Tell Cartel upsets Los Alamitos Winter Derby

CYPRESS, Calif. – Tell Cartel avoided the trouble that plagued 9-5 favorite Cartel Jess Rockin to record an upset win in Saturday’s $190,550 Los Alamitos Winter Derby for Quarter Horses.

Ridden by Ruben Lozano, Tell Cartel won the 400-yard race by three-quarters of a length over 3-1 second choice You Can Run for his first stakes win in his 11th start. Tell Cartel ($36.40) was timed in 19.61 seconds and earned $80,031 for owner and breeder Martha Wells and trainer Matt Fales.

The Los Alamitos Winter Derby was the first Grade 1 win for Lozano, Wells, and Fales.

Mental Error (12-1) finished third in the field of 10. Cartel Jess Rockin, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2019, lost all chance when she was bumped at the start, eventually finishing last.

Tell Cartel, a colt by Favorite Cartel, has won four races and earned $160,016. Last fall, Tell Cartel was second by three-quarters of a length in the $355,000 Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association Breeders’ Futurity at Los Alamitos.