a full-brother to Grade 1 winner Circle City and Grade 2 winner Nomadic, has been extremely impressive in a pair of outings, first when winning his debut by a jaw-dropping 2 1/4 lengths and then scoring a dominant 1 3/4 length victory in the fourth of 12 trials to the Ed Burke on May 26. The son of Favorite Cartel out of Moonlight Corona finished with the second fastest time of :17.649, but he was high on the list of awesome runners to qualify from this busy night of trials.

“The horse came back great after the trials,” trainer Scott Willoughby said. “He’s bucking and playing, eating all the grain and feeling good. I’m pretty happy with him. He’s training really well. In the time between (the trials and the final), he’s just getting bigger and stronger. We’re enjoying him. He’s such a smart (gelding) and takes care of himself. Gabriel Lara is doing a great job riding him. I appreciate the fact that Doc (Allred) has him, and we get a shot to run him.

“I’ve had both of his brothers and have had several horses out of that family. I had his mother, and they can all run it seems like, out of that mare. He looked like a runner right away. He wasn’t as big as some of the other horses, but he showed me from this first work that he was going to be something. He’s just kept improving.”

Lara will ride the undefeated Allred-bred runner from post number four. Allred is a two-time Ed Burke winner, while Willoughby won this race in 2004.

My Budd, one of the two geldings by the sire KVN Corona owned by Nellesen in this race, won his trial by daylight following his strong runner-up finish in the Kindergarten at 300 yards. The Heath Taylor trainee will come in with the fourth fastest qualifying time and start from post number three.

“He’s run well and has been really consistent,” Taylor said. “I think the horse is going to relish the extra distance. The 350 will suit him better than the 300. Obviously, it is a very tough race. Norco has looked like a superstar, and Monty Arrossa’s filly (Up To Party) is very impressive. It’s a really deep field, and hopefully, he’ll get away clean and be good. It’s ten quality runners, and of course, anytime (the purse) is one million dollars is supposed to be tough.”

Taylor described his other Ed Burke starter, Jess Send Kevin, as a “huge horse.”

“Really big, big, long-striding horse,” Taylor said. “I think the horse will get better all year. He certainly wants 350, 400, and even 440, possibly. He’s a giant horse, over 16 hands. He’s still developing and still coming around. I think he ran a good trial race, but he’s got a lot more once he puts it all together. He’s still growing into his body.”   

Bred by Turner Farms, Jess Send Kevin will start from post number nine and is a half-brother to the stakes winner and Grade 1 stakes-placed standout Jess Macho Corona. Nellesen and Taylor teamed up to win last year’s Ed Burke Million with Political Rivalry.

Dunn Ranch’s Up To Party, a filly bred in California by Ed Allred and Tom Seibly, is unbeaten in her two career starts and had that thunderbolt performance when winning her trial ¾ lengths and in the top time of :17.583. The daughter of veteran stallion Kiddy Up, Up To Party will start from post number seven for the Arrossa barn.

“(Up To Party) is real business minded,” said Arrossa of the $12,000 purchase at the Los Alamitos Equine Sale last year. “I love good filly when they get dialed in. They get tough. She ran a great maiden race here and came back and ran a super trial race tonight. J Fire Up was an amazing Kiddy Up filly, and we really like how this filly is doing now.

Arrossa, the winning trainer of the 2020 Ed Burke Million, will saddle three other starters in the Ed Burke Million in Greg Gibson and Steve Wright’s Laredeaux, Buckway Ranch’s Ultimate Battle, and AGMW Racing’s Fear N Fridays. The latter was the fastest qualifier to the Kindergarten, was a troubled ninth in the final, but then came back to post a victory in his Ed Burke Million trials. Similarly to Up To Party, the Favorite Cartel gelding Laredeaux is undefeated in two starts and finished powerfully to win his trial by a ½ length. His other starter, the Steve Burns-bred Favorite Cartel colt Ultimate Battle, is the only maiden in the field, but he’s delivered a pair of strong runner-up efforts, including his second to Fear N Fridays in the trials.

“Ultimate Battle got a little hot in the gates last time in his maiden and has matured a lot. He put in a nice race. (Jockey) James Flores said he was a little green away from there but was really closing in the end.”

Trainer Jose Flores, a two-time winner of this race, including the 2014 running with Heza Dasha Fire, will saddle a pair of talented sprinters in search of this third Ed Burke. Flores, the leading trainer at Los Alamitos in each of the last two years, will saddle Robs Reason, who’ll start from the rail, and the unbeaten Big Hurt, who’ll start from post number five. Flores owns a share of each horse. He is partners with Laynce Sprouse and Martha and Mark Winslow on the Good Reason SA gelding Robs Reason, and he owns Big Hurt in partnership with Javier Rodriguez.

“(Big Hurt) came back really good, real sound,” Flores said of the Tempting Dash colt. “We haven’t had any issues with him sound wise, and I’m real positive about him. If he is 100 percent in the gates, he can be tough. He needs to do everything right. No room for mistakes. We’re hoping everything goes his way.”

The Winslows have been longtime supporters of Quarter Horse racing at Los Alamitos and will have a chance to compete in a million-dollar race for the first time.

“They’re great people, great owners, and real supportive of our barn,” Flores said. “Mark and Marta and Layne, they let me do my job. They let me make good decisions on our work. The horse has really proven (himself). He’s the kind of horse that does everything right. He stands perfect in the gate so he had a shot to get a piece of the pie in this one.” 

Armando Salazar’s Devils Tower posted the third fastest time after winning the third trial by a length and, from time to time, has shown to be as talented as any horse in this field. Trained by Juan Aleman, who won this race in 2022 with Party Politics, Devils Tower is a colt by Favorite Cartel out of the producer of multiple Grade 1 winners, Babe On The Fly. She’s the dam of Golden State Million Futurity winner Little Talks and All American Gold Cup winner Rock You. Bred by Steve Burns and purchased for $115,000 at the Los Alamitos Equine Sale, Devils Tower has now won his last two starts after running a tough sixth in his debut on April 29.

“This is actually his second start because his first start didn’t count for me,” said Aleman after the trials. “He lost his footing (in his debut), and a horse came in. You know, I kind of scratched that race. I really didn’t want to run him again, but I had to. You can’t go into the trials with that kind of start. That’s why I only ran him at 220; I just wanted to get him out, and then from there, he showed what he had shown in the mornings.”

After his maiden victory, Devils Tower posted his Ed Burke trial victory by a length with Oscar Peinado in the irons. He’ll start from the outside post 10 in the final.

From the rail out, here’s the field to the Ed Burke Million Futurity: Robs Reason, Laredeaux, My Budd, Norco, Big Hurt, Ultimate Battle, Up To Party, Fear N Fridays, Jess Send Kevin, and Devils Tower.