Arrossa has another huge weekend

From Remington Park in the spring to Los Alamitos in early summer and Ruidoso Downs on Labor Day weekend, Monty Arrossa has won major stakes to secure his position among the nation’s leading Quarter Horse trainers this year.

What happens over the next three months, largely at Los Alamitos, will determine whether the 47-year-old Arrossa secures his first national training championship and whether his top runners earn division titles.

Sunday at Ruidoso Downs, Arrossa won the $125,000 All American Gold Cup for older horses with Dexxter, who also won the Debbie Schauf Remington Park Championship in May. In the following race at Ruidoso Downs, the Arrossa-trained Gold Heart Eagle V won his first stakes in the $1,077,688 All American Derby.

This fall, Arrossa plans to have runners primarily at Los Alamitos, including Dexxter, but will send Gold Heart Eagle V to Lone Star Park for the Texas Classic Derby in November.

Through Tuesday, Arrossa’s runners already had earned a career-best $2,544,224 this year, second to Blane Wood with $3,072,002. Wood won Monday’s $3 million All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs with Whistlestop Cafe.

Arrossa has a chance to catch Wood in coming months. But with the success, Arrossa has been the subject of backstretch suspicion, or at the minimum jealously, regarding his accomplishments.

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“I tried to remain positive and keep working really hard,” he said. “We’re taking the high road. It’s unwarranted and it’s sad. And it is what it is.

“We do run a good operation. They’ve tested them and tested them and they can keep testing them.”

The autumn goal for Dexxter is the $600,000 Champion of Champions on Dec. 12, a race Arrossa won in 2016 with the 3-year-old Zoomin for Spuds, who is still racing.

“He came back from the race fantastic,” Arrossa said of Dexxter.

There is a possibility Dexxter may not race again until the Champion of Champions, a race that closely mirrors the Breeders’ Cup Classic in year-end importance.

“We’re trying to space his races out,” Arrossa said.

The Champion of Champions is the start of a weekend that includes the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity on Dec. 13, the last of three seven-figure futurities at Los Alamitos annually.

Arrossa won the first race in the series – the $1.15 million Ed Burke Million Futurity in late June – with Chance to Excel, who is sidelined with a knee injury and may not race again until next summer.

“He came off the surgery well,” Arrossa said. “We’re just about ready to put him on the AquaTred. We want to give him plenty of time. He’s pretty special.”

Arrossa nominated the filly Aint She Tempting as his leading hope for the Golden State Million Futurity in November and the Los Alamitos Two Million. Aint She Tempting won the $383,725 Oklahoma Futurity at Remington Park in March and was beaten a head in her most recent start in the $826,260 Heritage Place Futurity there in late May.

The next objective for the stable is trials this weekend for the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association Breeders’ Futurity at Los Alamitos on Saturday and Sunday. The stable is likely to have numerous starters in lesser stakes in October and November.

“I have had a lot of good success and I’m very blessed,” Arrossa said. “We’ll continue to work hard and do things right.”