Powerful Favorite, Up for Speed top Brad McKinzie Winter Championship

The Jan. 24 time trials for Sunday’s $157,750 Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship produced several surprises.

Chocolatito and Zoomin for Spuds, the first two finishers of the Los Alamitos Championship in October, failed to qualify after running poorly in the trials.

Powerful Favorite, who was third in the $600,000 Champion of Champions on Dec. 12, and Up for Speed, second in two derbies in 2020, won two of the three trial races and will be prominent in the betting for Sunday’s 400-yard race.

The Winter Championship is the nation’s first major race of 2020 for older Quarter Horses. The winner receives a fees-paid berth to the Champion of Champions in December.

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Powerful Favorite was beaten a neck by surprise winner Apollitical Pence in the Champion of Champions. Apollitical Pence was shipped to Oklahoma shortly after that race, and is expected to race at the Remington Park Quarter Horse meeting this spring.

Powerful Favorite was third by a neck in the 2020 Winter Championship as the 4-5 favorite. Trained by Chris O’Dell for Connie Rosenthal, Powerful Favorite won the Go Man Go Handicap in August, the lone stakes win of a five-race campaign last year.

Up for Speed appeared in five futurities and derbies in 2019 and 2020 for Los Alamitos track owner Ed Allred. A gelding, Up for Speed’s best results in those races were second-place finishes in the Governor’s Cup Derby last July and the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association Breeders’ Derby in October.

Up for Speed was seventh in the Southern California Derby in December. Following that race, Up for Speed was purchased privately and transferred from trainer Scott Willoughby to Roman Figueroa. Up for Speed is owned by Figueroa’s wife, Brenda, a daughter of the late trainer Blane Schvaneveldt.

Up for Speed set the fastest qualifying time of 19.63 seconds for the Winter Championship, winning a division of the trials by a half-length.

Powerful Favorite won a division of the trials in 19.72 seconds, beating a field that included Bos Time Machine, the upset winner of the 2020 Winter Championship.

Bos Time Machine, trained by Paul Jones, qualified for Sunday’s final, but is winless in four starts since the 2020 Winter Championship. In Sunday’s race, Jones also starts Jess Macho Corona, a trial race winner on Jan. 24 in 19.85 seconds who was fourth in the 2020 Winter Championship.