Preview Racing


All Set For Richest Golden State Million Final Since 2012 At Los Alamitos
Juniors Quarter Horses Inc.’s Favorite Doc is 7-5 morning line favorite in the $1,104,550 Golden State Million Futurity Sunday night at Los Alamitos.

© Scot Martinez
All Set For Richest Golden State Million Final Since 2012 At Los Alamitos

LOS ALAMITOS, CA—OCTOBER 31, 2020—The second of the meet’s four races with million-dollar purses will be held on Sunday night at Los Alamitos when a terrific lineup of 10 juveniles will face off in the $1,104,550 Golden State Million Futurity at 400 yards.

First post for the eight-race program is 5:15 p.m. with the Golden State Million scheduled for 8:31 p.m. (PST).

The purse for the Golden State Million will be the event’s richest since 2012 and the seventh richest in the 51-year history of the race. Los Alamitos’ other million dollar races are the Ed Burke Million, which was held in mid-June, next Sunday’s record $1,052,350 Los Alamitos Super Derby and the December 13 Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity, which is California’s richest horse race of any breed in 2020.

Juniors Quarter Horses Inc.’s Favorite Doc is 7-5 morning line favorite after his spectacular 3-½ length victory in the Golden State trials on October 18. The $102,000 purchase at the Los Alamitos Equine Sale flew out of the gate from post number five and had a two-length lead after the first 150 yards. He continued to open from there and eventually crossed the wire in a time of :19.46 - 14/100ths of a second faster than the next fastest time, which was :19.60 posted by Apollitical Patty. Can the gelding by Favorite Cartel repeat such an impressive effort?

That will be the big question heading into the Golden State Million final. Jose Nicasio will pilot the half-brother of 2019 AQHA World Champion He Looks Hot from post number five, Monty Arrossa will saddle the Ed Allred-bred Favorite Doc.

Arrossa also trains Apollitical Patty, who won her trial by a a length over a field that included two other Golden State finalists in Counting The Ways and Aint She Tempting. The Apollitical Blood filly, who is a half-sister to 2016 Champion of Champions winner Zoomin For Spuds, has won four of her five career starts with her only setback being a second-place finish in the John Deere Los Alamitos Juvenile final.

“We later found out she had a kidney infection,” Arrossa said.

Half of the Golden State field consists of horses that made their Los Alamitos debuts in the Golden State Million trials, including three from the barn of trainer Eddie Willis. Two of those - Apollitical Gold and HR Princess Jess - won their respective Golden State trials after running in the 440-yard Grade 1 All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs.

Grant Cox Revocable Trust’s Apollitical Gold finished third to the undefeated filly Whistle Stop Cafe in the All American final. The gelding by Apollitical Jess has hit the board in all six of his career starts. Justine Klaiber, who is enjoying the best year of her five-year career with 68 Quarter Horse wins and nearly $1 million in earnings, will ride Apollitical Gold from post seven. She is looking to become the first woman jockey to win the Golden State Million.

Constituent, the winner of the Governor’s Cup Futurity, leads the rest of this strong field.

Jimmy Dean Brooks, who has been a stalwart in the Willis-barn for many years, will be aboard Larry Rice’s HR Princess Jess, who posted an impressive daylight win in the trials. The Apollitical Jess filly lengthened her trail advantage with each stride and in addition to qualifying to the All American Futurity she also made the field to the Grade 1 Heritage Place Futurity.

Willis’ third runner is Jessa Bit Of Candy, who is still a maiden but showed a good late kick when third to J Best Boogie in the trials.

The other two invaders are Levings Racing LLC and Dunn Ranch’s Aint She Tempting, who ran second in the Heritage Place and also won the Oklahoma Futurity in late March, and Johnny Trotter’s Famous Cartel Jess, a winner of an All American Futurity trial on August 21.

John Cooper, who won the Golden State with champion Chingaderos in 1985, will saddle Aint She Tempting from post nine. Eduardo Nicasio, last year’s winning rider in this race, will be aboard the Tempting Dash filly.

Meanwhile, Justin Joiner, who trained 2018 Golden State Million winner Flash And Roll, will saddle the Mr Jess Perry colt Famous Cartel Jess from post two. Raul Ramirez Jr., who has ridden in each of his four starts, is back aboard Famous Cartel Jess.

Local stars Constituent, J Best Boogie and Counting The Ways will complete the field. Trained by Valentin Zamudio for M&G Farms, Constituent won the Governor’s Cup Futurity on July 26 and then powered his way to a dominant victory in the trials.

He is certainly on a roll having won his last three starts. Ruben Lozano will ride the son of Seperate Interest.

The Docs Best Card filly J Best Boogie will look to give trainer Jaime Gomez his fifth win in this race. His most recent Golden State win came with the record setting star J Fire Up in 2017, who like J Best Boogie was also bred by Gomez.

Bujunda, Encinas, Flores and CD Horses, Inc’s Couting The Ways won the Pat Hyland Handicap over a solid field here on August 23 and now looks to build on his runner-up trial effort in this rich final.

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Courtesy of www.losalamitos.com.