FAMOUS CARMILITA IS IMPRESSIVE TOP QUALIFIER TO WILD WEST FUTURITY
Moonshine Racing’s Famous Carmilita was outstanding in her first start at Los Alamitos, as the filly by One Famous Eagle opened an early lead and then finished strongly on the way to posting the fastest qualifying time to the $101,950 Wild West Futurity on Sunday at Los Alamitos.
With the familiar connections of trainer Chris O’Dell and jockey Eduardo Nicasio on her side, Famous Carmilita covered the 350 yards in :17.777 while scoring her first ever win in five starts. Bred by Paragon Farms LLC. and purchased by Moonshine Racing for $25,000 at the Ruidoso Yearling Sale, Famous Carmilita figures to be the horse to beat in the October 17 final after this easy victory. The bay filly led by 1 ½ lengths early on, extended her lead to two lengths at the midway point and then cruised to a length victory at the wire. She came in after running second in a trial to the All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs, where she ran a solid :21.79 clocking at 440 yards. The winner in that race, Political Rose, qualified to the All American Juvenile thanks to that victory. She also ran second in the Grade 1 Heritage Place Futurity at Remington Park on May 29.
The Wild West Futurity is for horses that have raced in the Intermountain and Northwest regions plus Arizona, Nevada and Canada. In order to be eligible to these trials, horses had to have made at least two starts in those racing jurisdictions. Famous Carmilita’s first two starts took place at Weber Downs in Ogden, Utah. She ran in the Hadley Giles Futurity consolation while at Weber Downs.
Famous Carmilita won the last of three trials to the Wild West. The other two heats went to Carolyn and Ralph Fales’ Branch Rickie and Lazaro Arreola’s Richie Rich 1. Named after the influential baseball executive who made the groundbreaking decision to bring Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, Branch Rickey won the opening trial by a half-length over The Plan Handicap top finishers Hopefulblue and Zoomin For Trix. Branch Rickey won at 37-1 odds, resulting in the largest win payout of the season of $76.80. Ridden by Jesus Rios Ayala, Branch Rickey covered the distance in :18.062.
“I believe my mom named him,” said Fales referring to the horse’s owner, Carolyn Fales. “She’s usually in charge of all the naming. She’s a big-time baseball fan. We used to have a horse named Crash Davis. I’ve only had the horse a couple of weeks, but they did a nice job with him in Arizona to get him ready for this race. My dad got the horse ready in Arizona. He had him those starts to get him eligible. He brought him in great shape. He looks like a pretty good horse. I’m proud of him.”
Ridden by Jose Nicasio for trainer Monty Arrossa, Richie Rich 1 posted his third win in six career starts after winning the opening trial in :18.014. The Wild West will be his third futurity of the year after racing in finals at Oneida and Jerome, Idaho.
The complete list of qualifiers to the Wild West is as follows: Famous Carmilita (:17.777), Boondarbian (:17.922), Richie Rich 1 (:18.014), Go Out (:18.044), Branch Rickie (:18.062), Rayshas Kidd Trax (:18.071), Mister Bigg (:18.131), Hopefulblue (:18.135) and Zoomin For Trix (:18.167). Jm Who Knew and BNB Lighting McQueen finished in a tie for the 10th and final spot with times of :18.205. There will be a shake to determine the final spot in the Wild West final.
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