LOS ALAMITOS, CA—DECEMBER 15, 2017—S-Quarter K LLC’s Heza Dasha Fire, the 2015 AQHA world champion, will look to score his second victory in the Grade 1, $750,000 Champion of Champions when he leads a 10-horse field that will also feature the red-hot BH Lisas Boy, who is undefeated in 2017, plus last year’s Champion of Champions winner Zoomin For Spuds and major Grade 1 winners like Chazaq, He Looks Hot, The Fiscal Cliff, Time For Jess, and Jess Good Reason in the 45th running of the prestigious 440-yard race.

Trained by Jose Flores for S-Quarter K LLC, Heza Dasha Fire won the 2015 running of the Champion of Champions and was second in this race last year.

Tailor Fit is the only horse to win two Champion of Champions running in non-consecutive years, winning his first in 1999 and then again in 2001.

Bred in Washington by his owners, the son of champion sire Walk Thru Fire should be considered one of all-time greats in Quarter Horse racing. He’s a winner of eight Grade 1 races in his career and one of the few to have earned over $2 million in his racing career.

With a victory in the Champion of Champions on Saturday, Heza Dasha Fire could have a chance to become the breed’s all-time leading earner in 2018. His career earnings currently stand at $2,047,987. The winner of the Champion of Champions will earn $375,000. Ochoa is AQHA racing’s all-time leading earner with $2,781,365.

Heza Dasha Fire is also one of only six horses to win back-to-back runnings of the Grade 1 Robert Boniface Los Alamitos Invitational Championship and one of only two since 1969 to win consecutive runnings of the Grade 1 Go Man Go Handicap. As usual, Cruz Mendez will ride Heza Dasha Fire. The superstar gelding will start from post number four. As for Flores, having Heza Dasha Fire and winning the Champion of Champions has been a dream.

"I remember when I was a kid I used to come out here to see Gold Coast Express, First Down Dash," Flores said. "I remember those races vividly. I used to tell my dad that someday I was going to win this race, the Champion of Champions. It happened once already and it would be a dream to see it happen again. I have the right horse to do it with again. My other horse in the (Champion of Champions), Mr Pyc to You, he’s a fighter. He has a good post (number 10) and hopefully he can be right there and make a run for it.

"Mr Pyc To You has been in training the whole time. I never stopped training him. I almost ran him in the handicap race (First Down Dash Handicap last Saturday), but it was too close to the Champion of Champions. I just said, ‘I’m paying him to the Los Alamitos Winter Championship, so let’s just wait.’ We got him freshened up and we said, ‘who knows maybe something happens and we get into the Champion of Champions’ and we did. (Co-owners Ron and Denise) Van Amburghs are very happy. They’re great people and great partners to have."

"It has been a while since (Heza Dasha Fire) has ran," Flores added "I’m not worried about it. I feel that the fresher he gets the faster he runs. Dr. Rick Overly and his entire veterinarian team has done a great job with him. They’re taking care of him, making sure his blood work is always good. I think he’s back to being the same horse we’ve had. He showed me in the last race that he can go the distance."

Heza Dasha Fire’s chief rival in the Champion of Champions figures to be Bill Hoburg’s BH Lisas Boy, who is a perfect six for six in 2017. After winning three stakes races – two of them in Grade 1 stakes – during the first half of the year, the 5-year-old son of Mighty Invictus required surgery in early July to remove bone chips in his knee. He returned from the surgery to the second division of the Z. Wayne Griffin Directors Trials on November 19. He’ll look to make it a perfect seven in 2017 when he starts from post number nine on Saturday night.

"He’s been very fortunate in the last two major races to draw towards the outside and run some really nice races," Hoburg added. "I wanted to be on the outside so we didn’t get hung up in traffic. There’s less traffic. You get 10 horses that have all earned a berth for a race like this, you are not going to clear the field (at the start). There’s horses that are going to be running like a cavalry charge and being on the outside gives you a little less chance of bumping or scrubbing. Every time that you scrub a horse or bump a horse it costs your horse maybe 1/100ths of a second or maybe 1/1000th of a second. This race will be won by inches or lost by inches. Anything that you can do to not inhibit your horse will get you a step or two ahead on the racetrack."

"My stomach was upside down watching him pull up (after the Z. Wayne Griffin)," Hoburg added. "When he came back really sound I was quite relieved. Next morning he was fine. No pointing. A horse will point if there’s something bothering him. He stands square. He eats breakfast every morning and supper every night. He’s been an incredible patient. We hit all of our targets. I don’t allow myself to dream too much. We have a nice horse. We got a nice horse. Whatever happens, happens."

Dutch Masters III’s Corona Cartel gelding Chazaq will enter the race after winning the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Super Derby. The last two winners of the Champion of Champions have been 3-year-olds. "I was happy to get the three post for him," trainer Jaime Gomez said. "He’s been running inside all the time, but we got the three time. The three post is one of my favorite spots."

Jim Walker’s Zoomin For Bux gelding, Zoomin For Spuds, won this race as a 3-year-old last year and now returns to action looking to become the first back-to-back winner of the Champion of Champions since SLM Big Daddy in 1997-98.

Ed Allred’s He Looks Hot is another one to watch. The Walk Thru Fire 5-year-old gelding will start from the rail on Saturday night and will look to give Quarter Horse racing’s all-time leading owner his second win in the Champion of Champions and first since the legendary Charger Bar tamed the boys to win the 2nd running of this race in 1973.

From the rail here’s the field to the Champion of Champions:

1. He Looks Hot
2. The Fiscal Cliff
3. Chazaq
4. Heza Dasha Fire
5. Da One Two Special
6. Jess Good Reason
7. Zoomin For Spuds
8. Time For Jess
9. BH Lisas Boy
10. Mr Pyc To You.

Courtesy of www.losalamitos.com.

The Champion of Champions and Los Alamitos 2 Million Futurity post position draw to air on TVG.