Much on the line when stablemates meet in Los Alamitos Championship

Officially, Empressum beat Jeriko twice in major stakes for older Quarter Horses at Los Alamitos during the summer.

One outcome was determined by the stewards, however, leading to a fascinating third meeting of the stablemates in Saturday’s $90,000 Robert Boniface Los Alamitos Championship.

Empressum beat Jeriko by three-quarters of a length in the Vessels Maturity at 400 yards on July 7. In the Go Man Go Handicap at 400 yards on Aug. 25, Jeriko won by a nose over Empressum but was disqualified and placed last of seven for lugging out and causing interference.

Empressum and Jeriko are trained by Heath Taylor, whose stable has been hit with a recent outbreak of equine infectious anemia at Los Alamitos and Lone Star Park that has led to the euthanasia of 13 horses.

The disqualification in the Go Man Go Handicap cost Jeriko’s owner, Bobby Cox, more than the first-place purse of $55,000. Had Jeriko kept the win, he would have received a provisional berth to the $600,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos on Dec. 14, the sport’s leading race for 3-year-olds and older horses.

:: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets.

The winner of the Los Alamitos Championship will receive a berth to the Champion of Champions. Empressum, who won the 2022 Champion of Champions and was second to the Taylor-trained Flash Bak last year, secured a place with his win in the Vessels.

The purses of the Champion of Champions and Los Alamitos Championship have been reduced this year.

The Los Alamitos Championship was originally listed at $100,000 when the stakes schedule was published earlier this year. In late August, Los Alamitos officials announced that the Champion of Champions purse had been lowered from $700,000 to $600,000. Los Alamitos cited increased fees the track owes the California Horse Racing Board to finance the regulatory agency’s budget.

Empressum and Jeriko are part of a field of seven in the Los Alamitos Championship. Empressum, who races for his breeders, Steve Holt and Jeff Jacobs, has won 24 of 36 starts and earned $2,138,623.

Jeriko, a 4-year-old gelding, won the $903,650 Los Alamitos Super Derby last November and was fourth by a length in the Champion of Champions a month later.

Empressum and Jeriko start in posts 5 and 6 on Saturday. They face a worthy rival in Scoops Dynasty, who finished a troubled fifth in the Go Man Go Handicap in his first start since a third-place finish in the Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Championship in February.

Trained by Monty Arrossa, Scoops Dynasty beat Empressum in the 2023 Go Man Go Handicap, but was ninth in the Champion of Champions last December after rearing at the start.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.