DEBUT WINNERS FROM THE BARNS OF GOMEZ, FLORES AND JONES
ARE THE STARS OF SATURDAY NIGHT
It’s a small sample size, but so far it looks like juveniles trained by Jaime Gomez are learning their lessons well. Last Sunday night, Dutch Masters III's Woman Secrets posted an impressive win in his second career start after running second in his debut. This week, it was another Dutch Masters III runner, Southern Best, who showed that experience matters, as the California-bred gelding started nicely and pulled away at the midway point to win at 4-1 odds in a 220-yard time of :12.209.
Ridden by Erasmo Gasca, Southern Best was second in his debut to Ed Allred’s Quarrelsome, who has been one of the sharpest winners here during the early going. Southern Best is a son of Docs Best Card and out of Southern Corona mare Southern Form.
Trainer Jose Flores picked a win with a 2-year-old for the third night in a row after sending Oscar Parra’s Attack The Zone to victory in a 220-yard dash in a time of :12.282. Flores won on Friday night with the Good Reason SA filly Good Reason To Run for owners Ricardo Ramirez and Siver Racing Farm LLC and last Sunday night with the Apollitical Jess colt Apolitical Thunder for owner Juan Humberto Moya. After winning with Southern Best, Gasca made it back-to-back wins as he was also aboard Attack The Zone. Bred by Dr. Steve Burns, Attack The Zone is by Seperate Interest and out of the Corona Cartel mare Attack The Cartel, a stakes winner of nearly $50,000 in her racing career.
Bobby Simmons’ homebred Lukka earned his maiden diploma while scoring at 300 yards for trainer Paul Jones and jockey Ramon Sanchez. Bred in Texas, Lukka is a colt by 1997 Horse of the Year Favorite Trick. Jones knows all about training winning Quarter Horses by Favorite Trick. The trainer has had tremendous success with them including winning the Grade 1 Champion of Champions and Grade 1 Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity with Good Reason SA; Grade 1 stakes winner and current leading Quarter Horse stallion Favorite Cartel; AQHA champion distance horse Prankster CF; and Tricky Dust, a 12-time stakes winner of nearly $500,000.
“I really love Favorite Trick,” Jones said. “He’s a great outcross to Quarter Horses. Good Reason SA was an outstanding horse and same thing with Favorite Cartel and I had Prankster CF and Tricky Dust. It’s a shame that we lost him, but fortunately there’s still frozen semen (available) and we can breed a few more. I think you’ll start seeing a few more come around here in the future. He’s an outstanding horse and his babies have good minds and are sound horses, who like to run.”
Jones has won a meet’s best six races with his 2-year-olds, including a pair of Friday night with standouts Majority Interest and Griffindore.
“My team at the ranch, Lisa Saumell and Jeff Pitcher and the whole gang there, they’ve done a great job getting the babies started this year,” Jones said. “We were already teaching them how to break from the gate at the ranch and we came in here with the babies broke really well. I’m running all mine with two works. They’re broke well, they have good experience and we’re starting out this year probably as well as I’ve ever had as far as them being in the money.”
Are there more top 2-year-old coming down the pipeline for Jones?
“We’ve seen a lot of them, but we’ve got a few more left,” he said. “We don’t have a huge barn of 2-year-olds, but it looks like we have some decent ones. We have a few more that we’ll run next week and a few more in the shadows. Hopefully, we’ll see some more good ones.”
Lukka, whose dam is the New Mexico-bred Jess A Cartel, covered the distance in :15.986.
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Eight races are on tap this Sunday night, including two more races for 2-year-olds. Racing fans looking to attend the live action on track can purchase tickets online at LosAlamitos.com. The direct link to the ticket site is RACE TRACK PROMO (losalamitos.com).
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