Nuclear Option makes eagerly awaited debut

The impeccably bred first-time starter Nuclear Option runs in Saturday’s eighth race at Los Alamitos, a maiden special weight race at 300 yards that could easily lead to appearances in time trials for major futurities this fall.

Nuclear Option, trained by Chris O’Dell for the Parsons family limited partnership, is out of the multiple stakes winner Thermonuclear Energy, who was active as recently in January.

In recent years, Thermonuclear Energy has been raced in the second half of the year and into January before she was bred via embryo transfers in the winter and spring. Such a mating resulted in Nuclear Option, a 2-year-old filly by top Quarter Horse stallion Favorite Cartel, who is by Favorite Trick, the 1997 Thoroughbred Horse of the Year.

Nuclear Option will be ridden by Eduardo Nicasio, the regular rider of Thermonuclear Energy. Nuclear Option has worked quickly for her debut, including a 220-yard workout from the gate in 12.4 seconds on July 21.

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The maiden race drew a field of six, with two other first-time starters in Captin Obvious and Verifiable.

Captin Obvious, by Favorite Cartel, is a full-brother to Summertime Favorite, who was third in the 2017 Kindergarten Futurity at Los Alamitos. Paul Jones trained Summertime Favorite and bred Captin Obvious. He co-owns the filly in a partnership.

Verifiable is trained by Scott Willoughby, who leads the Quarter Horse standings at Los Alamitos this year.

Of the three runners with race experience, Rox Win is the most promising, having finished second by a head in a 300-yard maiden race on July 17 in his second start.

The eighth race is the second of two divisions of 300-yard maiden races on Saturday’s program, and the stronger of the two races.

In the sixth race, the first division, O’Dell starts R Flash, who was seventh in a division of the Governor’s Cup Futurity trials on July 11 after a troubled start. Willoughby runs In Deep Thought, a Favorite Cartel filly who was sixth, beaten only three-quarters of a length, in a maiden race at 300 yards on July 3 in her second start.