Los Alamitos: Super Derby trial a stern test for Flame N Flash

Two weeks after Flame N Flash won the Grade 1 Mildred Vessels Handicap against older fillies and mares, the 3-year-old Quarter Horse filly starts Sunday in the first of four trials to the Los Alamitos Super Derby.

The Super Derby trial will be a stern test for Flame N Flash. She faces the gelding Terrific Synergy, the winner of the Governor’s Cup Derby in July.

The quick turnaround from the Mildred Vessels Handicap is not a major concern for trainer Juan Aleman, he said on Friday.

“We’ll know how she came out on Sunday, of course,” he said. “The way she’s been training – she’s been jumping and playing on the hot walker and the rider hasn’t been able to hold her on the racetrack.

“I don’t think it will affect her.”

Flame N Flash won the Mildred Vessels Handicap in her first start since a win in the La Primera Del Ano Derby for 3-year-old fillies at Los Alamitos in April.

In Sunday’s 400-yard trials, the horses with the 10 fastest times, regardless of finishing positions, qualify for the $993,000 final on Nov. 3.

Terrific Synergy has started once since the Governor’s Cup Derby, finishing fourth behind reigning World Champion Cold Cash 123 in the Grade 1 Go Man Go Handicap against older horses on Sept. 23. The first division of Sunday’s trials also includes Check My Thoughts and Do You Do Corona, who were first and second in the Golden State Derby at Los Alamitos on Aug. 26.

There are stakes winners in all four divisions.

In the seventh race, the three-time stakes winner Kool Million faces Hit It Big, unraced since finishing sixth in the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity last December.

The final two races drew stronger fields.

In the eighth race, Zoomdasher, who was third in the Golden State Derby, faces the minor stakes winners A Mere Dynasty and Tres of Linda.

Aleman starts Last to Fire, who was second in the 2011 Los Alamitos Two Million and fifth in the Golden State Derby.

In the final race, New Look, the winner of the El Primero Del Ano Derby in April, must beat Hez Our Secret, who was second in the All American Derby at Ruidoso Downs last month. New Look was sixth in the Governor’s Cup and Golden State derbies.