Los Alamitos: Five Bar Cartel gunning for next leg of $1 million Bonanza in Golden State Million

ARCADIA, Calif. – Five Bar Cartel is three races into a possible sweep of the three futurities comprising the $1 million Los Alamitos Bonanza for Quarter Horses. The hard part is still to come.

After winning the first leg in the Ed Burke Million Futurity over 350 yards in June, Five Bar Cartel qualified for Sunday’s $1,044,700 Golden State Million with a time trial win Oct. 20. Winning Sunday’s 400-yard final, and then qualifying for the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity and winning that final on Dec. 15 will not be easy.

Since the Los Alamitos Bonanza began in 1998, no horse has won all three futurities.

Owned by San Gregorio Racing Stables, Five Bar Cartel is unbeaten in four starts. He set the third-fastest qualifying time in the 400-yard time trials, winning the last of 11 divisions in 19.64 seconds. Trained by Danny Montes, Five Bar Cartel overcame a stumble and a bumping incident at the start to win by 1 1/4 lengths over Dimes and Nicks, who did not qualify for the final.

The trial was Five Bar Cartel’s first start since the Ed Burke Million Futurity on June 23.

“He had a little bit of trouble out of the gate, but the horse did his job,” Jorge Carmona of San Gregorio Racing Stables said after the trial. “He needed this race because he had not raced since the Ed Burke.”

Saul Ramirez rides Five Bar Cartel in the Golden State Million.

The fastest qualifier is Turbulent Times, a trial race winner in 19.58 seconds. Turbulent Times was fourth in the Ed Burke Million Futurity and did not start again until the Golden State Million trials. Turbulent Times is trained by Jose De La Torre and owned by Jesus Cuevas and Jesus Avila.

San Gregorio and De La Torre teamed last year to win the Golden State Million with One Dashing Eagle, the 2012 Quarter Horse World Champion. One Dashing Eagle won the Ed Burke and All American futurities in 2012, but did not start in the Los Alamitos Two Million because he was not made eligible when nominations were due.

In Sunday’s race, De La Torre has five of the 10 finalists, including second-fastest qualifier Fire Up Willie, Highest Fire, A Corona Sunset, and Mr Corona Cartel.

Mr Corona Cartel is co-owned by brothers Gustavo and Jose De La Torre and San Gregorio.