Empressum faces challenge from stablemate in Vessels Maturity
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The greatest threat to reigning World Champion Quarter Horse Empressum in Sunday’s $150,000 Vessels Maturity at Los Alamitos may come from stablemate Shott Gun.
Empressum was the fastest qualifier for the Vessels Maturity on June 11, winning the second of two 400-yard trials in 19.48 seconds. Shott Gun won the first trial in 19.50.
Empressum, who races for owners and breeders Steve Holt and Jeff Jacobs and trainer Heath Taylor, will be a heavy favorite to win the Vessels Maturity for the second consecutive year. Last summer, Empressum won the Vessels Maturity and later won the $750,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos in December to clinch the title of World Champion, or Quarter Horse of the Year.
The winner of the Vessels Maturity earns an automatic berth to the Champion of Champions at 440 yards, which will be run Dec. 9.
The race has a field of nine. Favorite Habit, fifth behind Empressum in the trials, was not entered in the final despite gaining a qualifying berth.
Earlier this year, Empressum was second by a nose to the brilliant Apollitical Pence in the Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship, the first race of the year with an automatic berth. Apollitical Pence is not in the Vessels Maturity and is not expected to race again until later this year.
A 5-year-old, Empressum was sent to Taylor’s farm in Louisiana for a rest after the Winter Championship before he was sent to Los Alamitos in the spring.
The Vessels Maturity trial was a much-needed start, Taylor said that night.
“I thought for where he was at in his training that he ran a good race and hope that’s what he needed to sharpen him for the final,” Taylor told Los Alamitos publicity.
Taylor trains Shott Gun, and another qualifier in Jettz, for Texas owner and trainer Bobby Cox.
Shott Gun, a winner of 11 of 21 starts, has won his last three starts, including two minor stakes – the Moonist Stakes at 400 yards in March and Kaweah Bar Handicap at 350 yards on April 29.
Taylor said on the night of the trials that Shott Gun lost a shoe at the start of his winning race, but that the 5-year-old gelding was not injured.
Jettz, fourth in the $3 million All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs in 2020, was fourth behind Empressum in the Vessels trials.
Scoops Dynasty, second by a nose to Shott Gun in the Vessels trials, can easily finish in the first three. The 4-year-old Scoops Dynasty was third in the Winter Championship in his stakes debut against older horses.
In 2022, Scoops Dynasty won the Winter and Golden State derbies and was second in the prestigious Los Alamitos Super Derby in November.
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