Powerful Favorite preps for Champion of Champions with Boniface score
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLEThe Quarter Horse gelding Powerful Favorite already held a berth for the $600,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos on Dec. 11 via a win in the Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship in February.
Powerful Favorite will be the top pick – and perhaps live up to his name - in the Champion of Champions after a win in Saturday’s $125,000 Robert Boniface Los Alamitos Championship at 440 yards.
The field for the Champion of Champions consists of the winners of several major races through the year, with the rest of the 10-runner field determined in time trials on Nov. 14.
In Saturday’s race, Powerful Favorite ($8) ran 440 yards in 21.54 seconds, winning by a neck over 17-1 Other World, the only 3-year-old in a field of 10. Powerful Favorite broke well and was in front throughout, holding a narrow advantage over 5-1 Apollitical Pence through the first half of the race.
Apollitical Pence, the winner of the 2020 Champion of Champions, finished third, a head behind Other World. Chocolatito, the 5-2 favorite, finished a quiet fifth after bumping with a rival at the start.
Powerful Favorite, who was ridden by Eduardo Nicasio, has won 16 of 28 starts and has earned $1,065,097 for owner Connie Rosenthal and trainer Chris O’Dell.
A 5-year-old gelding, Powerful Favorite was third beaten a neck in the Champion of Champions last December. This summer, Powerful Favorite was based with O’Dell at Ruidoso Downs, but was winless in two stakes, finishing second in the Mr Jet Moore Handicap on July 25 and third in the All American Gold Cup on Sept. 6.
Powerful Favorite missed training time during the summer while being treated for an abscess in a foot, O’Dell said on Saturday evening. The problem has since been resolved.