Los Alamitos Super Derby trials loaded with talent
The standard needed to qualify for the $925,650 Los Alamitos Super Derby on Nov. 7 will be known early in Saturday’s time trials.
The first two of five 400-yard divisions are loaded with enough quality runners to form a final from those races alone. The runners with the 10 fastest qualifying times will advance to the lucrative final, the track’s richest derby.
The Super Derby winner receives a berth to the $600,000 Champion of Champions against older horses at 440 yards on Dec. 11.
Flash Bak, winner of the Los Alamitos Winter Derby in February, and Monopolist and Counting the Ways, second and third in the Governor’s Cup Derby on Aug. 1, start in the first trial, the evening’s sixth race on a 10-race program.
The second trial is led by the fillies Reason to Fly Mv and Apollitical Patty, who were first and third in the Mildred Vessels Handicap for fillies and mares on Sept. 19. Apollitical Patty won the Los Alamitos Oaks in March. The leading male in the race is A Dangerous Flash, who was third in the Rainbow Derby at Ruidoso Downs in July and recently joined trainer Chris O’Dell’s stable.
The remaining trials all have starters capable of reaching the final.
Favorite Colossus, winner of the Governor’s Cup Derby, and Favorite Doc, second in the All American Derby at Ruidoso Downs on Sept. 5, meet for the first time in the third division.
Apollitical Gold, winner of the 2020 Golden State Million Futurity last November, can win his first race since April in the fourth division against a field that includes Diva on Fire, who was fourth in the Golden State Derby on Aug. 15, and Leah Carroll, who was fourth in the Los Alamitos Oaks.
The final trial is led by J Best Boogie, who was third in the 2020 Golden State Million, and Karl Strauss, who was a troubled seventh in the Ruidoso Derby in June.