The later the night, the faster the times in the trials to the Grade 1, $1,040,000 Ed Burke Million Futurity held on Sunday night at Los Alamitos. As a result, eight of the 10 qualifiers competed in the final four trials of the night with M & G Farms and Steve Burns’ Shiny New earning the honor of fastest qualifier after winning the 12th and final trial in a sizzling time of :17.468 at 350 yards.
Shiny New was joined by Newcomb Racing’s Cattail Coast as qualifiers from the final trial. A trial earlier, Licon Farm and Ranch LLC’s Vyper held off Newcomb Racing’s Heavily Favored by a head to win the 11th trial in the second fastest time of :17.679. Heavily Favored finished with the third fastest time of :17.738, while stablemate Cattail Coast was the 10th and final qualifier with a time of :17.861.
Gamaliel Garza Garcia’s Accelerated posted a jaw dropping come-from-behind victory in the ninth trial to finish with the fourth fastest time of the night. The $850,000 sale topper at last year’s Los Alamitos Equine Sale was joined in this trial by Steve Burns’ French Valley and Ed Allred’s Cheat Sheet, who finished as the sixth and seventh fastest qualifiers, respectively.
In the 10th trial, EG High Desert Farms’ Jess Im Worth It romped to a two-length victory to post the fifth fastest time of :17.779. All in all, the seven fastest qualifiers came out of the last four trials. Notably, there was no wind to speak of in any of the first 11 trials of the night. The 12th and final trial did have a minor tail wind of just 3 miles per hour. The Ed Burke Million final will be held on Father’s Day, Sunday, June 15 at Los Alamitos.
Here are the juveniles with the top 10 qualifying times for the Ed Burke: Shiny New (:17.468), Vyper (:17.679), Heavily Favored (:17.738), Accelerated (:17.765), Jess Im Worth It (:17.779), French Valley (:17.780), Cheat Sheet (:17.790), Doodah Cartel (:17.794), Wake Up Lil Suze (:17.825), and Cattail Coast (:17.861).
Doodah Cartel won the second trial of the night, while Wake Up Lil Suze, who also made the final for the Grade 2 Robert Adair Kindergarten Futurity, won the seventh trial on Sunday. Of the 10 qualifiers, seven were sired by the great Favorite Cartel. Among the other three, Mpshinning sired Shiny New, A Mere Felix sired Jess Im Worth It, and Apollitical Jess sired Cattail Coast.
M & G Farms and Steven Burns’ Shiny New posted the fastest qualifying time after a sensational 2 ½ length victory over Cattail Coast, as she opened up early by a length before getting stronger as the race got longer. Ridden by Ruben Lozano for trainer Valentin Zamudio, the filly’s winning time of :17.468 was more than 2/10th of a second faster than the next top qualifier. Vyper’s clocking. covered the 350 yards in a sizzling :17.468 from post number nine. Shiny New also becomes the most notable offspring sired by the young stallion Mpshinning. The Burns-bred filly is also Mpshinning’s first graded stakes finalist. Shiny New is out of the 2015 AQHA champion aged mare Quirky.
“These trials were different than in other occasions,” Zamudio said. “Usually, you’d rather be in one of the earlier trials, but things turned around tonight. It favored us tonight. This filly has a ton of talent, and we are expecting some big things out of her. She has a champion mother and is out of a young stallion and their cross turned out great. In the barn, Shiny New is always happy, very attentive, and very easy to work with. She won very easy.”
M&G Farms, Zamudio and Lozano teamed up to win the 2021 Ed Burke with the Burns-bred superstar, Golden Boi, who is now standing at Burns Ranch in Menifee, California.
In the 11th trial, Cruz Mendez piloted Vyper to a ½ length victory for trainer Jose Flores. Last year, the trainer and jockey enjoyed success together with Licon Farm and Ranch LLC’s Apolitical Chilitas last year. With their help, the filly qualified to the Golden State Million and Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity. Licon Farm and Ranch will now enjoy being a part of the Ed Burke thanks to the great work of Mendez and Flores.
“I’m very proud of this horse,” Flores said. “I’d like to thank Licon Farm and their connections, Don Juan, Don Mario. They are good people. This horse did very well. He was very professional. This horse is getting better and I think by the finals, if everything is good and he turns out sound, he’ll be really tough in the final.”
Purchased for $42,000 at the Ruidoso Select Yearling Sale, Vyper is a Texas-bred gelding by Favorite Cartel out of Zenergy. Bred by Bobby Cox, he began his career at Sunland Park, running fourth in a futurity trial there before running second in his Los Alamitos debut on May 3.
Link Newcomb, his brother Lake Newcomb and Lake’s wife, Becky, will have two finalists in the Ed Burke Million after Heavily Favored finished second to Vyper in this trial. Newcomb Racing will also be represented by Cattail Coast, who was second to top qualifier Shiny New. Purchased for $125,000 at Ruidoso, the James Markum and Steve Burns-bred Heavily Favored is a colt by Favorite Cartel out of Remember The Rose, who is a daughter of the legendary Remember Me Rose.
Also acquired for $125,000 at Ruidoso, Cattail Coast is a gelding by Apollitical Jess out of Expedited, who is a full sister of the multiple stakes winner Cattail Cove, who Link Newcomb has campaigned to a tremendous career since 2019.
