Heza Dasha Fire feeling good for Champion of Champions

CYPRESS, Calif. – Only a head loss last year will keep Heza Dasha Fire from attempting to win the $750,000 Champion of Champions for the third consecutive year at Los Alamitos on Saturday evening.

As a 3-year-old, Heza Dasha Fire won the 2015 Champion of Champions easily over Moonist, the leading older male that year. Heza Dasha Fire was named world champion for 2015.

In 2016, Heza Dasha Fire was second by a head to Zoomin for Spuds, a 10-1 outsider. The following morning, Heza Dasha Fire displayed signs of illness.

“I didn’t know until the next day,” trainer Jose Flores recalled Wednesday. “Zoomin for Spuds ran a brilliant race. Maybe we would have beaten him if we would have been 100 percent.”

Flores is convinced Heza Dasha Fire is in peak form for Saturday’s race at 440 yards. The 5-year-old gelding will be a heavy favorite on the basis of consecutive wins in the Go Man Go Handicap at 400 yards Sept. 3 and the Los Alamitos Championship on Oct. 15.

Heza Dasha Fire won the Los Alamitos Championship at 440 yards despite a slow break.

“I didn’t think he’d win it,” Flores said.

In recent weeks, Heza Dasha Fire has been a frequent visitor to the starting gate for schooling sessions.

His training has otherwise been light, typical of a leading older Quarter Horse. At the beginning of the week, Heza Dasha Fire galloped 1 1/4 miles. He was scheduled to be hand-walked at the stable daily from Wednesday through Saturday.

Heza Dasha Fire is owned by Don, Kathy, and Shawn Meneely and has won 15 of 20 starts and earned $2,047,987.

Heza Dasha’s Fire’s main rival is BH Lisas Boy, who underwent surgery to have bone chips removed from his knees in early July shortly after winning the Vessels Maturity. Last February, BH Lisas Boy won the Los Alamitos Winter Championship.

Trained and owned by Bill Hoburg, BH Lisas Boy won a division of the Champion of Champions trials Nov. 19. A 5-year-old gelding, BH Lisas Boy had earned a berth in the Champion of Champions through the major stakes wins earlier this year, but Hoburg thought the 400-yard trial would be an ideal prep.

BH Lisas Boy has had an uninterrupted preparation, Hoburg said.

“I laid out a calendar, and he had to be at certain points in his training,” he said. “I had to have him to the track 90 days after the operation. I had to have his first breeze [in late October]. Two weeks later, he needed a gate work. We were able to get a prep.

“He’s been such a good patient.”

The field of 10 includes Chazaq, winner of the Los Alamitos Super Derby on Nov. 12; Zoomin for Spuds, who has not shown the same form this year as he did in late 2016; and The Fiscal Cliff, who won the Bank of America Challenge Championship at Prairie Meadows on Oct. 14.