Los Alamitos announces their year-end leaders for the 2024 season, including jockey and trainer Monty Arrossa and Armando Cervantes.

© Los Alamitos

LOS ALAMITOS, CA–DECEMBER 27, 2024–Monty Arrossa and Armando Cervantes, who joined forces to win 50 Quarter Horse races last meet, won their first trainer and jockey Quarter Horse title at Los Alamitos Race Course during the recently concluded 2024 season at the Orange County track.

Arrossa won a total of 68 Quarter Horse races from 319 starters for a solid win ratio of 21.5%. His top winners included multiple Grade 1 winners BP Cartel Policy and Pattys Saint and Grade 1 futurity winners American Dreamin and Up To Party.

Arrossa was second in the standings last year but top the race by 19 wins ahead of runner-up Heath Taylor, who won 47 races. Eddie Willis, who kept a stable here the entire season finished third with 44 wins.

Armando Cervantes won a total of 52 Quarter Horse races while riding almost exclusively for Arrossa. Of his 226 mounts, 194 came aboard Arrossa trainees. Cervantes also led all rider with $2,274,687 in earnings at Los Alamitos.

Cruz Mendez, who was last year’s leading rider, finished second this season with 43 wins. In his first full year riding, Gabriel Lara finished third with 41 victories.

Perennial leading owner Ed Allred won the Quarter Horse owner title after picking up 55 wins from 328 starters. His top winners included multiple graded stakes winner London Toby, stakes winner Nymphette and top graded stakes finalists Norco and Boardwalk.

Dunn Ranch finished second in the standings with 29 victories led by Grade 1 futurity winners American Dreamin and Up To Party and top mare Pattys Saint. Reliance Ranches LLC finished third in the standings with 14 wins, two of those coming courtesy of multiple stakes winner Unrelentless.

In the Thoroughbred standings, Edgar Payeras secured the title in the breed’s final race of the year. He finished with 24 victories. Ricardo Ramirez was second in the standings while Efrain Hernandez finished third.

For the second year in a row, Angela Aquino accomplished a nice double in the Thoroughbred rankings as she finished as the leading trainer with 26 wins and leading owner with 14 victories. She had that same owner/trainer double last year. This is Aquino’s fourth training title with Thoroughbreds at Los Alamitos.

Jesus Nunez was second with 14 wins and Jesus Uranga third with 13. In the owner standings, Ashley Garcia was second with eight wins and Arturo Williams and BG Stables tied for third with five wins each. 

The Mixed-breed ranks were highly contested the entire year with Ricardo Ramirez finishing on top with 50 wins followed by Payeras with 49 wins and Adrian Escobedo third with 47.  Trainer Sergio Morfin topped the standings with 30 victories with Aquino finishing second with 26 and Uranga third with 26.

After finishing in a tie last year, Battle Born Racing made the top spot their own with 15 victories. Jesus Uranga and Silvia Soto finished in a tied for second place with 10 wins each.

The 75th year of racing at Los Alamitos opens Saturday, December 28 with the running of the Holiday Handicap for Quarter Horse juveniles.  The first Grade 1 stakes race of the meet is set for Sunday, January 5 with the running of the Charger Bar Handicap for mares ages 4 and up. Live racing will be conducted on a Saturday and Sunday night basis. For more info, please contact 714-820-2690.    

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

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