Major futurity winners Enforce and Jess Im Worth It, who finished 1-2 in the Grade 1 Golden State Million Futurity in their last start, plus Grade 1 Ruidoso Futurity winner Political Twist will headline a tremendous night of trials to the meet’s richest race, the Grade 1, $1,929,825 Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity on Sunday night.
A total of 116 juveniles representing 78 different unique ownerships and 25 different trainers will be divided into 12 trials as they hope to secure of one of the 10 coveted spots for the Two Million final to be held on Sunday, December 14. The 116 runners represent the fourth highest total of trial entrants in the 26-year history of the Two Million. The horses with the 10 fastest times in the 400 yards trial will move on to the final. First post is 5:05 p.m.
The all-Quarter Horse racing card will feature three Pick Four wagering opportunities. The early Pick Four will consist of races one through four, the middle Pick Four will begin in race five and continue through race eight, while the late Pick Four will kick off in race nine through race 12.
Owned by West Texas Racing Partners and trained by Chris O’Dell, Enforce imposed his will when winning the Golden State Million final by a ½ length on October 26 and in doing so became the sixth Grade 1 winner from the legendary cross of Favorite Cartel and Remember Me Rose. Enforce will now look to become the fifth full brother from this family to make the Los Alamitos Two Million final, joining winners Bomb Cyclone and Cyber Attack plus Grade 1 winners Powerful Favorite and Runforyourlife. Enforce will start from post number one in the eighth of 12 trials. Bred by Burns Ranch, he’ll face a solid group that will also feature Newcomb Racing’s Cattail Coast, the sixth-place finisher in the Grade 1 Ed Burke Million Futurity.
EG High Desert Farms’ homebred colt Jess Im Worth It finished ahead of Enforce in their Golden State Million trial but couldn’t leave the gate as fast as his rival and had to chase him the whole way home from there. The son of A Mere Felix has been among the most consistent 2-year-olds on the grounds, winning four of his six starts including posting a ¾ length win in the Grade 1 Ed Burke final. Jess Im Worth will start from post number eight in trial number six. Corinna Sosa’s AJ Remember Me, third in the Ruidoso Futurity, and Newcomb Racing’s Heavily Favored, who like his stablemate Cattail Coast also made the Ed Burke final, will also be in action in trial number six.
The Los Alamitos debut of La Feliz Montana Ranch and Ray Willis’ Political Twist has been a highly anticipated event. The Quarter Horse racing world will have to wait until the 12th and final trial of the night to see the million-dollar earner by Apollitical Jess in action. With Luis Martinez up for trainer Xavier Rodriguez, Political Twist will start from post number seven while going after his sixth win in seven career starts. The MJ Farms-bred runner won the Grade 2 West Texas Futurity at Sunland Park in April and finished second in the Grade 1, $3 million All American Futurity at The Downs at Albuquerque. A qualifying effort to the Two Million would make Political Twist a major futurity finalist at four different tracks from only seven outings this year, which would be a remarkable accomplishment.
Ed Allred’s Next Norco, a Governor’s Cup Futurity finalist, and LA Racing Stables’ Notoryous, the runner-up in the Ah Sigh Handicap, are among the others that will compete in the final trial.
There are three other graded futurity winners that will be in action in the trials. They are Dunn Ranch’s Apollirevenge, who dead-heated for first in the Grade 1 Heritage Place Futurity; Keith Nellesen’s Beuteeful, winner of the Grade 2 Robert Adair Kindergarten Futurity; and Santos Montemayor and Omar Torres’ Kiss My Valentine, who upset the field to win the Grade 2 PCQHRA Breeders Futurity. Unbeaten in three starts, Apollirevenge was entered in the Golden State trials but scratched on the day of the trials. The filly by A Revenant has since posted a :12.6 turn and work and draws the outside post 10 in the seventh trial.
The Kristen Watanabe-trained Beuteeful won her first four starts and looked unbeatable when posting a three-length victory in one of the early trials to the Golden State Million. Beuteeful was struck by hard luck in the Golden State final, as she broke through the gate before the start of the race, was reloaded and after an okay start faded to seventh in the final. The Utah-bred gray by KVN Corona will start from post number eight in the 11th trial.
The Adan Farias-trained SM My Valentine won the PCQHRA Breeders final at 20-1 from post number 10. The gelding by Kiss My Hocks will likely not be the favorite in his Two Million trial, which is trial number three, but he has drawn the outside post 10 once again and will also be ridden back by big-money jockey Eduardo Nicasio. This trial will also feature Dunn Ranch’s DR Americas Dynasty, who was fourth in the Heritage Place Futurity, and Raymond Merrill and Gregory Cullum’s two-time winner Seven Summers Ago.
Top names in the opening trial include Travis and Wendy Saxton’s El Dictator, winner of the Ah Sigh and runner-up in the Governor’s Cup Futurity, and Parsons Ranch’s two-time futurity finalist The Lady Is Vamp. Hall of Fame trainer Paul Jones will saddle The Lady Is Vamp in the opener and then two-time Grade 1 finalist Doodah Cartel in the second race. Alexis Andrade, Jones and Thompson Racing’s Doodah Cartel had the fastest time in the Golden State trials before running fourth in the final. The second trial will also feature Valeriano Racing Stables’ Toby Sis, a winner in her first three starts before running second to Kiss My Valentine in the PCQHRA Breeders Futurity final.
Dunn Ranch’s AJ Cyclone, a surprising third in the Golden State final at 38-1, and Steve Burns’ French Valley, the runner-up in the Ed Burke, will face off in trial number four. The fifth trial will include Dunn Ranch’s DR Stone Cold, sixth in the Goldne State, and Burns, Jose Flores, Gerardo Herrera and Javier Alvarez’s Brother Ray, who ran in the Governor’s Cup final.
In the second part of the card, La Feliz Montana and Ray Willis will be represented by another quality prospect in Backside Ace, who ran a troubled third in his debut as the 6-5 favorite. He’ll look to make amends in race seven but will be dealing with Apollirevenge.
J and SM and Ross Roark’s Its A Good Valentine has won five of seven starts, including the $100,000 Ruidoso Juvenile Invitational and his All American Futurity trial. The son of Jess Good Candy is trained here by James J. Gonzalez II after being under the tutelage of Fred Danley in New Mexico. One of the blemished on his record is a third-place finish to Political Twist in the West Texas Futurity.
Rancho El 48 LLC’s Dragon Link won his local debut in strong fashion, showing a lively finishing punch at 300 yards on October 25. In his previous start, the Favorite Cartel gelding ran in the All American Futurity final. He was second in his All American trial to eventual All American winner King Of The Tide. The previously mentioned Beuteeful heads the 11th trial, while Political Twist leads the final trial of the night in the 12th race.
