Zoomin for Spuds goes for Champions berth in Los Alamitos Winter Championship

Zoomin for Spuds won the $600,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos 10 weeks ago to secure the title of champion 3-year-old gelding of 2016. The goal of earning another championship begins in earnest on Friday at Los Alamitos when Zoomin for Spuds will start from the rail in the $150,900 Los Alamitos Winter Championship, the track's top race of the winter for older horses.

The winner will receive an automatic berth to the 2017 Champion of Champions on Dec. 16. The Winter Championship is the first of nine major stakes throughout the nation in the next 10 months that will determine the field for the Champion of Champions, the richest race for older Quarter Horses. At least one berth will be available to the winner of a trial race in November.

Zoomin for Spuds, who races for owner and breeder Jim Walker and trainer Monte Arossa, was beaten in his only start this year, finishing second by a half-length to Ima Fearless Hero in a division of the Winter Championship trials on Jan. 27. Ima Fearless Hero, the champion 2-year-old gelding of 2015, won the trial race by a neck in his first start since a fifth-place finish in the Southern California Derby in December.

Ima Fearless Hero ran 400 yards in 20.10 seconds in the trial, while Zoomin for Spuds was timed in 20.14. They are the second- and third-fastest qualifiers for the Winter Championship.

Ima Fearless Hero won the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity in 2015, but was winless in three derbies last year.

The role of fastest qualifier in the Winter Championship field of 10 is held by Bh Lisas Boy, who won a division of the time trials in 19.94 seconds. Owned by breeder Bill Hoburg, Bh Lisas Boy is trained by John Cooper, who won the 2016 Winter Championship with the late champion Moonist.

Hoburg was the previous trainer of Bh Lisas Boy, who won the California Challenge Championship last August and was second in three major stakes from early September to late October - the Go Man Go Handicap, Los Alamitos Championship and Bank of America Challenge Championship. Bh Lisas Boy did not start in the Champion of Champions and joined Cooper's stable in late 2016.