J Fire Up, Chance to Fire top Golden State Million
After two days of Breeders’ Cup races at Del Mar on Friday and Saturday, there is one more lucrative race in Southern California this weekend. The $904,850 Golden State Million will be run at Los Alamitos on Sunday evening.
The 400-yard race is the second of three major Quarter Horse futurities at Los Alamitos this year, followed by the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity on Dec. 17.
KVN Corona won the first race in the series, the Ed Burke Million Futurity in June, but was held out of the Golden State Million in favor of the Los Alamitos Two Million, which has time trials on Nov. 26. KVN Corona won the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association Breeders’ Futurity at Los Alamitos on Oct. 7.
The Golden State Million field includes J Fire Up and Chance to Fire, who were second and third behind KVN Corona in the Ed Burke Million.
J Fire Up set the fastest qualifying time of 19.86 seconds for the Golden State Million in time trials on Oct. 22. Owned by Dan Darling, Ernesto Solis, and trainer Jaime Gomez, J Fire Up has won 4 of 6 starts and earned $332,725. Following the Ed Burke Million, J Fire Up won the Governor’s Cup Futurity at Los Alamitos on July 29.
J Fire Up drew post 2 in Sunday’s 10-runner final and will be ridden by Jose Nicasio.
Chance to Fire, second in the Governor’s Cup Futurity, won a division of the Golden State Million time trials in 19.92 seconds for his fourth win in six starts. Chance to Fire’s only losses have been in futurity finals.
The Golden State Million often attracts runners that raced in other parts of the country earlier in the year. Call Me Cole, a trial race winner in 19.90 seconds, will have his stakes debut in the Golden State Million. He raced at Ruidoso Downs during the summer.
Owned by the McKinney family’s Reliance Ranches and trained by Mike Robbins, Call Me Cole has won 2 of 4 starts. He won a maiden race at Los Alamitos on Sept. 29 before the recent trial race win.