One Proud Eagle fastest qualifier for Robert Adair Kindergarten Futurity
When One Proud Eagle won the first of 11 time trials for the Robert Adair Kindergarten Futurity at Los Alamitos on May 1, a waiting game began for owner Ron Hartley and trainer John Cooper.
As the evening progressed, One Proud Eagle’s winning time of 15.55 seconds for 300 yards looked better and better. None of the winners of the next 10 races were quicker, giving One Proud Eagle the role of fastest qualifier for Sunday’s $428,400 final, the first major Quarter Horse futurity of the year at Los Alamitos.
One Proud Eagle is part of a field of 10 and will be ridden by Tony Guymon from post 4. Guymon rode three horses in the trials who qualified for the final, including Paint a Candy Storm, who won the seventh division; and the Cooper-trained Jess a Chick Magnet, who was second to Chazaq in the eighth division.
Chazaq, who figures to be a leading choice and perhaps favored, is one of three finalists trained by Jaime Gomez. He also starts Ur My Princess, who won the 10th division, and Katella Deli, who was third to One Proud Eagle.
Ur My Princess is one of three fillies in the Adair Kindergarten Futurity, which honors the memory of the track’s leading rider from the 1970s, who died in 2015.
Chazaq had the second-fastest qualifying time of 15.59 seconds and has been rated by Gomez as one of his top 2-year-old prospects this year.
Chazaq is owned by the Dutch Masters III partnership of Jim Streelman and Denny Boer. They raced Quarter Horses with trainer Bob Baffert in the 1980s and early 1990s at Los Alamitos before switching their runners to Gomez when Baffert left Quarter Horse racing. Boer left the partnership for many years but rejoined Streelman earlier this year.
Overall, six trial race winners, three second-place finishers, and one third-place finisher in Katella Deli qualified for the final.