For a Quarter Horse gelding who has won half of his 22 starts and earned more than $1 million, there is an aura of underachievement surrounding the career of Jeriko.
Three times in the last two years, he has been favored in major stakes at Los Alamitos or Sunland Park and lost after troubled starts.
There was no such issue in a time trial Nov. 16 for Saturday’s $700,000 Champion of Champions at 440 yards Los Alamitos.
In the 400-yard race, Jeriko had a smooth start and showed his typical late run to finish a head in front Empressum, winner of the Champion of Champions in 2022 and 2024.
Jeriko and Empressum are expected to dominate the betting in a field of 10 on Saturday. For Jeriko, a win would prove that the hype surrounding his career is deserving. A win by Empressum would make him the second three-time winner of the Champion of Champions, the nation’s leading Quarter Horse race for 3-year-olds and older horses. Refrigerator won the Champions of Champions from 1992-94.
Empressum will start from the inside post, while Jeriko starts from post 9. A few strides after the start, trainer Chris O’Dell will know whether Jeriko is in contention. Matching the start on Nov. 16 may be difficult, O’Dell said.
“If he breaks, we’ll be knocking on the door,” O’Dell said. “I don’t know if I can get him to do that again. I’ll try. It’s all about the break.
“I’ve never seen him break like he did last time. He’ll move around. He doesn’t go in there and plant” his feet.
“We do a lot of schooling.”
With better starts, Jeriko would be on a three-race winning streak. Owned by Bobby Cox of Fort Worth, Texas, Jeriko won an allowance race at 400 yards on Sept. 14 at Los Alamitos in his first start for O’Dell and was third by a neck in the Robert Boniface Los Alamitos Championship at 440 yards on Oct. 11 after a slow start.
Stanley Cartel, part of the Champion of Champions field, won the Los Alamitos Championship by a head over Empressum, who was a head in front of Jeriko.
Stanley Cartel, a winner of 9 of 11 starts, and Scoops Dynasty, winner of the AQHA Challenge Championship at 440 yards on Oct. 19 in Albuquerque, have a new trainer for Saturday’s race in Luke Lindsey.
Their previous trainer, Ramiro Castillo, was ordered to vacate his stalls by Los Alamitos management last weekend after five horses in his care died since early May because of injuries or illnesses.
Lindsey said Wednesday that he was approached by Castillo to take control of his horses last weekend.
“It’s been a whirlwind week,” Lindsey said Wednesday.
Lindsey, who has trained at Los Alamitos since 2017, has won 64 races in a career that began in 1997. From 1997-2012, he trained a small stable while working as a prison guard in his hometown of Walla Walla, Wash.
Saturday’s field includes Fdd Dreams, who won the Ruidoso and All American derbies in New Mexico in the spring and summer, and the 3-year-olds Norco and the filly Hott Temptation, who were first and third in the Los Alamitos Super Derby on Nov. 9.
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