Unusual workout has BH Lisas Boy set for Los Alamitos Winter Championship

After utilizing two Los Angeles-area racetracks, BH Lisas Boy is ready for Sunday’s $157,250 Los Alamitos Winter Championship for older Quarter Horses.

BH Lisas Boy finished third in a division of the Winter Championship trials at Los Alamitos on Jan. 21, but was vanned off the track after bleeding. The 6-year-old gelding was placed on the veterinarian’s list, which requires a workout without an incident of bleeding before BH Lisas Boy would be allowed to enter the Winter Championship.

The successful workout – 220 yards in 12.60 seconds – was held at Santa Anita last Monday because the Los Alamitos racetrack was closed for several days for renovation.

“He went down there under wraps,” owner and trainer Bill Hoburg said of the workout. “The vet went over him after we went back to the barn and everything is a go.”

Hoburg praised officials at Los Alamitos and Santa Anita for allowing his Quarter Horse to work at the Thoroughbred venue. The workout was conducted at the end of the training session.

“It was an interesting experience,” Hoburg said. “It was fun, to tell you truth.”

Quarter Horses seldom train or race at Santa Anita. The 870-yard star Griswold finished second in a match race at a half-mile against the Thoroughbred Valiant Pete at Santa Anita in April 1991.

BH Lisas Boy won the 2017 Winter Championship and the Vessels Maturity last July, but had mixed form in the second half of the year. He had bone chips removed from a knee last July. After a layoff, BH Lisas Boy won a trial for the $750,000 Champion of Champions in November before finishing fifth in the final on Dec. 16.

In the Winter Championship trials, BH Lisas Boy finished third by a neck at 9-10 behind LD Is Back. Friday, Hoburg gave BH Lisas Boy a schooling session in the starting gate after the gelding had to be reloaded more than once before the trials.

“He thinks he owns the racetrack again, so that’s good,” Hoburg said after the schooling session. “We had a bit of a fiasco before the trials.”

Hoburg saw positive signs after Monday’s workout.

“He wanted to play and kick at me and that’s a good sign,” he said.

Zoomin for Spuds and He Looks Hot, who were third and seventh in the Champion of Champions, are part of the Winter Championship field. Zoomin for Spuds was second by a nose to LD Is Back in the trials. He Looks Hot won a division of the trials in 19.65 seconds and is the fastest qualifier for Sunday’s race..

LD Is Back was timed in 19.653 seconds in the trials, his first start since a seventh in the Los Alamitos Super Derby in November.