Kiss Thru Fire seeks third consecutive win in Charger Bar
For the third consecutive year, Kiss Thru Fire begins the year in the $100,000 Charger Bar Handicap at Los Alamitos.
Kiss Thru Fire was named champion aged mare for her 2021 campaign and has an excellent chance for that title for the 2022 season when the awards are announced in January at a ceremony in Oklahoma City. On Sunday she tries for an unprecedented third consecutive win in the Charger Bar, one of the nations’ leading races for the division.
Trained by Juan Aleman for owner and breeder Kirk Gentry, Kiss Thru Fire will be favored on the strength of a win in the Las Damas Handicap at 400 yards on Nov. 19, run at the same distance as the Charger Bar.
Kiss Thru Fire won 4 of 7 starts in 2022, with all the wins in stakes. The only true blemish among her losses was a fourth by a half-length in the $125,000 Mildred Vessels Handicap for fillies and mares at 400 yards in September when she broke slowly and finished a half-length behind Pattys Saint.
Ramon Sanchez rides Kiss Thru Fire in the Charger Bar, replacing Jesus Ayala, who is in the midst of a five-day suspension for excessive use of the whip aboard Good Wagon Sa in the $1.8 million Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity on Dec. 11.
The terms of the suspension prevent Ayala from riding any races through Jan. 14. A majority of suspensions issued by California stewards allow jockeys to ride major stakes during routine suspensions, but the Los Alamitos stewards specifically denied Ayala such an opportunity in a recent ruling.
Pattys Saint is part of a field of 10 in the Charger Bar. She was second by a neck in the Las Damas and seventh in a tough running of the Champion of Champions against males on Dec. 10.
The Charger Bar field will be a test for the improving filly Nymphette, who is a danger from an outside post. A winner of 2 of 4 starts, Nymphette was second in the Mildred Vessels and third by a neck in the Las Damas.
The field also includes Sweet Tess, who won the Los Alamitos Oaks in March, and Sweet Dasha Fire, the winner of the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association Breeders’ Derby in October.
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