Mildred Vessels Handicap key race for Tequila Sangria

The $125,000 Mildred Vessels Handicap for Quarter Horse fillies and mares, which will be run Sunday at Los Alamitos, has been a key metric in annual voting for champion aged mare.

Of the last 10 divisional champions, eight have started in the Vessels and four have won the 400-yard race.

This year, Tequila Sangria could be on her way to a title with a victory Sunday.

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Owned and bred by Steve Burns, and trained by his brother-in-law Mike Casselman, Tequila Sangria will be a heavy favorite against six rivals.

A 4-year-old filly, Tequila Sangria won the $100,000 Charger Bar Handicap in January, another important race for older fillies and mares, before she was given a rest in the spring and bred via embryo transfer. Tequila Sangria returned to action with a win as the odds-on favorite in the Flight 109 Handicap at 350 yards on Aug. 9.

Since the Flight 109, Casselman has frequently taken Tequila Sangria to the starting gate for schooling sessions. The filly was anxious in the gate before the start of the Flight 109, and Casselman wants to avoid a repeat occurrence.

“We’re ready to go,” he said Friday. “We’ve been trying to get her settled a little more in the gate, and hopefully that will be the key to the deal.

“It’s something we’ve always done with her. We stood her the other day and thought everything was good.”

Tequila Sangria won the 2019 Mildred Vessels Handicap as a 3-year-old, beating As and Js, who was later named champion aged mare. Last December, Tequila Sangria was ninth at 41-1 in the $600,000 Champion of Champions, the toughest race in the nation for older horses.

The winner of Sunday’s Mildred Vessels Handicap receives an automatic berth to the Champion of Champions on Dec. 12.

The only other 2020 stakes winner in Sunday’s field is Curls Happy Wagon, who won the Decketta Stakes for fillies and mares at 350 yards at Remington Park in March. A three-time stakes winner in her 16-race career, Curls Happy Wagon was fifth in the Junos Request Stakes on May 30, the top race for fillies and mares at the Remington Park winter-spring meeting.

Curls Happy Wagon was previously trained by Stacy Charette-Hill and has been transferred to Juan Aleman at Los Alamitos. In the Mildred Vessels, Aleman also starts the 4-year-old Symbol of Faith, who won her 2020 debut in an allowance race at 330 yards on Aug. 29. Symbol of Faith was fifth in the Los Alamitos Super Derby last November.

The Mildred Vessels Handicap is the last race on a nine-race program that begins at 5 p.m. Pacific. Wagering is available through DRFBets.com.

In the eighth race, Jesstacartel, winner of the 2018 Los Alamitos Super Derby, and Long Time Favorite, second in the Golden State Derby on Aug. 16, start in a 330-yard allowance race and likely will appear in stakes this fall.