Norco Wins Grade 1 Los Alamitos Championship To Earn Return Berth To Champion Of Champions

Ed Allred’s homebred Norco was among the leaders right from the start, took control shortly from there, and dug in courageously to repel a furious late surge from Favorite Jesshawk to win the Grade 1, $100,000 Robert L. Boniface Los Alamitos Invitational Championship by a head on Saturday night at the Orange County track.

Ridden by Gabriel Lara for trainer Scott Willoughby, the 4-year-old gelding covered the classic 440-yard distance in :21.748 over a fast track. Sent off at 7-2 odds, Norco returned $9.60 to win, picking up his fifth victory in 12 career starts. The $55,000 winner's share of the purse boosted his lifetime bankroll to $549,703.

More importantly, the victory secured Norco a presumptive invitation to the prestigious Grade 1 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos on Saturday, December 12.

Norco’s victory marks a special family milestone on the track. His older full brothers, Grade 1 winner Circle City and Grade 2 winner Nomadic, both competed in the Los Alamitos Invitational Championship in past years, but Norco became the first member of his standout family to capture the historic race.

By Favorite Cartel and out of the Corona Cartel mare Moonlight Corona, Norco was bred in California by Allred. The victory gives Allred his fifth overall win in the Los Alamitos Invitational Championship as an owner or co-owner. Allred previously won the race in partnership with Kenneth Wright with legendary Hall of Fame mare Charger Bar in 1974, and later with his close friend Tom Seibly with Ten Oclock Scholar in 2008. His subsequent victories came with World Champion He Looks Hot in 2018 and Chocolatito in 2020.

The journey to Saturday's Grade 1 victory was carefully orchestrated by trainer Scott Willoughby. Following an impressive fourth-place finish in last December’s Champion of Champions, Willoughby gave the gelding an extended holiday to rest and recharge.

Willoughby brought Norco back slowly with a series of works before making his 2026 debut in a 350-yard allowance race on September 13. Norco dominated that effort, winning by 1 ¾ lengths in a meet-fastest time of :17.35 to set him up for Saturday night's feature.

“It worked out perfectly," Willoughby said after the win. "We gave him a lot of time off. We backed off of him and got him ready after the Champion of Champions last year. Our goal was just to run him the last couple of races of the year and get him qualified (for this year’s Champion of Champions) and it worked out perfectly. We couldn’t have planned it any better."

Norco came out of post position three, breaking slightly inward before quickly settling into his stride.

"He left the gate fantastic tonight, and he ran one heck of a race," Willoughby added. "He leaves the gate as good as any horse that I’ve ever trained. We’ve had some other ones that had to come from off of it, and it’s nice to have a horse that runs in front and they have to run down. Those horses were coming after him and they ran great races. I think this race will even set him up better. He’s only had the two races this year."

Willoughby admitted that executing such a light racing schedule had its nerve-wracking moments.

“It was very hard to be patient because if it didn’t work, we only had two shots to get in—the Championship and then the trials. It’s tough to just take those two chances. There were some tough horses in this field. It’s hard to win a Grade 1 race out here. It really is."

As for the upcoming schedule leading into December 12, Willoughby will do what has worked with Norco and take a patient approach: “We’ll see how he sets up. If we have to, we’ll run him in the trials just to give him a race before the Champion of Champions. If he’s doing good, we might not. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Winning jockey Gabriel Lara, who also guided Norco to victory in last year’s Grade 1 Los Alamitos Super Derby, praised the gelding’s sharp gate manners.

“First of all, my thanks to the trainer Scott Willoughby and Dr. Allred for allowing me to ride his horse,” Lara said. “Norco is a great horse, and I like him so much because he’s so great at the break. He just leaves so fast. I was just hoping to do everything right and with some luck get to the wire first.”

EG High Desert Farms’ homebred Favorite Jesshawk broke cleanly from post eight under jockey Martin Arriaga and posed a constant threat out wide. The 4-year-old gelding by A Mere Felix, trained by Francisco Rodriguez, mounted a ferocious driving charge down the center of the track, finishing a head behind the winner. The $22,500 runner-up payout pushed Favorite Jesshawk's career earnings to $493,939. Sent off at 11-1 odds, Favorite Jesshawk has now finished in the top two in 14 of his 20 career starts. He entered this race having already earned a berth to the Champion of Champions thanks to his early March victory in the Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship.

Making his California debut, Ruben Mares and John & Kathy Lee’s KJ Born To Be Wild put in a huge performance at 20-1 odds. Ridden by Eduardo Nicasio for trainer Jason Giles, the 4-year-old gelding by Apollitical Jess broke best of all from post seven, leading the field for the first few strides before battling gamely to the finish to miss second place by a nose. The third-place finish earned $12,500, increasing his bankroll to $360,464 with 13 top-three finishes in 20 lifetime starts.

Paul Blanchard, Guadalupe Bujanda, Jose Antonio Flores, and Santos Montemayor’s Mask Mandate produced a strong late rally along the inside rail to finish fourth at 34-1 under Irving Lara.

Grade 1 Vessels Maturity winner Lethal Cowboy 123, the 4-1 third choice owned by Caliche Walls Venture LLC, Alan Isbell, Lance Bland, and Jimmy Barton, had his head turned at the break and got away awkwardly from post nine. Ridden by Edwin Escobedo for trainer Marc Jungers, the 4-year-old gelding gathered himself late to rally from seventh to fifth.

Lethal Lobo finished sixth under Armando Cervantes, followed by Up For Everything in seventh, Defending Champ in eighth, and Mayor Humdinger in ninth.

Heavy 1-1 favorite Empressum, the 2022 World Champion and two-time Champion of Champions, was ninth at the start and quickly lost ground after leaving from post six. He was pulled up by jockey Rodrigo Sigala Vallejo shortly after. Empressum was immediately attended to under the supervision of the track veterinarian and was then transported in the equine ambulance to the backstretch facilities for further evaluation.

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