Los Alamitos: Two Million Futurity trials split into 14 divisions

Futurity winners Five Bar Cartel, Lil Ms Money Bags, Ms First Prize Rose, Up For It, and Viva Mi Corazon are among 112 horses entered in Sunday’s time trials for the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity.

The top 10 times from the 14 divisions, regardless of finishing position, will qualify for the 400-yard final on Dec. 15. The Los Alamitos Two Million is the track’s richest race.

Sunday’s second division will be the first start for First Prize Rose since she won the Rainbow Futurity at Ruidoso Downs on July 21. For Five Bar Cartel, the winner of the Ed Burke Million Futurity at Los Alamitos in June, the fifth division will be his first race since a fifth-place finish behind Turbulent Times in the Golden State Million on Nov. 3.

The loss prevented Five Bar Cartel from going for a sweep of the track’s three leading futurities, which has not been accomplished since the series was launched in 1998. There will be no rubber match between Turbulent Times and Five Bar Cartel. Turbulent Times was not nominated for the Two Million Futurity.

Trey Wood trains Ms First Prize Rose. Later in the evening, in the seventh race, Wood runs Viva Mi Corazon, the winner of the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association Breeders Futurity in October.

Viva Mi Corazon must beat Moonist, who was second in the Governor’s Cup Futurity at Los Alamitos in July, and Highest Fire, fourth in the Golden State Million. Ms First Prize Rose and Viva Mi Corazon give Texas owners Johnny Trotter and Burnett Ranches two formidable runners in Sunday’s trials.

Up For It, who won the Governor’s Cup Futurity, starts in the second division. Lil Ms Money Bags, who won the Mile High Futurity at Arapahoe Park in Colorado, starts in the 11th race.

The trials are dominated by runners from six stables. Jose de la Torre and Paul Jones have starters in every trial. Juan Aleman, Jose Flores, Eddie Willis, and Wood have runners in at least nine divisions.