Page 182 - December2022

RACING NEWS
Champion Of Champions-G1
EMPRESSUM
by Tracy Gantz
Empressum won the 50th running of the Champion of Champions-G1 at Los Alamitos on Dec. 10. And it wasn’t even close.
The race shaped up as perhaps the strongest field ever in the race’s history.
Empressum, the 2021 Champion 3 Year Old and Champion 3-Year-Old Gelding, faced 2021 World Champion Danjer, two-time Champion of Champions winner Apollitical Pence, and 2021 Los Alamitos $2 Million Futurity-G1 winner Bomb Cyclone. The
other six rivals had plenty of credentials as well, including millionaire Powerful Favorite and 2022 All American Derby-G1 winner A Pollitical Candy V.
When the gate opened, those four almost immediately separated themselves from the rest. Empressum and Apollitical Pence zoomed to the front, but Danjer and Bomb Cyclone weren’t far behind. It was what track announcer Michael Wrona termed “a seismic showdown.”
180 SPEEDHORSE December 2022
Empressum and jockey Rodrigo Vallejo winning the $750,000 Champion of Champions-G1 at Los Alamitos.
Los Alamitos
$750,000 • 440 yards :21.089 • si 111
EMPRESSUM ‘18-g.
Bred by: Jeff Jones & Steve Holt
Raced to 4 $1,620,025 23-17(7)-2(2)-0
APOLLITICAL JESS
si 107
Bred by: Juan Alberto Tirado Lizarraga
Raced to 3 • $1,399,831 14-8(2)-4(2)-0
1,185 f., 115 SW • $56,589,877
MR JESS PERRY si 113
Bred by: Jesse Perry
Raced to 4 • $687,184 21-12(5)-2(1)-0
1,989 f., 160 SW • $60,583,416
APOLLITICAL TIME si 104
Bred by: Vessels Stallion Farm LLC Raced to 6 • $904,242 35-14(10)-7(2)-5(4)
12 f., 1 SW • $1,527,555
CRAZY DOWN CORONA
si 96
Bred by: Steve A. Holt Raced to 3 • $73,162 6-2-1-0
9 f., 2 SW • $3,650,409
FIRST DOWN DASH si 105
Bred by: A. F. Stanley Jr./B. F. Phillips Jr.
Raced to 3 • $ 857,256 15-13(8)-1(1)-0
2,532 f., 259 SW • $90,035,969
CRAZY ABOUT CORONA si 100 Bred by: Ginger & Rainy Graham Raced to 3 • $90,252 16-7(1)-2(1)-2(2)
13 f., 1 SW • $468,586
William Zuazo, Los Alamitos