EG High Desert Farms’ homebred Jess Im Worth It dominated his trial from post number six to post his second victory from three starts. The colt by A Mere Felix is out of the stakes winner Jess Hawk. He’s a full brother to 2024 Governor’s Cup Futurity winner Favorite Jesshawk, also campaigned by EG High Desert Farms.
“I’ve been so fortunate with the broodmare, Jess Hawk,” said Enrique Gonzalez, owner of EG High Desert. “We bred her to other stallions but it didn’t work out. It’s worked out great breeding her to A Mere Felix. It’s a thrill to qualify to this race. I wasn’t sure if we would get in the big final so when we do it, you just have to considere yourself very fortunate. A Mere Felix has such a great demeanor as a stallion. I believe in this horse and so far, he’s giving us some great results. I feel really good about him and believe that he’ll keep giving us some great results. His babies look great. I will be bringing some yearlings to the sale and they truly are good looking babies. I’ve even sent two by A Mere Felix to Ruidoso. I’m happy with this young stallion.”
Ricardo Ramirez piloted the Jesus Nunez-trainee.
Gamaliel Garza Garcia’s Accelerated posted one of the most memorable performances of the night, as he trailed French Valley and Cheat Sheet by a length during the early part of the race before flying late to catch them while winning by a head. Regally bred, Favorite Cartel colt is out of Remember Me Rose to make him a full brother to the likes of Cyber Attack, Bomb Cyclone, Powerful Favorite, Cyber Monday and many other stars. Ridden by Martin Arriaga for trainer Juan Aleman, Accelerated enjoyed his second victory in as many starts, this one being his most dramatic win.
“The horse has shown a lot of late kick,” Aleman said. “He didn’t get away tonight. He was too relaxed. They outbroke him. This is the first time he had been behind horses and Martin said that he was surprised by that – seeing other horses ahead of him. They squeezed him as well but eventually got going. The horse has so much talent. He ate up a lot of ground towards the end. That’s what makes him such a good horse. Hopefully in the final, he gets away better than he did tonight. Martin said he had a lot horse left under him. This horse will be something else at 400, 440 yards.”
Burns’ French Valley won her debut by daylight at 220 yards and nearly surprised Accelerated in this trial. And just like Accelerated, she’s also a full sibling of a Champion colt in the millionaire Trane Station V. Sired by Favorite Cartel, French Valley is out of the stakes winner Attack The Cartel. Ridden by Cesar Franco and saddled by Mike Casselman, French Valley led them all early on and only a huge effort by Accelerated kept her away from the winner’s circle.
Owned and bred by Ed Allred, Cheat Sheet advanced to the final thanks to her strong third place finish to Accelerated and French Valley. Sired by Favorite Cartel and out of the Foose mare Deceiver, Cheat Sheet came into this race off of a very impressive daylight maiden win on April 26. Irving Lara rode her for trainer James Glenn, Jr.
Bobby Simmons and Catherine Simmons’ Wake Up Lil Suze picked up her third victory of her young career after scoring a convincing 1 ½ length victory in the seventh race. The Favorite Cartel filly ran a strong fourth in the Kindergarten final and also showed tremendous grit when winning her Kindergarten trial by a nose over another Kindergarten qualifier, Elmer Romero. Paul Jones saddled Wake Up Lil Suze, who was ridden by Henry Reynoso Lopez.
“She’s a little (filly) but she has a lot of heart and a big motor,” Jones said. “She can really run down the racetrack. She’s always finished really strong. In her Kindergarten trial, she was running strong at the end and in her maiden race she did as well. We really thought that the added distance would be just fine for her. We felt she would relish the extra distance.”
Thompson Racing, Alexis Andrade, and Paul Jones’ Doodah Cartel was the only horse to qualify from the first half of the trials. The Favorite Cartel colt is out of the Apollitical Jess mare Suite Expectations and with his trial victory he becomes the sixth different horse to win from the maiden race number six on April 12. Two other horses from that race, Cattail Coast and Jess Im Worth It, won Ed Burke trials as well.
“I didn’t know what to think out of that race when he finished last,” Thompson said, “He showed some run on the back end of it, didn’t break all that well, got bumped around a little bit. Second start a couple of weeks later, he came out and ran a nice solid second out of a horse (Jess Im Worth It) that came out of that maiden race as well. Tonight he showed his talent that we thought he had. His works weren’t all that, he went :12.7 both times, but they were steady, and he showed some nice run on the back end. Paul and I talked about getting 350, 400 yards would be something that we were looking forward to.
“Suite Expectations ran up about $140,000 and she was a fun horse. She was always competitive, was always in it, and Paul and I thought, ‘You know, let’s cross her over with Favorite Cartel. This is her second baby, Hot Ones, which ran last year and running this year, is her other one.
“This horse is named after my father-in-law, Bernie Erickson, who passed away a year ago,” Thompson added. “Doodah was his favorite saying whenever he went out so it’s a sentimental deal for my wife Deb and I.
“Paul surprised us by naming the horse after him and he handed us the paper. There’s lot of sentimental value to this horse. We are thrilled and completely happy to be back for the final on Father’s Day.”
