Page 171 - March_2023

Apollitical Pence’s winning connections include owner Dunn Ranch, trainer Monty Arrossa and jockey Armando Cervantes.
“The horse just loves to run, loves his job, loves to come out there,” trainer Monty Arrossa said of Apollitical Pence after the trials. “He’s super classy. It seems as he gets a little older, he needs to be fresh. He likes to run fresh. I was happy that Armando didn’t use him all that hard in the trial. Hopefully, we have something left in the final.”
Apollitical Pence had plenty left. When the gate opened in the final, he leapt out on top and quickly had the advantage. Empressum got away slowly in sixth and had quite a
bit of real estate to make up. But he soon began devouring ground, closing the gap on Apollitical Pence with every stride. Apollitical Pence gamely dug in, however, holding off Empressum to win by a nose in :19.380.
“I honestly didn’t know if we had won
it at the wire,” said Arrossa. “I feel lucky. Empressum is a great horse, obviously. He’s a World Champion for a reason. We were lucky to outrun him tonight. It’s a great rivalry. It’s great for Quarter Horse racing.”
Jess Being A Friend broke through the gate before the race began, but that didn’t faze Apollitical Pence.
“I think it just pushed Pence a little bit (closer) to the gate,” said Cervantes. “He settled good, and when they opened it, he went off.”
Arrossa noted the importance of gate schooling, even in older horses.
“It’s critical,” he said. “You win them or lose them here. I mean, if we would have left one step slower, we would have gotten beat today. He’s a one in a million horse. We are just blessed.”
Apollitical Pence has won 11 stakes, including two editions of the Champion of Champions. With his second Winter Championship, he elevated his total earnings to $1,775,614.
The Dunns bred Apollitical Pence in Oklahoma in partnership with the late Mike Womack’s Cavender Farms. They had bought unraced Send City, the dam of Apollitical Pence, as a broodmare prospect, and Womack had a breeding to Apollitical Jess.
Send City has produced three winners from four starters, including Apollitical Victory, a 3-year-old full brother to Apollitical Pence who broke his maiden Feb. 5 in the trials for the Los Alamitos Maiden Stakes. Send City is a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Send Me A Candy Tree, three other stakes winners, and Jess Send Candy, the dam of Champion Jess Good Candy. Apollitical Pence’s second dam is 1996 Remington Futurity-G1 winner Send Me The Candy.
Jeff Jones and Steve Holt bred and own second-place Empressum (Apollitical Jess- Crazy Down Corona). Vallejo rode Empressum for trainer Heath Taylor. Empressum has won
seven stakes, including the 2022 Champion
of Champions and Go Man Go Handicap-G1 and the 2021 Rainbow Derby-G1 and Ruidoso Derby-G1.
Arrossa also trains Edward and Von Zae McNelis’ homebred Scoops Dynasty (FDD Dynasty-Bye Sweet Girl), who finished third. Eduardo Nicasio rode the 4-year-old gelding, whose four stakes victories include the 2022 Los Alamitos Winter Derby-G1 and Golden State Derby-G2.
Rounding out the field were Stuck In Probate (Favorite Cartel-Fyrefly Jo), Dasha Dynasty (FDD Dynasty-Dasha Freda), Dasha Good Reason (Good Reason SA-Dasha Freda), Jess Being A Friend (Jess Being Valiant-Six Zeroes), London Toby (Favorite Cartel-London Laura), Mister Tornado (Sports Cartel-Spanish Sola Mark), and Amadeus MV (Power Jam TB-Queen Of Appeals).
Jockey Armando Cervantes and trainer Monty Arrossa.
SPEEDHORSE
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RACING NEWS
William Zuazo, Los Alamitos William Zuazo, Los Alamitos