My Favorite Check streaking into Maiden Stakes

My Favorite Check can give owner Ron Hartley and trainer John Cooper their second six-figure stakes win in consecutive weeks when the gelding starts in Sunday’s $111,000 Los Alamitos Maiden Stakes for Quarter Horses.

On Feb. 14, Moonist won the $139,700 Los Alamitos Winter Championship for Hartley and Cooper. Moonist was the champion aged horse of 2015.

My Favorite Check was second to Pedro Czcech in a division of the Maiden Stakes trials on Jan. 31, his first loss in three starts. My Favorite Check beat maidens Dec. 12 and won an allowance race Jan. 1. The Maiden Stakes is run at 350 yards and is restricted to 3-year-olds who were maidens as of Dec. 1.

None of the runners has stakes experience, which is rare. In past seasons, fields for the Maiden Stakes typically had one or two starters who qualified for futurities the previous year.

Pedro Czcech, My Favorite Check, and Flay, a trial-race winner, are the only two-time winners in the field. Dunright Corona and Jess Shining are two other trial-race winners who qualified for the final.

Paul Jones has three qualifiers – Dunright Corona, Flay, and Girls on Fire, who was second to Dunright Corona in the trials.