Fastest qualifier Doodah Cartel needs cleaner break in Winter Derby
Doodah Cartel earned the position of fastest qualifier for Saturday’s $200,000 Los Alamitos Winter Derby at 400 yards after the most improbable of performances in a division of the time trials on Jan. 24.
Doodah Cartel was bumped by rivals on his sides and trailed by more than a length after the first 100 yards. When he seemed beaten, Doodah Cartel unleashed a late rally that carried him to an unlikely nose win in 19.89 seconds for 400 yards.
“I thought we were done,” trainer Paul Jones said on trial night. “Usually when you get a start like that, you know it’s like one in a million that you recover.”
Doodah Cartel started from post 7 in the trial and finished to the inside of Surprise Temptation, who started from post 6, a rare instance when Quarter Horses switch running lanes.
“The horse kept getting out,” Jones said of Surprise Temptation. Doodah Cartel “finally had to duck inside of him, and he just kept running strong. You don’t see races like that very often.”
Doodah Cartel cannot afford a similar start in the Los Alamitos Winter Derby, which drew a field of nine. Doodah Cartel, the mount of jockey Henry Lopez, starts from post 5. Surprise Temptation, second to Doodah Cartel on Jan. 24, was not entered in the final.
The Winter Derby is the fourth appearance in a stakes final for Doodah Cartel, who finished fourth in the Ed Burke Million and Golden State Million futurities last June and October, and eighth in the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association Breeders’ Futurity last September.
Sm My Valentine, the 20-1 winner of the PCQHRA Futurity, is the lone stakes winner in the Winter Derby field. Trained by Adan Farias, Sm My Valentine starts from the outside post.
On Jan. 24, Sm My Valentine won the first of four time trials in 20.07, the slowest clocking of a trial race winner. He finished a neck in front of Politician V, who overcame a slow start in his first start in California.
Trained by Jesus Nunez, Politician V was sixth in the Texas Classic Futurity at Lone Star Park in November.
Sg Jacob Jay (19.92) and Shinning Favorite (20.00) also were trial race winners.
Sg Jacob Jay, trained by Farias, has won 3 of 6 starts. Lopez was aboard for the trial race win. Jesus Rios Ayala has the mount in the Winter Derby.
Shinning Favorite will have his major stakes debut in the Winter Derby. Shinning Favorite is one of two fillies in Saturday’s race, along with Walk When I Walk, who was third behind Sg Jacob Jay on Jan. 24.
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