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FREAKY OVERCOMES TROUBLED START TO POST FASTEST TIME TO LOS ALAMITOS WINTER CHAMPIONSHIP

LOS ALAMITOS RACE COURSE, CYPRESS, CA. JANUARY 30, 2010 - For the first time since Armando Aguirre's Freaky began his torrid winning streak some eight months ago, he encountered some trouble in a race. It did not matter. The World Champion still crushed to victory, as he posted the fastest qualifying time in Saturday's trials to the $228,450 Los Alamitos Winter Championship.

Freaky, who has now won six straight races, did it by finishing the 400-yard race in the fastest 220-yard time that he has ever posted of :09.24. And while the final time was not a track record, his strong final time of :19.31 was 14/100ths of a second faster than that of next fastest qualifier Bloke.

It was not all fun and games for Freaky in this race. In fact, the horse had a rough start to his trial journey. The gelded son of TR Dasher stumbled leaving the gate from post three and when he was immediately bumped jockey Francisco Rubio nearly fell off. All Rubio could do was grab a hold of the reins to try to balance himself aboard Freaky. Coolly, Rubio waited for the champion to recover and pick up his stride. Once that happened, Freaky took no mercy on his rivals, accelerating quickly and leaving the field far behind en route to an impressive 1-1/2 length victory. There was no place of show wagering in this race. It was all about the win with the 1-9 favorite Freaky. He returned $2.10 for a $2 win wager.

The sorrel superstar will now headline the running of the Los Alamitos Winter Championship to take place on Saturday, February 20. The winner will earn a berth to the $750,000 Champion of Champions, a race that Freaky won last year. The complete list of qualifiers to the Winter Championship is as follows: Freaky (:19.315), Bloke (:19.455), Jess You And I (:19.582), Royal Proclamation (:19.563), Masters Call (:19.607), Hawking (:19.627), Morning Corona (:19.660), Blues Man Too (:19.664), Separate Bet (:19.673), and First Magical Dash (:19.688).

Freaky was making his season debut on Saturday after being AQHA World Champion in 2009. Last year, the Ed Allred-bred runner won the Grade 1 Vessels Maturity, Restricted Grade 1 Spencer Childers Memorial California Breeders Championship Handicap, Grade 1 Robert L. Boniface Los Alamitos Invitational Championship, and the aforementioned Champion of Champions. He was named the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association Horse of the Year and Cal-bred Horse of the Year earlier this week. Now, if the Adan Farias-trained runner can deliver another stellar effort in the Winter Championship, he will secure a berth to the first Champion of Champions of the new decade as he looks to become the first to win back-to-back runnings of this race since SLM Big Daddy in 1997-98.

"We were 100 percent confident coming into this race," said Jose Valdez, the son in law of owner Armando Aguirre. "Freaky is perfectly sound. We checked him out right after the Champion of Champions. The only concern was the space between races. There was a little bumping in this race, but he still came through. I can only describe him as a phenomenal horse. He's one of the best ever. I think he is comparable to the greatest of all time. I'm not saying that because he's our horse. There are people coming up to us all the time telling us that he is one of the best ever.

"It's a total privilege to be involved with this horse," Valdez added. "He is making a lot of people happy. He gets a lot of support all of the time. People tell us 'we're here to watch your horse, we're here to see him race.' We think our horse is super fast and once he gets going I don't think anyone can catch him. Jess You And I ran a good race tonight. When we bought Freaky the only thing we wanted was a horse that could compete against Jess You And I. We got one in Freaky.

"Regardless if he wins or loses the Winter Championship, we'll turn him out after that race," Valdez continued. "We'll send him to one of the good farms in California. He'll stay two or three months resting. He's paid for the Vessels Maturity (trials on May 29). We'll leave it to the Adan. Freaky wants to run. If he doesn't run, he'll down the stall. We don't want him to get hurt, that's why we're running him right now. He wants to run."

So what happened at the start of his Winter Championship trial?

"When he broke his two back legs went under the breaking bar in the gate and stumbled a little bit," Rubio said. "He slipped right there and I almost went down. I had to fight just to stay on. I wasn't worried about pushing at that point. I knew that once he got going he was going to take off. He's a horse that you don't have to push. He'll push you to victory. He takes care of his business. Right now I know that if I can hang on to him, we'll win the race."

Ramon Alanis' Bloke improved his record to four wins in five career starts while winning the second trial to the Winter Championship. Trained by Miguel Rodriguez, Bloke has always shown a ton of quickness, as his 300-yard winning times of :15.31, :15.07, and :15.14 provide plenty of proof. He is the type of horse that will give Freaky a run for his money early on, especially in the first 200 yards. The son of Fishers Dash proved that he is capable of delivered at 400 yards as well, especially based on this trial victory. Ridden by Santiago Mendez, the Allred-bred runner beat the 55-1 longshot Morning Corona by 1 1/4 lengths. The Winter Championship will be his first ever stakes race.

Double Bar S Ranch's Jess You And I, one of the greats of racing right now, posted his 13th win in 24 career starts in the opening trial of the night. The now 6-year-old gelded son of Feature Mr Jess has now earned $1,342,836. Rhonda and Dawn List bred Jess You And I.

"He's the best horse ever bred by Double Bar S Ranch," Rhonda List said. "It's hard to believe that we bred and own a horse like him. He's an absolutely great horse. When he retires, he'll have a spot right in the middle of the barn where we keep the stallions. He will be where Strawfly Special used to be."

The winner of the 2008 Champion of Champions, Jess You And I was making his first start since running eighth in last year's Champion of Champions. This was also his first outing since having throat surgery.

"He sounded a wounded bear after the Champion of Champions," trainer Jaime Gomez said. "He didn't even want to drink any water. We scoped him the next day and we saw that his throat was shut off. He had surgery and stayed at Double Bar S Ranch for about two weeks."

"It's not an excuse, but a reason as to why he ran the way he ran in the Champion of Champions," Rhonda List added. "We know he is getting older so we are trying to enjoy every race we can with him. We won't do anything to ever hurt him. Jaime and (ranch manager) Jerry Young are great horsemen and they'll tell us when we should stop with this horse. Right now we're glad to see him run at a top level. He is using a tongue-tie right now. I'm not a big fan of tongue-ties, but it worked for him tonight. As long as the horse doesn't mind it, I'm fine with it."

"Of course we want another shot at Freaky," she added. "I didn't believe on Freaky at first but I am a believer now. He's a super horse. But we want to see Jess You And I have another shot at him. It's nice to have a rivalry with him. It would be nice to go through the year and see them match up a couple of times. We will rest our horse like we did last year, but we would like to run him a few times."

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