Los Alamitos: Snitcher favored in Championship

A berth to the $750,000 Champion of Champions on Dec. 10 is available in Sunday’s $150,000 Los Alamitos Championship, provided the winner is not Good Reason SA or Snitcher.

Those two have already earned berths to the Champion of Champions by winning the Los Alamitos Winter Championship (Good Reason Sa) in February and the Vessels Maturity (Snitcher) in June.

Should Good Reason Sa or Snitcher win the Los Alamitos Championship, the berth will revert to the Z. Wayne Griffin Trials at Los Alamitos on Nov. 19.

Good Reason SA and Snitcher are using the Los Alamitos Championship as a tuneup for the Champion of Champions, but could have a difficult time winning on Sunday. The race includes the California debut of Stolis Winner, who won the 2008 All American Futurity. Now trained by Juan Aleman for owner Jerry Windham, Stolis Winner is unraced since finishing fifth in the Remington Park Championship in Oklahoma in May.

Snitcher, one of four runners in the field trained by Adan Farias, is likely to be favored in the 440-yard Los Alamitos Championship.

Farias also starts Jus Ledoux It, who was stakes-placed in July; Chivalry Sr, who won the Spencer Childers Handicap in July and was third in the Go Man Go Handicap last month; and the filly Azshecanfly, third in the Mildred Vessels Handicap last month.

Farias said last weekend that he thinks Snitcher may have an advantage because of the distance of the Los Alamitos Championship. In his last four starts, Snitcher has finished ahead of Chivalry Sr twice and behind him twice.

“Snitcher and Chivalry have been going heads up,” he said. “Going 440 yards, I think Snitcher will be better.”

Chivalry Sr beat Snitcher in a division of the Vessels Maturity trials in June, an order that was reversed when Snitcher and Chivalry Sr were one-two in the 400-yard final. Snitcher was third behind Chivalry Sr in the Childers. Snitcher and Chivalry Sr were second and third, respectively, in the Go Man Handicap behind Freaky last month.

Freaky, winner of the 2009 Los Alamitos Championship, is not part of Sunday’s field.

Good Reason Sa is winless in three starts since the Winter Championship, including a fifth in the Go Man Handicap. In the 400-yard Go Man Go, Good Reason Sa, a 4-year-old colt sired by the Thoroughbred Favorite Trick, was bumped early and finished three-quarters of length behind Freaky.