Keith Nellesen’s Trident IOT and Salvador Flores, Jr.’s Elmer Romero, a pair of Grade 2 Robert Adair Kindergarten Futurity finalists, will face off in the second of two trials to the John Deere Juvenile California Challenge on Saturday night at Los Alamitos.
Fourteen juveniles will be in action with a pair of 350-yard trials to be contested here. The 2-year-olds with the 10 fastest times will advance for the final to be held on Sunday, August 10. The ultimate goal is to advance to the AQHA Challenge Championships finals to be held at The Downs at Albuquerque in October.
Sired by KVN Corona, the gelding Trident IOT is from the family of three-time champion Noconi and the stakes winner Brenda Beautiful. He ran second in his debut to stakes winner Beyond Repair before scoring an impressive ¾ length win in his Kindergarten trial. He didn’t break with the leaders in the Kindergarten on the way to a sixth-place finish in the 300-yard final. Rodrigo Sigala Vallejo will ride the $55,000 Los Alamitos Equine Sale yearling.
The homebred gelding Elmer Romero was second in his Kindergarten trial and trailed early in the Kindergarten final on the way to running seventh. He returned with a sharp effort on June 8 when running second in the Fred Scane Stakes to the previously mentioned Beyond Repair. From the family of stakes winner Mister Tornado, Elmer Romero will be ridden by Jesse Gonzalez and saddled by Felix Gonzalez.
Other names to watch in this trial include James Sills’ Hockrodd, who ran third to eventual Kindergarten winner Beuteeful in their trial, and Spencer Tunnell’s Run Dont Walk, who was third in his trial to the Grade 1 Ed Burke Million Futurity.
The opening trial is a wide-open event with Nellesen’s Hi Octane, who finished in the top three in trials to the Kindergarten and Ed Burke, and Legacy Ranch’s Candy Covered Nite, who impressed with a daylight victory in her only start so far on June 21. Other top contenders in this heat include Blow Ur Whistle and RR Sweet Memories, who have also posted top three efforts in trials, and Bobby and Catherine Simmons’ Error Code, who is the only two-time winner among the 14 starters in these trials.
