Well-traveled Cartel Kisses takes aim at Los Alamitos Oaks
At every track she has raced, the Quarter Horse filly Cartel Kisses has qualified for an important race.
Cartel Kisses was sixth in the $973,665 Remington Park Oklahoma-Bred Futurity last April, and won the $100,000 Rainbow Juvenile at Ruidoso Downs in July. In November, Cartel Kisses was third in the $381,695 Black Gold Oaks Championship at Will Rogers Downs in Oklahoma.
Her latest stop is Los Alamitos where Cartel Kisses starts in Saturday’s $461,500 Los Alamitos Oaks for 3-year-old fillies at 400 yards.
The Black Gold Oaks was Quarter Horse racing’s richest race for 2-year-old fillies. The Los Alamitos Oaks is the sport’s richest race for 3-year-old fillies.
Cartel Kisses, trained by Heath Taylor for Larry and Bobbie Rice, has won 8 of 11 starts and earned $205,454, the highest earnings among the 10 qualifiers to the Los Alamitos Oaks.
Four time trials for the Los Alamitos Oaks were held on March 4. Cartel Kisses won her 2023 debut with a victory by three-quarters of a length in the second trial, finishing 400 yards in 19.90 seconds for the second-fastest qualifying time.
Streaks of Power won the first trial in 19.88 seconds.
Cartel Kisses won the Easy Jet Stakes at 350 yards for Oklahoma-breds at Remington Park last May. She has won four of five career starts at 400 yards, with the Black Gold Oaks her only loss at the distance.
The Los Alamitos Oaks will be the stakes debut for the lightly raced Streaks of Power, one of two qualifiers for owner Ken O’Brien and trainer Monty Arrossa. They also start Candys Special Power, a trial race winner in 19.96 seconds.
Arrossa is the third trainer in as many starts for Streaks of Power, who has a checkered past in her brief career. She finished first at 9-1 in a division of the Delta Downs Lassie Futurity in Louisiana last May, but was not entered in the final a few weeks later because of a positive test that led to her being disqualified from the trial win.
In a trial for the Los Alamitos Oaks, Streaks of Power finished three-quarters of a length in front of Fearless More, who has also had three starts. Fearless More was fourth in the $1 million Rainbow Futurity at Ruidoso Downs last July in her final start of 2022 and had her 3-year-old debut in the Los Alamitos Oaks trials.
Fearless More breaks from the inside post in the Los Alamitos Oaks. Quirky Bitty Jess, a trial race winner in 19.92 seconds on March 4, drew the outside stall for her third appearance in a stakes final.
At 2, Quirky Bitty Jess was third in the Ed Burke Million and sixth in the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association Breeders’ futurities. The Los Alamitos Oaks trial was the fourth win in seven starts for Quirky Bitty Jess.
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