FRIVOLOUS, INTERESTING EAGLE AMONG TOP QUALIFIERS TO GOVERNOR’S CUP FUTURITY
Her name means carefree and not serious, but when it comes to racing in futurity trials, Frivolous is all business.
Owned by Clanfield Stables and trained by Felix Gonzalez, Frivolous ran a tremendous race from along the rail to win the opening trial to the Governor’s Cup Futurity at Los Alamitos on Saturday night. Five trials were contested at 350 yards with the horses with the fastest 10 times advancing to the Governor’s Cup Futurity final to be held on California Breeders Champions Weekend on July 30-31.
Ridden by Henry Reynoso Lopez, Frivolous broke sharply from post one and took off from there, winning the first of five heats by a ½ length over George and Ruben Villalobos’ Required First. A filly by Favorite Cartel and out of the top mare Nymph, Frivolous covered the distance in :17.68 on the way to her second win in five starts. She also won her trial to the Grade 1 Ed Burke Million Futurity on May 29 before returning to finish sixth in the final after a troubled start. A full sister to Grade 2 PCQHRA Breeders Futurity winner Monopolist, Frivolous was purchased for $80,000 at the Los Alamitos Equine Sale.
The opening trial was the most productive of the night by far. Six out of the 10 qualifiers came out of this trial. In addition to Frivolous, Required First finished with the second fastest time with Kevin Birrell’s BF Lizzierageous posting the fourth fastest. Also qualifying from this heat were Oscar Parra’s Attacker, Steve Burns’ Turbeau, and Ed Allred’s Chivalry.
The hardest fought trial of the night was the second heat after Interesting Eagle and Mornings With Maria (left) put on a show. Owned by Burns, Guadalupe Bujanda and Jose Flores, Interesting Eagle outdueled Mornings With Maria by a head while posting the third fastest time of :17.812. With Erasmco Gasca up for Flores, the Seperate Interest gelding was recording his second win in a row. Javier Barragan, Jr., Enrique Becerra, and Miguel Gomez’s Mornings With Maria qualified to her second futurity of the season following another game effort. Also sired by Seperate Interest, Mornings With Maria has been the runner-up in three of her four starts. She was fourth in the Grade 2 Robert Adair Kindergarten Futurity in her most recent outing. With Ramon Sanchez up for trainer Juan Aleman, Mornings With Maria finished with the fifth fastest qualifying time.
Up For Everything and Future Version, the winners of the third and fourth trials, completed the list of qualifiers. Owned by Ed Allred, Up For Everything has won his last two starts as well. Up For Everything’s dam is Up For It, who won the Governor’s Cup Futurity and produced last year’s winner, She Goes Up. He won his trial by a ½ length while posting the ninth fastest time. The Flores-trained Future Version won his heat by an impressive 1 ½ lengths. This was his first in-the-money finish from three starts. The son of Favorite Cartel is out of the top mare Make Over and was purchased for $73,000 at the Los Alamitos Equine by Rojas Racing, Javier Chavez, and Juan H. Moya. Cruz Mendez rode Future Version for trainer Jose Flores.
The complete list of qualifiers is as follows: Frivolous (:17.689), Required First (:17.767), Interesting Eagle (:17.812), BF Lizzierageous (:17.829), Mornings With Maria (:17.840), Future Version (:17.848), Attacker (:17.886), Turbeau (:17.979), Up For Everything (:18.020), and Chivalry (:18.036).
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