Preview Racing


Apollitical Pence, Flash Bak Head Trials To Grade 1 Winter Championship
Dunn Ranch's multiple Grade 1 winner Apollitical Pence will head the opening trial Sunday for the Grade 1, $152,700 Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship.

© Dustin Orona Photography
Apollitical Pence, Flash Bak Head Trials To Grade 1 Winter Championship

LOS ALAMITOS, CA—JANUARY 28, 2022—Four Champion of Champions finalists led by two-time winner Apollitical Pence and runner-up Flash Bak are among the 20 older horses that will compete in trials to the Grade 1, $152,700 Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship on Sunday night.

Three trials at 400 yards will be contested with the winners advancing to the Grade 1 final to be held on Sunday, February 20. The winner of the final will receive a presumptive invitation to the $750,000 Champion of Champions.

This will be the first time that Dunn Ranch’s Apollitical Pence participates in the Winter Championship trials. The now 6-year-old gelding went to Oklahoma after his Champion of Champions win in 2020, but this time around his connections kept him in California for him to race in these trials. A winner in 12 of 29 starts, the son of leading sire Apollitical Jess has earned $1,448,451 in his career. Going over the $1.5 million mark in career earnings would be another career highlight.

To be ridden by Armando Cervantes for trainer Monty Arrossa, Apollitical Pence will be in action in the first of three trials and will leave the starting gate from post number five. He’ll come into this race having won his last two starts at Los Alamitos.

The field will also feature Link Newcomb’s Cattail Cove, a multiple Grade 1 finalist and the runner-up in the First Down Dash Handicap on the closing weekend of the 2021 season. The Favorite Cartel gelding was third in the Grade 1 Go Man Go Handicap last year.

Docs Lamb, the winner of the A Ransom Handicap last closing weekend, will start in this trial and now races for the new connections of owner Alfonzo Sandoval and trainer Rodolfo Viramontes after being purchased privately earlier this month. The Tres Seis gelding will be ridden by Oscar Peinado, who piloted him in the A Ransom win.

Ed Allred’s Up And Atem will make his first start since May of 2020 when he start from post number one in this trial. The Favorite Cartel gelding ran in the Golden State Million and Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity during his freshman season in 2019. The Favorite Cartel gelding has prepared for his return with a series of solid morning works.

The second Championship trial is a wide-open contest led by Vic3tory LLC’s Other World, a two-time stakes winner by Foose, who also ran second in the Robert Boniface Los Alamitos Invitational Championship last year. The trial will also feature Southern California Derby finalist O Donovan Rossa and Los Alamitos Oaks finalist La Estrella Corona.

Three Champion of Champions participants from last year will be in action in the final trial in the form of Los Alamitos Super Derby winner Flash Bak, Vessels Maturity winner Circle City and Go Man Go Handicap winner You Can Run.

Flash Bak, a son of champion Moonin The Eagle, has also been privately purchased by new connections as he now races for Valeriano Racing Stables LLC. Flash Bak is still trained by Jaime Gomez and will be ridden by Oscar Peinado. Gomez and Peinado were the winning team with Flash Bak in his Super Derby win last year. He also won the Los Alamitos Winter Derby last year and was a game second to Apollitical Pence in the Champion of Champions.

Ed Allred’s Circle City will start from post one in this trial and that’s a spot from where he has done well in the past. He won the Spencer Childers Championship Handicap from along the rail last year. Circle City also started from the rail in the Champion of Champions and after a slow start, he made up ground to finish a solid sixth.

Burns Ranch’s You Can Run ran an even race in the Champion of Champions, finishing seventh in the process. He was second in the 2020 Winter Derby.

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For more info, please contact larace@losalamitos.com. Follow us on Twitter or Instagram at @losalracing or visit us online at www.losalamitos.com.