Bh Lisas Boy heads Bank of America Challenge Championship

Bh Lisas Boy had a solid 2015 season, winning stakes in Colorado and Washington. It was the prologue for what is developing into a brilliant campaign this year.

Saturday, Bh Lisas Boy tries to win his third stakes of 2016, and the richest race of his career, in the $353,500 Bank of America Challenge Championship for Quarter Horses at 440 yards at Los Alamitos. Bh Lisas Boy’s season has been geared to this race. In the last two months, he has run against top runners at Los Alamitos in races more difficult than the Challenge Championship.

Bh Lisas Boy, a 4-year-old Idaho-bred gelding owned and trained by Bill Hoburg, was second to 2015 World Champion Heza Dasha Fire in the Go Man Go Handicap on Sept. 4 and the Los Alamitos Championship on Oct. 9. In the Los Alamitos Championship at 440 yards, Bh Lisas Boy closed well to miss by a half-length.

Bh Lisas Boy qualified for Saturday’s race by winning the California Challenge Championship at 440 yards on Aug. 14.

The Bank of America Challenge Championship field includes runners who qualified in regional races throughout North America. JRC Callas First, the 2014 World Champion, earned a berth by winning the Sam Houston Challenge Championship in April. A 6-year-old gelding, JRC Callas First has lost his last three starts, which came in Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas, leaving something to prove in Saturday’s race.

The Bank of America Challenge Championship is the richest race on a 10-race program of Quarter Horses stakes. Five of the races have purses of $125,000 or more. The winner of the Bank of America Challenge Championship receives an automatic berth to the $600,000 Champion of Champions on Dec. 10. Heza Dasha Fire, who is not racing on Saturday, won the 2015 Champion of Champions, and is the favorite for this year’s race.

In other six-figure stakes on Saturday, the filly Jess Good Reason, the winner of the La Primera Del Ano Derby, will be a heavy favorite in the $202,000 Derby Challenge Championship for 3-year-olds at 400 yards. Trained by Paul Jones, Jess Good Reason was second against older fillies and mares in the Grade 1 Mildred Vessels Handicap at 400 yards on Sept. 25.

Kissed by an Eagle and One Proud Eagle, the first two finishers of the California Juvenile Challenge at Los Alamitos, may have a home course advantage in the $151,250 Juvenile Challenge Championship at 350 yards. One Proud Eagle won the Kindergarten Futurity at Los Alamitos in May.

In the $125,000 Distance Challenge Championship at 870 yards, Fire On the Fly tries to win his third stakes of the year despite drawing a tough outside post. The field of eight includes Jessa Little Rusty, who won the 2014 Distance Championship when the program was held at Prairie Meadows.

Getting Even, the winner of the Remington Park Distaff Challenge in May, is part of 10 fillies and mares in the $125,000 Distaff Challenge at 400 yards, a race that lacks a standout.