Cartel Jess Rockin takes championship credentials into Los Alamitos Winter Derby
Cartel Jess Rockin, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2019, will have her 2020 stakes debut in Saturday’s $190,550 Los Alamitos Winter Derby less than two weeks after the death of her owner, Ron Hartley.
Hartley, a former trainer and racing official, had a 65-year involvement in the sport. He was best known as the owner of the champion Moonist, and for his work as a racing official and steward in California earlier in his life. In more recent years, Hartley owned a property management company.
Hartley died on Jan. 27 after a lengthy illness at the age of 81.
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Cartel Jess Rockin won the $1.9 million Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity in a 20-1 upset on Dec. 15, a race Hartley attended. The win clinched Cartel Jess Rockin’s championship.
Trained by John Cooper, Cartel Jess Rockin won a division of the Winter Derby trials at 400 yards in 19.82 seconds on Jan. 18, recording the second-fastest qualifying time. The 10 fastest times, regardless of finishing positions, earned berths in the final.
Cartel Jess Rockin is likely to be favored over You Can Run, who set the fastest qualifying time of 19.76 seconds. Trained by Mike Casselman for owner and breeder Steve Burns, You Can Run won a division of the trials by three-quarters of a length over John Carter Cash, who will start in the final.
You Can Run, a gelding, has won 3 of 6 starts. This is his first appearance in a major stakes.
Burns and trainer Jose Flores own Sass Go Blue, who won the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association Breeders’ Futurity in October. Sass Go Blue finished third in a division of the Winter Derby trials and qualified for the final with a time of 20.01 seconds.
Track owner Ed Allred has two leading contenders for the Winter Derby in Circle City and Nomadic, both trained by Scott Willoughby.
Circle City, second by a nose in the $1,072,900 Golden State Million Futurity on Nov. 3, won a division of the Winter Derby trials in 19.85 seconds. Nomadic was fourth in the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity, and an unlucky third behind You Can Run in the Winter Derby trials, bumping with a rival shortly after the start.
Nomadic, who breaks from the rail in the Winter Derby, had the 10th and final qualifying time of 20.03 seconds.