Quarter Horse Norco takes Robert Boniface Los Alamitos Championship as Empressum suffers fatal injury
Norco, the winner of the $894,200 Los Alamitos Super Derby last November, won his first stakes of 2026 in Saturday’s $100,000 Robert Boniface Los Alamitos Championship for older Quarter Horses, a race marred by a fatal injury sustained by the former champion Empressum.
Norco ($9.60) finished a nose in front of 11-1 Favorite Jesshawk in the 440-yard race.
Empressum, the even-money favorite, broke slowly and appeared to take an awkward step a few strides into the race. He was unable to put weight on his right hind leg.
Empressum “collapsed and died” on the track, according to Jeff Blea, the California Horse Racing Board’s equine medical director.
Blea said a “comprehensive necropsy” will be conducted on Empressum, but that results will not be known until late this year. Necropsies are conducted on all horses that die or are euthanized at California tracks.
Empressum, owned by Jeff Jones and Steve Holt and trained by Kristen Watanabe, won 26 of 43 starts and earned $2,701,248 in a career that began in the spring of 2020. He was 8.
Empressum ranks third on the all-time earnings list for Quarter Horses behind the active gelding KJ Desparado with $3,484,277, and the retired Ochoa, with $2,781,365.
Empressum was the overall champion 3-year-old and 3-year-old gelding of 2021; World Champion, champion aged gelding, and overall aged champion in 2022; and champion aged gelding in 2024.
Norco, a gelding by Favorite Cartel, races for Los Alamitos track owner Ed Allred and is trained by Scott Willoughby. With the win, Norco gains a berth for the $700,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos on Dec. 12, Quarter Horse racing’s top race for 3-year-olds and older Quarter Horses.
Norco was fourth by three-quarters of a length in the 2025 Champion of Champions.
Norco, who was ridden Saturday by Gabriel Lara, was timed in 21.74 seconds. Norco has won 5 of 12 starts and earned $549,703. He won an allowance race in September in his first start of 2026.
Favorite Jesshawk, who earned a berth for the Champion of Champions with a win in the Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship in March, finished a nose in front of 20-1 Kj Born to Be Wild. The Los Alamitos Championship was Favorite Jesshawk’s first start since March.
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