Page 138 - June 2017

Robert Adair Kindergarten Futurity-G3
FIRE AND SASS
by Tracy Gantz
Trainer Juan Aleman and JGA Racing Stables didn’t take long to make some of their investments pay off, when Fire And Sass posted an impressive victory in the Robert Adair Kindergarten Futurity-G3 at Los Alamitos on May 14.
“JGA Racing Stables is a corporation, and we decided to invest in some horses to see how our luck would come out,” said Aleman.
Their luck was good.
JGA bought two horses at the 2016 Heritage Place Yearling Sale and two at the 2016 Ruidoso Select Yearling Sale.
Aleman qualified one horse from each sale to the Kindergarten Futurity during the April 30 trials.
Shangrilalala, a $92,000 buy at Heritage Place, ran second in her April 30 trial behind fastest-qualifier Summertime Favorite.
Shangrilalala qualified with the third fastest time to the finals.
Fire And Sass, a $40,000 purchase at Ruidoso, won his trial heat with a strong finish and was up to qualify the fourth fastest.
Both Shangrilalala and Fire And Sass were making their racing debuts in the Robert Adair Kindergarten Futurity trials.
“It’s hard going into
these trials with a first-time starter,” said Aleman.
“But, we planned it like this because there’s so many futurities ahead of us,” the trainer continued.
“It’s a long year. We
said let’s try them in the Kindergarten and make that their first race because these horses are paid to the Ed Burke Million, the Golden State Million, and the Los Alamitos $2 Million.”
The strategy worked,
as Fire And Sass won the Kindergarten Futurity and Shangrilalala finished fourth in the Grade 3 event.
The two were in against a lot of great horses, including two that were
highly regarded: fastest qualifier Summertime Favorite, who made her trial run in wire-to-wire fashion; and Perfect Az Can Be, another wire-to- wire trial runner with the second-fastest qualifier.
Los Alamitos $303,600 • 300 yards :15.466 • si 93
First Down Dash
Walk Thru Fire
Sweet Beduino
FIRE AND SASS, ’15-g.
Mr Jess Perry
Jess Sass Me
Sassy Smith
136 SPEEDHORSE, June 2017
Fire And Sass wins the $303,600 Robert Adair Kindergarten Futurity-G3 by 1/2-length under jockey Eduardo Nicasio
RACING NEWS
Los Alamitos