Preview Racing


Seventeen Race For Champion Of Champions Spots Sunday At Los Alamitos
Big Lew, who finished third in the 2016 Champion of Champions(G1) is among the 17 starters on Sunday trying get one of the five berths still available for this year's Champion of Champions.

© Scott Martinez
Seventeen Race For Champion Of Champions Spots Sunday At Los Alamitos

LOS ALAMITOS, CA—NOVEMBER 17, 2017—Five starting berths to the Grade 1, $750,000 Champion of Champions will be up for grabs in the Z. Wayne Griffin Directors Trials on Sunday at Los Alamitos.

A total of 17 horses will compete in the 400-yard trials with the horses with the five fastest times advancing to the Champion of Champions to be held here on Saturday, December 16. In 44 runnings, the winner of the Champion of Champions has gone on to be named Quarter Horse racing's world champion 29 times.

There will be two Z. Wayne Griffin Directors Trials and each will offer a $15,000 purse. The opening trial will be headed by Grade 1 winners Big Lew, He Looks Hot, and Jess Good Reason, while the second division will be filled by Grade 1 winners as well in the form of Bodacious Eagle, BH Lisas Boy and defending Champion of Champions winner Zoomin For Spuds, who also won a Z. Wayne Griffin Trial last year to earn his Champion of Champions berth.

Reliance Ranches LLC's Big Lew will enter the first trial, which is scheduled as race number seven on the card, after posting a solid third in his last outing when taking on Heza Dasha Fire and the aforementioned Bodacious Eagle in the Grade 1 Robert Boniface Los Alamitos Invitational Champions. One of three horses from the Reliance Ranches stable, Big Lew won the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Super Derby and finished third in the Champion of Champions last year.

This season, Big Lew was third in the Grade 1 Leo Stakes and also competed in other major events like the Remington Park Championship and Go Man Go Handicap. Mike Robbins, who will saddle a total of four horses in the trials, trains Big Lew, a stallion by Corona Cartel, who will start from post number three. Jesus Rios Ayala will ride the winner of $638,878.

Ed Allred's millionaire star He Looks Hot will join Big Lew is the opening heat. The Walk Thru Fire gelding won the Restricted Grade 1 Spencer Childers California Breeders Championship Handicap earlier this year and has also participate in three other Grade 1 races this year. He Looks Hot won the 2014 Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity over a field that included Heza Dasha Fire and Bodacious Eagle and won the Vessels Maturity last year.

He's looking to earn a second appearance in the prestigious Champion of Champions after running in it last year. Rodrigo Aceves will pilot the He Looks Hot, who is the richest horses in both trials with earnings of $1,076,114, from post number four. Outstanding older mares Jess Good Reason and Jess Ravin will also participate in the opening Z. Wayne Griffin Trials. Jess Good Reason won the Grade 1 Charger Bar Handicap in January, while Jess Ravin has the Miss Princess Handicap among her stakes wins in 2017.

Owned by John and Cina Sperry and trained by Paul Jones, Jess Good Reason had finished out of the money twice after her Charger Bar win, but look like she was back to her best once again after a second-place finish in the Mildred Vessels Memorial Handicap on September 24.

Oscar Peinado will ride Jess Good Reason from post number five, while EG High Desert Farms' Jess Ravin will start from post six. Valentin Zamudio trains the winner of nine 18 career starts.

Johnny Trotter's One Sweet Racy is the only 3-year-old filly in the trials. She'll be part of the opening heat while looking to improve on her fifth-place finish in the trials to the Los Alamitos Super Derby on October 21. One Sweet Racy was second in the Grade 1 All American Derby at Ruidoso Downs on September 3.

O-So Smart LLC's Katies Easy Moves, fourth in the Robert Boniface in his last year, Mr PYC To You, second in the Bank of America California Championship, and The Charm of Corona, the runner-up to BH Lisas Boy in the Vessels Maturity, will also compete in this trial. The Charm Of Corona is also owned by Reliance Ranches and trained by Mike Robbins.

Jim Walker's Zoomin For Spuds hopes that history can repeat itself. The Monty Arrossa-trainee advanced to the Champion of Champions after winning his Z. Wayne Griffin Trial last year and then he went on to win it all in the Champion of Champions. He'll enter this race after posting his first win of the season by taking an allowance race on November 4. He'll start from post number six with Cody Jensen aboard.

Johnny Trotter's Bodacious Eagle has been of the one of the top Quarter Horses in the nation the entire year. In addition to winning the Leo Stakes at Remington Park, Bodacious Eagle won the Eastex Stakes and Higheasterjet Stakes and was second in the Robert Boniface. He has earned $833,549, which makes him the highest earner in this trial. Jaime Gomez will saddle Bodacious Eagle from post number two. Ricky Ramirez will ride him as usual.

Celina Molina's Viento Negro, an impressive allowance winner in his last two starts, and Reliance Ranches' Flash N Bling, the winner of the Bank of American California Challenge, and Air Force Won, winner of the Emerald Downs Championship Challenge, are among the other top runners in the second trial.

BH Lisas Boy, who is already in the Champion of Champions after winning the Los Alamitos Winter Championship and Vessels Maturity, will make his first start when he also takes part in this trial. The Bill Hoburg-owned and trained runner is back in action for the first time since having surgery in July. He's using this race as preparation for the Champion of Champions and his appearance does not affect the berths available in the Z. Wayne Griffin Directors Trials.

Beth and Michael Harper's Firing Tools, a multiple Grade 1 finalist, Mr Jet Moore Handicap winner Apollitical OK, and recent allowance winner Da One Two Special will complete this outstanding heat.

Courtesy of www.losalamitos.com.