Los Alamitos: Significant Heart wins PCQHRA Breeders' Derby by half-length

Significant Heart won her major stakes debut in Friday’s $168,500 Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association Breeders’ Derby at Los Alamitos, a win that could result in a start in the trials for the $750,000 Champion of Champions next month.

Ridden by Eduardo Nicasio, Significant Heart ($35.40) led throughout the 400-yard race, winning by a half-length over 8-1 Look Whos Running. Tres Corona Mas was third, a neck behind Look Whos Running, but a head in front of 4-5 favorite Far Niente, who was fourth in a dull effort.

Significant Heart ran 400 yards in 20.04 seconds into a 26-mile per hour headwind. Trained by Paul Jones for Abigail Kawananakoa, Significant Heart has won 4 of 10 starts and earned $98,227. A filly by Corona Cartel, Significant Heart joined Jones’s stable at the start of the year, and won her first three starts before finishing third to Far Niente in a division of the PCQHRA Breeders’ Derby trials on Sept. 13.

Jones said after Friday’s race that Significant Heart is a candidate for the Z. Wayne Griffin Director’s Trial on Nov. 23, which offers at least one berth to the Champion of Champions on Dec. 14.