For reasons largely unique to Quarter Horse racing, Paul Jones is the only trainer in history who has won the All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs and the Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos in the same year. The All American Futurity is the sport’s leading race for 2-year-olds, and the Champion of Champions the top race for 3-year-olds and up. Jones, who accomplished the feat in 2006 with No Secrets Here and Wave Carver, may have company on that short list this year. Heath Taylor starts Chasing Aj and Hes Judgeandjury in Monday’s $3 million All American Futurity, and has the 4-year-old star gelding Empressum at Los Alamitos on course for the $750,000 Champion of Champions on Dec. 10. :: DRF Bets members get FREE DRF Past Performances - Formulator or Classic. Join now! Unlike Thoroughbred racing, where leading stables are frequently represented in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and BC Classic in the same year, the qualifying system for the All American Futurity and overall regional nature of Quarter Horse racing makes a sweep of those two leading prizes uncommon. In addition, many trainers do not race at both Los Alamitos and Ruidoso Downs. Some trainers based in the Southwest send a leading horse to another trainer in California for the Champion of Champions, an invitational. The 10 finalists for the All American Futurity at 440 yards are the five fastest qualifiers per day among 16 trials held on Aug. 19-20. That’s the only way to get into the race, unlike the BC Juvenile where a horse does not need to win certain prep races and can be selected by a committee if the race oversubscribes. Chasing Aj and Hes Judgeandjury are owned by Steve Holt of Guthrie, Okla., and Jeff Jacobs of Pembroke, N.C., who also own Empressum. Hes Judgeandjury qualified for the All American Futurity by winning the first of 16 time trials in 21.33 seconds on Aug. 19. The owners had to wait through 15 trials run over the next 6 1/2 hours to learn that Hes Judgeandjury’s time was the third best of the day. The tension was palpable through the afternoon, Taylor recalled last weekend. Hes Judgeandjury was relegated to third in the standings when the filly Jes an Angel (21.25) and gelding Sicario V (21.30) ran first and second in the 11th trial to earn berths. There was no qualifiers from the last five trials. “You have no idea what is going to happen there,” he said. “There is so much luck involved as opposed to skill. You have no idea, especially with five (qualifiers) a day. “When he ran 21.33 I was like he’ll be in. There aren’t five 2-year-olds that can run 21.33, but then the other one ran 21.25, and, boom, you’re down to third. You think, hell, there is nothing guaranteed.” By contrast, Chasing Aj won the 16th trial in 21.64 seconds on Aug. 20 to record the second-fastest time that day. Only Doing Something Good, who won the first trial in an impressive 21.42 seconds, was quicker that day. Jockey Rodrigo Vallejo rode both winners in the trials and has selected Chasing Aj for Monday’s race. James Flores rides Hes Judgeandjury. The geldings have had similar career paths through the spring and summer, racing only at Ruidoso Downs. They are only runners in the All American to appear in all three of Ruidoso’s leading futurities this year. Hes Judgeandjury and Chasing Aj were third and fifth in the Ruidoso Futurity at 350 yards on June 12, and fifth and eighth in the Rainbow Futurity at 400 yards on July 24. The winners of those $1 million races – Otts Boy and Eye on the Card – did not qualify for the All American. Taylor said Hes Judgeandjury and Chasing Aj recovered from their All American Futurity trials quicker than other trial races earlier this year. “These two seem like they couldn’t be any sounder and they seem like they have phenomenal energy,” he said. “I don’t know why, but it’s a good thing.” Chasing Aj is rated as Taylor’s best chance, the 7-2 third choice behind Jes an Angel (5-2) and Doing Something Good (3-1). Taylor won the 2008 All American with Stolis Winner, but it was not until two years later that the result became official. Stolis Winner was found to have trace levels of caffeine in a post-race test. The positive was the subject of lengthy hearings until the New Mexico State Racing Commission voted in 2010 to uphold the recommendation of a three-person panel who overturned a decision by track stewards to disqualify Stolis Winner from the win. Taylor, 52, was later suspended five years in Louisiana for a Class 1 medication violation found in a post-race test at Delta Downs in 2012. After losing a court appeal, Taylor served slightly less than four years of the penalty before he was reinstated in early 2019. Empressum has been Taylor’s most successful runner since his return. The champion 3-year-old of 2021, Empressum has won two stakes at Los Alamitos this summer, the most recent of which was the $100,000 Go Man Go Handicap last Sunday. Empressum will have one more prep race, in the Robert Boniface Los Alamitos Championship on Oct. 8, before a scheduled start in the Champion of Champions. “I don’t know where the bottom of that horse is,” Taylor said after the Go Man Go. “He is one of those rare horses that the farther he goes, the better he gets.” If Chasing Aj and Hes Judgeandjury can win their first stakes at 440 yards in a tough All American on Monday, Taylor will be halfway to reaching an elusive goal. “I don’t think there is anything that could mean more,” he said.