Bodacious Eagle leads all the way in Champion of Champions

CYPRESS, Calif. - Bodacious Eagle gave veteran jockey Cody Jensen his first career win in the $600,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos on Sunday, edging favored Jesstacartel by a head in a thrilling running of the nation’s leading race for older Quarter Horses.

Bodacious Eagle ($11.40) led throughout but could not put any measurable distance over his talented rivals. Bodacious Eagle led by a nose through the first 220 yards before winning narrowly. Bodacious Eagle finished 440 yards in 21.47 seconds.

“He got a little bit of a jump away from them,” Jensen said of the start. “He was on the wrong lead for much of the race. When he switched to his outside lead, they didn’t get closer. He was able to hold his spot.”

Jesstacartel, the winner of the Los Alamitos Super Derby last month, was 8-5 and finished a head in front of Bh Lisas Boy, the winner of the Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship last February. The first five finishers in the field of 10 were separated a little more than a neck.

Jensen, 43, was sidelined earlier this year with shoulder and knee injuries that curtailed his activity. Bodacious Eagle was his 83rd mount of the year.

Bodacious Eagle, a 6-year-old gelding by One Famous Eagle, is owned by Johnny Trotter, a former president of the American Quarter Horse Association, and is trained by Justin Joiner, 37. Bodacious Eagle has won 14 of 33 starts and earned $1,297,536.

Jensen has ridden Bodacious Eagle seven times, including a fifth-place finish in the $2.6 million All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs in 2014.