Los Alamitos Race Course welcomed an old friend, longtime horseman Barry Woodhouse, back to the winner’s circle after his 2-year-old colt Taco Twosday debuted with a strong victory in the seventh race on Sunday night.
Ridden by Jonathan Roman for trainer Roman Figueroa, Taco Twosday crossed the wire a half-length ahead of the field and covered the 300-yard in :15.637 at 7-1 odds. Bred by Ron Hartley, the son of Favorite Cartel was purchased for $32,000 by Woohouse at the Los Alamitos Equine Sale last year.
“We took it easy with him,” said Woodhouse, 71. “He’s a late colt and it looks like he’s coming around. We’re real happy with him. This horse looks good. We have some high hopes for him. He’s in three or four derbies next year and he’s in the Golden State Million and Los Alamitos Two Million. If he’s good enough, he’ll have some money to run after.”
Woodhouse, who lives in nearby Garden Grove just a few miles away from Los Alamitos, has an accomplished history at this track.
“I’m originally from Northern California,” he said. “I first came to the track as a groom at Bay Meadows. I groomed for four years for Harley Glaves. I pulled my license to train in ’72. I trained until 1998. I’ve been off since then. My biggest win here came with Shawnes Diamond. He won the (1992) Go Man Go Handicap and he beat Refrigerator, who was a nice horse. I mostly ran claiming horses.”
Owned by David and Nancy Rasner, Shawnes Diamond’s victory remains one of the biggest shockers in Quarter Horse racing history, as the legendary ‘Fridge seemed unbeatable at the time. Sent off at 1-2 odds, Refrigerator took the early lead, but Shawnes Diamond came flying from fourth place to win at 13-1 odds in a then stakes record time of :19.54 with jockey John Creager aboard. Refrigerator would go on to win the Champion and Champions and be named AQHA World Champion, but that night belonged to Woodhouse, the Rasners, and Shawnes Diamond.
Woodhouse won two other stakes races during his training career at Los Alamitos, but he won a total of 434 races. That figure ranks as the 24th all-time leading trainer at this track. Now with Taco Twosday on his side, Woodhouse could have a few more visits to the winner’s circle at Los Alamitos in the near future.
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