Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship trials loaded with talent

The three time trials at Los Alamitos on Sunday for the Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship on Feb. 14 are stakes races of their own.

Each division includes a major stakes winner in the last year who could be favored in the 400-yard Winter Championship. Several supporting players in each race are capable of causing upsets.

The 10 fastest runners, regardless of finishing position, advance to the final. The winner of the Winter Championship earns a berth to the Champion of Champions in December.

The first trial is the sixth of eight races on the program and is led by the 4-year-old geldings Runforyourlife, winner of the 2019 Golden State Million Futurity, and Circle City, who won the Golden State Derby last August. They were beaten in their last start, finishing fourth and sixth in the Southern California Derby on Dec. 20.

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Circle City drew the rail and starts adjacent to Zoomin For Spuds, the champion 3-year-old gelding of 2016 who finished ninth after a troubled start in the $600,000 Champion of Champions on Dec. 12, his fifth consecutive appearance in the prestigious race.

As recently as October, Zoomin For Spuds ran a top-class race when second by a nose to Chocolatito in the Robert Boniface Los Alamitos Championship at 440 yards.

Powerful Favorite, third by a neck in the Champion of Champions, will be favored in the second trial. Owned by Connie Rosenthal and trained by Chris O’Dell, Powerful Favorite won the $100,000 Go Man Go Handicap in August.

Powerful Favorite was third in the 2020 Los Alamitos Winter Championship behind Bos Time Machine, who also starts in Sunday’s second trial. Trained by Paul Jones, Bos Time Machine was last of 10 in the Champion of Champions last month after breaking through the gate before the start. Bos Time Machine is winless in three starts since the Winter Championship.

Jones also starts Mental Error, who was second in the Los Alamitos Super Derby in November and won a division of the trials for the Southern California Derby. Mental Error was scratched at Jones’s discretion from the Southern California Derby.

Chocolatito, fourth in the Champion of Champions by a half-length, will be favored in the third trial. Trained by Scott Willoughby for Los Alamitos track owner Ed Allred, Chocolatito won the Vessels Maturity last July and the Los Alamitos Championship in October.

Mr Ricks and Made Over, the first two finishers in the A Ransom Stakes at 350 yards on Dec. 18, are part of the field facing Chocolatito.