Champion of Champions is December 15

Interesting facts about the Champion of Champions field.

Q-Racing Journal
December 11, 2012

Jess You And I

Jess You And I will make his fifth appearance in the Champion of Champions.

Since its inception in 1972, the Champion of Champions (G1) at Los Alamitos Race Course in Southern California has been a defining race when establishing American Quarter Horse champion racehorses – and usually the world champion. This year’s race is set for December 15.

On Wednesday, Los Alamitos will host a post position draw for both the Champion of Champions and the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity (G1), which is set to run on December 16. The draw will take place in the Finish Line Room at 2 p.m. (pacific). The draw will be aired live on TVG and will be hosted by Mike Joyce and Dave Weaver.

In its 40 editions to date, only two horses that have won the Champion of Champions have not taken home a championship title that same year, while 26 of the winners were world champions in the year of their victory.

In the 2012 edition, championship contenders will line up for a purse of $750,000. The qualifiers are:
  • Cold Cash 123 (the 2011 world champion and winner of the Grade 1 Remington Park Championship and Go Man Go Handicap);
  • Charal Kid (winner of the Refrigerator Handicap (G1));
  • Chivalry SR (winner of the Robert L. Boniface Los Alamitos Invitational Championship (G1));
  • Deniro (winner of the Los Alamitos Super Derby (G1));
  • El Aguila Real (winner of the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Winter Championship and Vessels Maturity);
  • Flame N Flash (winner of the Mildred N. Vessels Memorial Handicap (G1));
  • Rylees Boy (winner of the Bank of America Challenge Championship (G1));
  • Hez Our Secret (qualified by winning the Z. Wayne Griffin Director Stakes);
  • Senor Toby (qualified by finishing second in the Z. Wayne Griffin Director Stakes)
  • Jess You And I (qualified by finishing third in the Z. Wayne Griffin Director Trials).

The race can be viewed for free at www.qracingvideo.com

Of note for the 2012 field:
  • Champion Jess You And I will be making his fifth consecutive appearance in the Champion of Champions, tying the appearance record set by Refrigerator (1991-1995). Jess You And I won the 2008 Champion of Champions, and is the only horse in this year’s race to have won the race before. Chivalry SR is the only other horse in the field to have contested the race in a previous year, when he was third in 2011.
  • There are three 3-year-olds; three 4-year-olds; one 5-year-old; one 6-year-old; one 7-year-old; and one 8-year-old competing in the race.
  • There is only one female in the race -- Flame N Flash. The 3-year-old filly winning the race is not bucking history, though; in recent years both Cash For Kas (2004) and Blues Girl Too (2007) accomplished the feat. There is one colt (Hez Our Secret), and the remainder of the field are geldings.
  • The contenders enter the race with 234 cumulative starts and 108 cumulative wins. The most frequent starter is Charal Kid with 44; honorable mentions go out to Rylees Boy with 42 and Jess You And I with 39. Rylees Boy has the most wins with 20.
  • The contenders enter the race with cumulative earnings of $6,771,076. The richest horse in the race is Jess You And I ($1,824,739). The other millionaire in the field is Cold Cash 123 with $1,255,281 in earnings.
  • More than half of the qualifiers are owned in full or part by their breeders. They are Charal Kid (bred and raced by Malinche Cattle Co.); Chivalry SR (bred and raced by Stern Ranches Ltd), Cold Cash 123 (bred and raced by T-Bill Stables Inc.); Deniro (bred by Gregory and Renee Hickman, raced by Shane O’Leary, Mike Hickman and Scott Brundridge); Jess You And I (bred and raced by Double Bar S Ranch); and Senor Toby (bred by Brad Lohr, raced by Lohr with Daniel Reynoso).

    The remaining horses are El Aguila Real (bred by Enrique Gonzalez, owned by Javier Molina); Flame N Flash (bred by Dr. Ed Allred, owned by Robert Williams); Hez Our Secret (bred by Vessels Stallion Farm LLC, owned by Johnny Trotter); and Rylees Boy (bred by Gary Nesbitt, owned by Lorena Velazquez Rodriguez).