LOS ALAMITOS RACE COURSE, CYPRESS, CA
Parsons Family Limited Partnership’s homebred Rockin With Energy will look to defend her title in the Grade 1, $100,000 James Dreyer Charger Bar Handicap when she headlines a field of 10 aged mars in the 400-yard race on Sunday at Los Alamitos.
Rockin With Energy won this race by the narrowest of margins last year, but she’ll enter the meet’s first Graded 1 final fresh off an impressive ¾ length win in the Grade 2 Las Damas Handicap on November 22. If the 5-year-old mare by Parsons Rock can win the James Dreyer Charger Bar in back-to-back years, she’ll join Stylish Jess BR, Quirky and Kiss Thru Fire as the only two-time winners in the 25-year history of this race.
To be ridden by Henry Reynoso Lopez for trainer Paul Jones, Rockin With Energy dominated the Las Damas shortly after the start. She had a ½ length victory by the midway point of the 400-yard Las Damas and then extended her advantage from there to pick up the fourth stakes win of her career. Out of the Grade 1 winning mare Terrific Energy, Rockin With Energy will enter this race with seven wins from 18 starts. A career earner of $301,598, she’ll start from post seven in this race. She won last year’s Charger Bar from post number one.
“I just love this mare,” Jones said. “When she gets a clean break and a good trip, she just doesn’t lose and gets the job done. She got the perfect trip (in the Las Damas), clean break, good run and she ran her race. She’s full of talent.”
Every mare in this race competed in a stakes race in their previous start. PV Quarter Horse Farms, LLC’s I Am Candy, P and J Racing Ltd.’s AJ Born Runnin and Steve Burns, Mark and Marta Winslow, and Jose Flores’ Silver Bac all faced Rockin With Energy in the Las Damas in their most recent start. Gentry Farms’ Bold N Beautiful and Jose Gonzalez’s Jessesflyincowgirl both arrive after running in the $248,000 Texas Classic Oaks, while Jeffrey Rath’s O Seeyalater makes her way to California after racing all over the country in 2025. In her most recent outing, the 6-yeare-old mare faced males in the Grade 2 James Isaac Hobbs Stakes at Zia Park.
Gentry Farms, who raced the AQHA champion mare Kiss Thru Fire to her two victories in this race, will be represented by an outstanding trio of mares. In addition to Bold N Beautiful, who finished third to multiple stakes winner Karmalites in the Texas Oaks, Gentry Farms will also have Ohana Spirit and Beach Walk. They enter this race after running fourth and fifth, respectively, in the Grade 2 Southern California Derby.
Leto Land and Cattle LLC’s Eyesa Wagon My Tale will start from post number five following a terrific Los Alamitos debut when daylighting males in the A Ransom Handicap at 350-yards on December 20. Ridden by Edwin Escobedo for trainer Marc Jungers, Eyesa Wagon My Tale had a two-length lead right away in the A Ransom and cruised home from there to win by 1 ½ lengths. She’s moving up in class to face this great field of distaffers while going after her fifth career victory.
I Am Candy, who finished ahead of Rockin With Energy and Silver Bac when winning the Sound Dash, ran third as the favorite in the Las Damas. She’ll start from post two in this Grade 1 event and she looked impressive when winning from along the rail in her Los Alamitos debut back in July. She also won over a sloppy track back in April, defeating a field that included the graded stakes winner Alliekat Dynasty at Remington Park.
The Jaime Gomez-trained AJ Born Runnin shows up to every dance in the mare stakes division at Los Alamitos and she’s often in the top spots. The gray mare by Apollitical Jess ran fourth in last year’s Charger Bar and after winning the Florentine Stakes, she ran second in the Grade 1 Mildred Vessels Memorial Handicap. Bred by P & J Racing Ltd., the veteran of 28 starts is the richest mare in this field with $312,063 in her bank account. The field from the rail out is as follows: Beach Walk, I Am Candy, Ohana Spirit, AJ Born Runnin, Eyesa Wagon My Tale, O Seeyalater, Rockin With Energy, Silver Bac, Jessesflyincowgirl, and Bold N Beautiful.
The $20,000 Dashingly Handicap will also be contested on Sunday night with 10 aged mares set to face the starter in this 350-yard race. Gary Laramie’s Jessica Cruz, the AQHA champion aged mare in 2024 and winner of that year’s Las Damas, is among the headliners in the Dashingly. Other tops names include M & G Farms’ Terra Fina, who ran third in the $134,000 QHRA Indiana Derby on October 25, Johnny Trotter’s Racy Favorite, who ran in the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Super Derby, and David Hinkins’ VGK Zigfield Follies, who was third to multiple stakes winner Shaken Goin On in the Justanold Love Stakes. Ecstatik, winner of the La Pacifica here in 2024, Kissin Perfect, who has hit the board in all eight of her career starts, Fairlea Flyin, Call Her Perfect, Phoebes Baby Girl, and Flying Gold Digger will complete the field.
