ONE SWEET JESS UPSETS FLYING FIG TO WIN GOLDEN STATE MILLION FUTURITY

CYPRESS, CA…. OCTOBER 29, 2010 - A few minutes after the running of the $1,230,450 Golden State Million Futurity, Gustavo De La Torre and about a dozen members of his family and friends gathered around the Race Replay Kiosk located in the Los Alamitos grandstand building. They were all waiting for the replay of the Golden State Million to become available for viewing. And once it did, De La Torre and his family began replaying the race over and over and over again.

With each running, De La Torre had a big smile, his companions cheered each time at the end, and the result was always the same; De La Torre’s sorrel colt, the Allred Brothers-bred One Sweet Jess won every single replay. Ridden by Santiago Mendez and trained by De La Torre’s younger brother, Ugo De La Torre, the son of Mr Jess Perry upset fastest qualifier and 4-5 favorite Flying Fig by ¾ lengths to win the Golden State Million Futurity on Friday at Los Alamitos. The victory earned the De La Torres’ a sweet first place check of $497,889, certainly the richest prize garnered by the two brothers in this sport.

“It’s such a happy feeling to see the horse win the race every time on the replay,” said De La Torre after having watched the race at least six more times. “You wait a long time to get to this moment and when it happens you just want to relive it again. It’s a dream for any person dedicated to this sport. We’ve had horses since I was a kid, probably since I was 12-year-old. I’m 32 now and Ugo is 27, so we’ve been dreaming of this moment for a while now.”

De La Torre purchased One Sweet Jess for $37,000 at the Ruidoso Yearling Sale. It was his mother’s breeding that sold the brothers on this baby.
“His mother is One Sweet Dash and she’s a full sister to the great sire Walk Thru Fire,” De La Torre said. “That was a big reason for us buying this horse and obviously we respect the great breeding history and accomplishments of the Allred Brothers. He looked like a runner when we first saw him at the sale. He probably wasn’t the prettiest horse at the sale, but he looked like a good horse and because of his Mr Jess Perry blood he went for $37,000. We liked him a lot and he’s been great for us.

One Sweet Jess had a very troubled race in his trial to the Ed Burke Million Futurity, but he was an easy daylight winner in the Ed Burke Memorial Juvenile Stakes, which serves as that million dollar race’s consolation event. He followed it with a second and then a first in a couple of allowance races before he delivered an outstanding 1 ¼ length victory in his Golden State Million trial. Ridden by Santiago Mendez since his Ed Burke Memorial victory, One Sweet Jess’ winning time in the trials was :19.46. From there, he ran a nearly identical race in the final, albeit a bit faster thanks to a time of :19.36. Sent off at odds of 6-1, his clocking is the second fastest in the stakes history only behind Tres Passes’ :19.30 in 2008. One Sweet Jess has now won four of eight starts and earned $525,076 in his career.

“Flying Fig was the horse that worried us the most,” De La Torre added. “She ran the fastest 400-yard race ever by a 2-year-old at Los Alamitos (:19.28 on trial night) and we knew that she was going to be tough. We thought we had a shot and we were hoping that she wouldn’t run that fast of a race again.”

“The entire team should be credited for this victory,” he continued. “Our vet Rick Overly has always taken good care of this horse and his groom has done a great job. Every one put in their grain of sand and the result of their hard work was this victory. We’re also very thankful for Dr. Ed Allred, the owner of Los Alamitos Race Course, for providing the opportunity to run in this million dollar race. We’re going to celebrate with a big party now. We have a big family - my mother had 13 kids - so I can’t tell you how many people will be at the party. It’ll be a lot and we’ll have a fun time.”

And surely they’ll be watching the replay of this race a time or two on that night.

Legacy Ranch’s Flying Fig settled for a runner-up check of $201,527 in the Golden State Million. Trained by Denny Ekins and ridden by Alex Bautista, she also finished second in the Ed Burke Million Futurity earlier this year. The daughter of Corona Cartel should take as consolation the fact that the last time a filly ran second in both the Ed Burke Million Futurity and the Golden State Million Futurity the filly was named Blues Girl Too in 2006. She went on to win that year’s Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity and the following year she won the Champion of Champions en route to being named 2007 World Champion. Flying Fig’s earnings now stand at $388,337.

“No excuses tonight,” said jockey Alex Bautista, who piloted Flying Fig. “We were right there with One Sweet Jess 50 yards into the race, but then at 100 yards into the race he took off. He was strong tonight. Flying Fig kept running hard, but we didn’t have the explosion that he had. She ran as fast as possible and we came up a little short of duplicating her race in the trials. She still ran a hard and strong race and we’ll look forward to the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity trials (on November 20).”

Arnold Gonzalez’s Hot Hitter earned $142,254 for finishing third. The Walk Thru Fire gelding won the Governor’s Cup Futurity earlier this year for trainer Felipe Quintero. Juan Andrade piloted him in this race, just as he has in all six of the horse’s previous starts. Thru The Fire, the New Mexico invader owned by Ron and Melany Shalz and trained by Eddie Willis, made $82,981 for running fourth. PK Fire, Feature My Corona, Duke Kahanamoku, LA Fire, Docs Apollo and Blues Ferrari completed the field. All 10 horses are eligible to run in the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity trials.

Trainer Jaime Gomez was looking for his fourth victory in the Golden State Million Futurity. He had to settle for a fifth with PK Fire, an eighth with LA Fire and a ninth place finish with Docs Apollo.

“LA Fire broke well but she was running a little bit all over the place,” Gomez said. “Jockey Alejandro Luna felt that she stopped at the end and we fear that maybe she got a knock in her shin. PK Fire ran a solid race and we have no excuses for him. He’s a tough runner. Docs Apollo had some trouble and I think he scared with Feature My Corona and PK Fire getting too close to him in the race.”
 

Girlie Man wins Golden State Juvenile

Trained by Denny Ekins for Alessio, Brown and Davies, Girlie Man flew away from post number one and finished strongly to win the $25,000 Golden State Juvenile Stakes. The Snowbound gelding covered the 400 yards in :19.60 and finished ahead of Macho Mexicano.

“He’s always been able to break well,” said Bud Alessio. “He’s a good gate horse and being a Snowbound baby, he’s also capable of finishing strongly. He likes the distance, so we are excited about him.”

Alessio, the president of the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association, added that he has been pleased with the 2010 Los Alamitos Quarter Horse racing season.

“We’ve had a solid meeting,” Alessio said. “When you compare this meet to others around the nation, Quarter Horse racing at Los Alamitos Race Course is doing well.”

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