Scoops Dynasty finally bests Empressum

In their fifth meeting off the year, Scoops Dynasty beat 2022 World Champion Empressum for the first time in Sunday’s $100,000 Go Man Go Handicap at Los Alamitos, a result that leaves the California older Quarter Horse division a more competitive group in advance of the major races of the fall.

Scoops Dynasty ($5) led throughout the 400-yard Go Man Go Handicap, winning by a half-length over 4-5 Empressum. London Toby (6-1) finished third in the field of five, beaten 1 1/2 lengths.

Scoops Dynasty ran 400 yards in 19.35 seconds, recording his first major win since the Golden State Derby in August 2022.

Shott Gun and Slews Fortune completed the order of finish in the small field. The outsider Eye On the Sky was scratched.

Scoops Dynasty, trained by Monty Arrossa, broke from post 4, while Empressum started from the inside.

The win gave Scoops Dynasty an automatic berth to the nation’s most prestigious race for older horses, the $750,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos on Dec. 9. Empressum, who won the 2022 Champion of Champions, secured a berth with a win in the Vessels Maturity on July 2.

Empressum finished in front of Scoops Dynasty in their first four matchups. Scoops Dynasty was second by a neck in the Vessels Maturity at 400 yards. In the Bank of America California Challenge Championship at 440 yards on Aug. 5, the two ran as a pair throughout the race, with Empressum edging Scoops Dynasty by a nose.

Scoops Dynasty, a 4-year-old gelding by Fdd Dynasty, has won 8 of 18 starts and earned $524,661 for owners and breeders Ed and Von Zae McNelis of Nampa, Idaho.

Empressum was beaten for only the seventh time in his 29-race career in the Go Man Go Handicap, a race he won in 2022.

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