Los Alamitos: 9-year-olds show up youngsters in Winter Championship trials

Between them, the 9-year-olds Rylees Boy and Vodka With Ice have combined to win 35 of 100 starts and more than $1.91 million. Each has made 50 lifetime starts and won major stakes in the last year.

They are showing no sign of slowing down. On Jan. 26, Vodka With Ice and Rylees Boy finished first and second in separate time trials for the $156,250 Los Alamitos Winter Championship, earning berths to the 400-yard final on Feb. 16.

The Winter Championship will be their first meeting since they finished second and sixth in the $750,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos on Dec. 14. The Winter Championship winner receives an automatic berth to the 2014 Champion of Champions on Dec. 13.

Last year, Rylees Boy earned an automatic berth to the Champion of Champions by winning the Winter Championship following a third-place finish in the trials. Last weekend, Rylees Boy was second by a head in the trials to fastest qualifier Nellie Delaney, a 4-year-old filly who was timed in 19.56 seconds for 400 yards. He was timed in 19.57 seconds in the trials, the second-fastest time.

Trainer Paul Jones said Rylees Boy is defying age with his recent performances.

“He had a slow start, but he had a heck of a finish,” Jones said after the trial. “One more jump and I think he wins. He’s a 9-year-old now, but we still train him the same way as when he first came to my barn as a 7-year-old.”

Owned by Lorena Velazquez Rodriguez, Rylees Boy has won 22 of 50 starts and earned $1,544,189.

Vodka With Ice has won 13 of 50 starts and earned $370,258. His biggest win occurred at Los Alamitos in the Bank of America Challenge Championship on Nov. 9. Owned by Gerardo Prado, Vodka With Ice won his division of the Winter Championship trials in 19.65 seconds, the third-fastest qualifying time.

“The old man showed that he can still run,” trainer Pabla Rabasa Jr. said after the trials. “He broke slow in the Champion of Champions, and he did a lot better” in the trials.

While the senior racehorses have experience, Nellie Delaney has the current form. She finished in a dead heat for first in the Southern California Derby at Los Alamitos on Dec. 22, her first major stakes win.