Champion of Champions top two will compete in Brad McKinzie Winter Championship trials

Apollitical Pence and Flash Bak were first and second in the $600,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos on Dec. 11, separated by three-quarters of a length in the 440-yard race.

Sunday at Los Alamitos, they start about 45 minutes apart in divisions of the $157,000 Brad McKinzie Winter Championship time trials at 400 yards. The runners with 10 fastest times from the three trials, regardless of finishing position, will advance to the final on Feb. 20.

The winner of the Winter Championship will receive a berth to the Champion of Champions in December.

Apollitical Pence and Flash Bak are expected to advance to the Winter Championship, the first major race of the year in California for older Quarter Horses.

Apollitical Pence, trained by Monty Arrossa for Matt Dunn, became the fourth horse in the 49-year history of the Champion of Champions to win the prestigious race twice, having done so in 2020.

A 6-year-old gelding, Apollitical Pence has won 12 of 29 starts and earned $1,448,451. He will be a heavy favorite in the first trial race on Sunday, the seventh race on a nine-race program. Cattail Cove, second in the First Down Dash Handicap at 350 yards in January, is another notable runner in that trial.

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The second trial is led by Other World, who was second in the Los Alamitos Championship at 440 yards in October, and the filly La Estrella Corona, who was sixth in the $150,600 Southern California Derby on Dec. 19.

Flash Bak has been sold since his loss as the 3-2 favorite in the Champion of Champions in a private deal between the Dutch Masters III partnership of Jim Streelman and Bill Dale and new owner Sammy Valeriano. Jaime Gomez continues to train Flash Bak, who won the Los Alamitos Winter Derby and Los Alamitos Super Derby in 2021.

Flash Bak starts in the deepest of the three trials. His main opponents are Circle City, who won the Vessels Maturity last July and was sixth in the Champion of Champions, and You Can Run, who won the Go Man Go Handicap in August and was seventh in the Champion of Champions.