Hes Judgeandjury in tough in Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity

CYPRESS, Calif. – The All American Futurity winner has something to prove in Sunday’s $1,857,225 Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity.

Hes Judgeandjury won the $3 million All American Futurity, Quarter Horse racing’s richest race, at 7-1 on Sept. 5 at Ruidoso Downs. An Oklahoma-bred gelding, Hes Judgeandjury followed with a one-length win in a division of the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity trials on Nov. 20.

Hes Judgeandjury was timed in 19.88 seconds, good enough for the sixth-fastest time of the 10 qualifiers, but quite a bit slower than Cyber Attack’s fastest time of 19.58.

Cyber Attack, trained by Chris O’Dell for Connie Rosenthal, will be favored in the Los Alamitos Two Million over Hes Judgeandjury, who races for owners and breeders Jeff Jones and Steve Holt and trainer Heath Taylor.

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The trial race on Nov. 20 not only gave Hes Judgeandjury a berth for Sunday’s final, but served as a prep race, Taylor said.

“I think he ran a solid race,” Taylor said Wednesday. “I don’t think it was his best race. He’d had two and a half months off and he qualified for all three legs of the Triple Crown and had six grueling races. It was his first time at night.

“This is a tougher field. He’ll have to run his best race. We’re hoping he has some improvement.”

Hes Judgeandjury is the first All American Futurity winner to appear in the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity since No Secret Here finished third in 2006. Hes Judgeandjury is the first All American winner to race at Los Alamitos as a 2-year-old since One Dashing Eagle won the Golden State Million in his final career start in early November 2012.

Hes Judgeandjury has won 5 of 7 starts and earned $1,708,300. Earlier this year, he finished third in the $1 million Ruidoso Futurity at 350 yards on June 12 and fifth in the $1 million Rainbow Futurity at 400 yards on July 24 at Ruidoso Downs.

Cyber Attack was second by three-quarters of a length in the Rainbow Futurity after grabbing a quarter in the race and did not start in the All American Futurity trials in late August. Instead, Cyber Attack was rested until the Golden State Million Futurity trials on Oct. 9, setting the fastest qualifying time. Cyber Attack finished second in the final at 9-10, missing by a nose to Party Politics.

Party Politics had won the Ed Burke Million Futurity at Los Alamitos in June and missed a berth for the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity with a second-place finish in a trial race on Nov. 20. Party Politics was timed in 20.14. Famous Miss Kitty had the slowest qualifying time for the Los Alamitos Two Million of 20.00.

Cyber Attack has yet to win a futurity, but O’Dell is confident the colt, a $400,000 purchase as a yearling, can achieve that milestone Sunday. O’Dell was encouraged with the manner Cyber Attack schooled in the gate Wednesday.

“We took him to the track and he stood like a champ,” O’Dell said. “We’re pleased with where we’re at.”

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