Good start key for Jess Good Reason in Mildred Vessels Handicap
CYPRESS, Calif. - Luck seems to have abandoned Jess Good Reason since the multiple stakes winner returned from a four-month break over the summer.
Jess Good Reason, who won the $100,000 Charger Bar Handicap for fillies and mare in January, has been beaten in her last two starts, largely because of poor starts. Despite the setbacks, Jess Good Reason figures to play a key role in Sunday’s $125,000 Mildred Vessels Handicap for Quarter Horse fillies and mares at Los Alamitos.
The Mildred Vessels Handicap is the last of eight races on the Los Alamitos evening program. Earlier in the day, Los Alamitos concludes its Los Angeles County Fair Thoroughbred meeting. The Mildred Vessels is the 17th live race at Los Alamitos on Sunday.
The Mildred Vessels, run at 400 yards, is the most important race for fillies and mares at Los Alamitos this year. The winner receives an automatic berth for the $750,000 Champion of Champions against males on Dec. 16, a race that plays a pivotal role in year-end championship voting.
Jess Good Reason is owned by Cina and John Sperry and trained by Paul Jones. A 4-year-old, Jess Good Reason was second in the 2016 Mildred Vessels Handicap. Since returning from a late winter break, Jess Good Reason was seventh in a division of the Vessels Maturity trials in June and again seventh in the Distaff Challenge Championship on Aug. 12.
Jess Good Reason will be ridden by leading rider Jesus Rios Ayala, and will break from post 7 in a field of eight.
Jess Ravin and Time for Jess figure to dominate the betting.
Jess Ravin was third in the Vessels Maturity against males on July 2, losing by a neck at 9-1 shot. Trained by Valentin Zamudio for Enrique Gonzales, Jess Ravin won three consecutive minor stakes for fillies and mares earlier this year.
Time for Jess, trained by Lin Melton, won the Distaff Challenge Championship at 400 yards on Aug. 12, her first win in six starts this year. She was fifth in the Charger Bar Handicap in January after a troubled start and fifth in the Vessels Maturity. She breaks from the outside post on Sunday.