LOS ALAMITOS, CA—APRIL 30, 2016—Surely, terrific breeding lines and not happenstance had more to do with it, but Friday night was still a very “lucky” night of racing at Los Alamitos. In the spotlight on this night was Lucky Seven Ranch, the racing operation best known for having campaigned the great 2007 World Champion Blues Girl Too, after winning three of the four races held for juveniles on Friday evening.

Lucky Seven Ranch enjoyed the winning triple thanks to a trio of impressive homebreds.

Owned and bred by Russell and Lisa Stooks, Lucky Seven Ranch won at the Orange County track with the Favorite Cartel gelding Lotta Blues Man in the third, the Walk Thru Fire filly Ima Amore La Blue in the fourth, and the Walk Thru Fire gelding Kings R Blue in the sixth race – all victories coming at the 300-yard distance.

“Three wins in one night does not happen often,” said Mike Casselman, who saddled all three winners. “Russell and Lisa were coming from out of town for the night so it was great to have three of their horses racing all in the same card.”

Lucky Seven Ranch also had the 2-year-old Sass You Blue racing on Friday and she finished a game fourth against a very talented field that also include winner Imaqtpie and 2015 Los Alamitos Equine Sale topper Staggering Stride.

It was Lotta Blues Man which grabbed the attention early on, as the California-bred came flying late to score a 1¼ length victory over Apollitical Spirit, a promising full brother to 2010 World Champion Apollitical Jess. Ridden by Cesar De Alba, Lotta Blues Man covered the 300 yards in :15.643.

“Lotta Blues Man qualified the first time with Kings R Blues as his company and he worked well, but you could see that the further the better for him,” Casselman said. “He worked with different company and he showed that he’s a consistent, hard trying gelding. He really loves to run, but it does take him a few jumps to get started. His first couple of jumps are not the fastest, but then he gets going and he does run straight. He can be a little nervous in the gate, but we stand our horses quite a bit to help them. He’ll learn and with time he’ll be more aggressive out of the gate.”

Lotta Blues Man is out of the First Down Dash mare Lotta Love For Robyn, which ran fourth in the 2011 All American Futurity, qualified to the All American Derby, and ran second in the Cypress Handicap at Los Alamitos in January of 2013.

Casselman is also excited about the future of the filly Ima Amore La Blue, whose dam, Amore La Blue, was third in the 2012 Golden State Million Futurity and also ran fifth in the Golden State Derby.

“I think Ima Amore La Blue is pretty special,” Casselman said. “We worked with her in the back gate and when she breaks she gets really low to the ground and digs in. She’s been like that from the start. The first time she worked she came away from the gate nicely and qualified in :12.20. The next time she dropped so fast and hard that she looked like she stumbled. Then she got back into her stride and worked in :12.20 again. We’ve been standing her in the gate a bit as well. In her race she didn’t break as fast, but she recovered pretty quickly. She has a big heart and a great attitude for racing.”

Also ridden by De Alba, Ima Amore La Blue won her race by ¾ lengths in a time of :15.87.

Sent off at 7-1 odds, Kings R Blue was the surprise winner of the three. With Ruben Lozano aboard, the full brother of three-time major stakes finalist Walk Around Blues won his debut by a length in a time of :15.83.

“I was proud of him,” Casselman continued. “He was outworked by Lotta Blues Man, but came back and worked better the second time (although both times were :12.50). He’s a laid back horse around the barn and he takes care of himself. You have to wake him up in the morning to get him to do something. He likes to relax.”

His older sister, Walk Around Blues, won the Garden Grove Handicap and qualified to the Golden State and Southern California derbies last year. She was fifth to champion aged mare Quirky in this year’s Charger Bar Handicap. Kings R Blue and Walk Around Blues are both out of the Shazoom mare Queens R Blu. Their granddam is First Place Queen, the winner of the 2002 Golden State Million Futurity and Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity.

For Casselman, he’s thrilled for the opportunity to train for Lucky Seven Ranch.

“This is the third year I’ve trained for Lucky Seven Ranch,” he said. “They raise a lot of nice babies and have an incredibly successful breeding program. Their horses are really well bred. Russell and Lisa are a lot of fun to train for. They’re really involved with their horses and they really enjoy them. Russell runs the boys and Lisa runs the fillies and they’re pretty competitive with their horses. They even have different silks, but it’s all in good fun.”

It was certainly a fun and “lucky” night for the Stooks this past Friday at Los Alamitos.

Courtesy of www.losalamitos.com.