Gomez goes for eighth Kindergarten Futurity win

Zoomilicious can give trainer Jaime Gomez a record eighth win in Sunday’s $261,200 Kindergarten Futurity at Los Alamitos, the track’s first major futurity of the year.

Gomez shares the mark for the most career wins in the race with the late Blane Schvaneveldt. Gomez won his first Kindergarten in 1996 and collected his most recent victory in 2009.

Zoomilicious set the fastest qualifying time of 15.40 seconds for 300 yards in the first of eight time trials May 4. The trial was the second career start for Zoomilicious, who was second in a 300-yard maiden race April 13.

A filly by Ivory James, Zoomilicious won her trial race by three-quarters of a length over Mystery Man, who set the 10th-best qualifying time. Zoomilicious races for Jose Ubario of Fresno, Calif.

The winners of the first six trial races and three second-place finishers qualified for the final. Off Beat and Viento Negro finished in a dead heat for first in the second division of the trials and share the second-fastest qualifying time of 15.433 seconds.

There were no qualifiers from the last two trials.

Qualifiers Off Beat, Old Girl, Pink Bereta, and Viento Negro are unbeaten in two starts each, having won 300-yard maiden races in April before the trials.

Viento Negro will attract ample support Sunday. Trained by Juan Aleman, Viento Negro overcame a stumble at the start to finish even with Off Beat.

“When I saw him stumble and get left, I thought we would be lucky to hit the board,” Aleman said. “I thought it was all over. He finally started getting a hold of the ground, and he was just flying in the final 100 yards of the race. He’s going to be tough in the final.”

Half of the field consists of fillies, including Pink Bereta, who beat Zoomilicious on April 13. Pink Bereta, by Mr Eye Opener, is owned by Balgo Racing Team and trained by Lindolfo Diaz.

The other qualifiers are Wild Sixes Cartel, Ochoteco, Perryczech, and Vitali.

Wild Sixes Cartel, by Corona Cartel, was purchased for $122,000 at the 2013 Heritage Place yearling sale in Oklahoma City. Second in a maiden race April 11, Wild Sixes Cartel won his time trial in 15.438 seconds.

“He came back and looked sharp” in the trials, trainer Paul Jones said. “He did everything right, and he’s got talent.”