Forget It to be favored in El Primero Del Ano Derby

The Quarter Horse colt Forget It is forcing people to take notice of his recent performances.

On March 15 at Los Alamitos, Forget It set the fastest qualifying time for Saturday’s $175,100 El Primero Del Ano Derby for colts and geldings with a comprehensive victory by 2 1/4 lengths. The win will make Forget It the favorite to win Saturday’s final.

The El Primero Del Ano Derby will be the third major stakes final for Forget It, who races for the Dutch Masters III partnership and trainer Jaime Gomez. Last year, Forget It was third in the Ed Burke Million Futurity in June and seventh in the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity in December.

Forget It failed to qualify for the Los Alamitos Winter Derby in February.

“The last race when he didn’t qualify for the Winter Derby, I was a little disappointed,” Gomez said after the March 15 trial. “He just never got a hold of the track.”

In the El Primero time trials, Forget It ran 400 yards in 19.64 seconds, his fastest time in four career starts at the distance.

In Saturday’s final, Forget It is part of a field of 10 that includes Energy Cartel, who won the $100,000 Los Alamitos Maiden Stakes in February and was second by a nose to Hrh Walkonfire in a division of the time trials.

Hrh Walkonfire, trained by Paul Jones, qualified for two futurities last year, finishing last of 10 in the Governor’s Cup Futurity and eighth in the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association Breeders’ Futurity.