Quarter Horse season heats up with Winter Championship
There is a vacancy at the top of California’s older Quarter Horse division in advance of Sunday’s $160,000 Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship.
The 400-yard race, the track’s first major event of the year for the division, will provide some clarity going into spring.
A group of five 4-year-olds who have won six-figure races in the last year are expected to dominate Sunday’s race – Defending Champ, Favorite Jesshawk, Holy Pete, Lethal Cowboy 123, and Show N Tell Cartel.
Other notable runners in the Winter Championship are Kevins Wise Corona, a 5-year-old who won the minor First Down Dash Handicap at 400 yards on Dec. 20, beating the 6-year-olds Rlh Fouronthefloor and Edberg Verde, who were second and third. Those two are also entered on Sunday, along with the 4-year-old Special Batch, who was third in the minor A Ransom Stakes on Dec. 20.
The winner receives a preliminary berth in the $700,000 Champion of Champions on Dec. 12, the nation’s leading race for older horses.
No runners from the 2025 Champion of Champions are part of Sunday’s field. Race winner Fdd Dreams finished third in the $350,000 Championship at Sunland Park on Feb. 7 and is not expected to compete again until later this year. Jeriko, who was second, died of complications from an infection last month.
Unrelentless, who ran third, is now a stallion in Oklahoma. Norco, who finished fourth, has been turned out for 90 days, according to trainer Scott Willoughby.
On Sunday, Favorite Jesshawk and Lethal Cowboy 123 start from the outside two positions in the nine-horse field and figure to dominate the betting. Favorite Jesshawk, trained by Jesus Nunez for Enrique Gonzalez, was second by a half-length in the $158,600 Southern California Derby on Dec. 21. Last September, Favorite Jesshawk and Defending Champ were first and second in the $197,300 Golden State Derby.
Defending Champ won the $175,000 Governor’s Cup Derby last July and finished a troubled sixth in the A Ransom Handicap in his last start. Show N Tell Cartel, winner of the $235,600 El Primero Del Ano Derby last March, was sixth by two lengths in the Southern California Derby.
Lethal Cowboy 123 has won 10 of 14 starts, earned $1,426,127, and is the only millionaire in Sunday’s race. The winner of the $1.83 million Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity in December 2024, Lethal Cowboy 123 was fourth by a length in his last start, the $926,200 Los Alamitos Super Derby on Nov. 9.
The Winter Championship is the first start at Los Alamitos for Holy Pete, who won the $100,000 Ruidoso Invitational in New Mexico last June. Trained by John Stinebaugh, Holy Pete was third by a neck in the $281,505 Texas Classic Derby at Lone Star Park on Nov. 15.
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