Tequila Sangria needs to mellow out for Charger Bar Handicap

A year ago, Tequila Sangria won the $100,000 Charger Bar Handicap for fillies and mares at Los Alamitos to solidify her status as one of the nation’s leading older Quarter Horses.

Sunday, Tequila Sangria starts in the Charger Bar under different circumstances. A 5-year-old, Tequila Sangria needs a win to salvage her reputation.

The Charger Bar annually draws a strong field, and this year has an exceptional group. Aside from Tequila Sangria, the field of 10 is led by the 2020 stakes winners Curls Happy Wagon, Hotsempting, and Jess B Glory, as well as JR Prissys Blood and Kiss Thru Fire, who were second in major stakes in recent months.

Tequila Sangria has not raced since a sixth-place finish as the 4-5 favorite behind Curls Happy Wagon in the Mildred Vessels Handicap on Sept. 20. Tequila Sangria was unsettled before the start, which trainer Mike Casselman said cost her the race.

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“I think she got too hot and too nervous and fretting a little too much,” Casselman said Friday.

Tequila Sangria will start from post 8 in the Charger Bar, run at 400 yards.

“We’ve stood her in the gate and put the time in with her,” Casselman said. “I like the way she drew.”

Curls Happy Wagon, trained by Juan Aleman, followed her win in the Vessels Handicap with a victory in the Las Damas Handicap at 400 yards for fillies and mares on Nov. 21 and a seventh-place finish, by three-quarters of a length, in the $600,000 Champion of Champions at 440 yards on Dec. 12, the nation’s top race for older horses.

Hotsempting was eighth in the Champion of Champions, beaten 1 1/2 lengths after bumping with a rival at the start. Hotsempting, trained by Paul Jones since early fall, had an excellent campaign at Ruidoso Downs last summer, winning the Ruidoso Derby in June. She was later second in the Rainbow Derby in July and fourth in the All American Derby in September.

Aleman also runs Kiss Thru Fire, who was an outstanding second in the Southern California Derby on Dec. 20. Kiss Thru Fire led through the first 300 yards of the 400-yard race and was beaten a neck by Nomadic.

The Charger Bar is the second start in California for Jess B Glory, who won the Junos Request Stakes at Remington Park last May, the top race for fillies and mares in the Midwest.