Cv Fdddinasty Shan a deserving favorite in PCQHRA Futurity
It took four days in late August to determine the finalists for Sunday’s $270,000 Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association Breeders Futurity at Los Alamitos.
It takes a rapid glance through the list of 10 qualifiers to realize who will be a deserving favorite.
Cv Fdddinasty Shan, winner of the $920,000 Ed Burke Futurity in June, set the fastest qualifying time from eight trials for the PCQHRA Futurity on Aug. 23 to remain unbeaten in four starts.
The delay in determining the list of finalists centered around the fifth trial on Aug. 23 when the timing mechanism malfunctioned.
Track officials, working with Los Alamito’s television department, and officials with the American Quarter Horse Association’s racing department, independently agreed that two runners from that trial – Test Pilot and Indiana Fever – had race times quick enough to rank among the top 10 qualifiers, according to a statement issued by Los Alamitos on Aug. 27.
Test Pilot and Indiana Fever were determined to have the third- and sixth-fastest qualifying times. Both figure to be outsiders in the betting.
Cv Fdddinasty Shan, trained by Lindolfo Diaz, drew the outside post in Sunday’s race. He is the only stakes winner and undefeated runner in the lineup.
Diaz gave Cv Fdddinasty Shan a brief rest after the Burke in advance of the PCQHRA Futurity.
“We gave him a little bit of time,” Diaz told Los Alamitos publicity. “Then we started training him a little bit lighter for about three weeks before getting after him.”
Cv Fdddinasty Shan worked 220 yards in 12.60 seconds on Aug. 2.
In the PCQHRA trials, Cv Fdddinasty Shan was timed in 17.68, finishing a half-length in front of qualifier Cowboy Cartel. The trial race time was slightly slower than the 17.60 it took Cv Fdddinasty Shan to win the Ed Burke, the track’s leading futurity of the summer.
Sunday’s field includes Nuclear Arsenal, who was third by a half-length in the Burke. Nuclear Arsenal had a busy August. He finished second to Test Pilot in an allowance race at 350 yards on Aug. 2 before winning a division of the PCQHRA Futurity trials in 17.745, setting the second-fastest qualifying time.
Nuclear Arsenal is trained by Paul Jones, who on Sunday also starts trial race winner Rational and Jessonefamouseagle, who was second by a head to Aj Your Favorite in the trials.
Aj Your Favorite, trained by Eddie Willis, is one of three fillies in the final along with Indiana Fever and Rational.
Aj Your Favorite has won her last two starts, beginning with a 220-yard allowance race on July 11. She was timed in 17.75 in the PCQHRA trials, recording the fifth-fastest time, despite unseating jockey Justine Klaiber moments before the start.
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