It Could Be a Field Day for Bassett at Los Alamitos

Trainer John Bassett has California’s richest horse race surrounded.

He will send out four of the 10 entrants in tonight’s $1,256,600 Los Alamitos Million Futurity, one of them Tres Seis, the 8-5 morning line favorite.

A 2-year-old bred in Texas, Tres Seis has won three in succession and five of seven while racing in New Mexico and California. In September, he was beaten by a neck in the All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs in Ruidoso, N.M.

Joe Badilla has been Tres Seis’ rider in his last six races and, although he has a broken jaw, will be in the saddle again this evening. Injured on Dec. 6, Badilla underwent surgery the next morning at Los Alamitos Medical Center and the Million will be his first race since.

Besides the favorite, Bassett will also be represented in the 400-yard race by Royaltime Classic, who has been first or second in eight of nine starts; Corona Music, who has won three of eight, and First Thoughts, who will break from the outside and has won half of his eight starts.

Jockey Kenny Hart, who has won more stakes, 133, than any other rider in Los Alamitos history, will seek his richest win aboard Lead The Field. Very impressive in his qualifying victory for the Million, the California-bred is the 4-1 second choice for owner Garlyn Shelton and trainer Russell Harris.

The rest of the field comprises One Fast Cartel, Your First Moon, who will be trying to give trainer Danny Cardoza and the Vessels Stallion Farm their second consecutive victory in the Grade I; Princess Pritzi, and the Dutch Masters III-owned coupling of Oxygen and Sassy Smith, who won the Kindergarten Futurity and PCQHRA Breeders’ Futurity earlier in the year.

A Ransom, the defending world champion, is the even-money morning line favorite in Sunday’s $500,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos.

Trained by Connie Hall for owners John and Kathy Bobenrieth, the 5-year-old gelding has won 16 of 26 in his career and has lost only once in five starts this year.

The 3-1 second choice, Corona Kool, is immediately outside A Ransom and she handed him his lone 2001 defeat in the Los Alamitos Championship on Sept. 22. Like Sunday’s race, the Championship is run at 440 yards.

Tailor Fit, the world champion in 1999, is the 5-1 third choice.

Completing the Champion of Champions field are Fast For Money, Flare For Toby, Hawkinson, Marmet, Meddlin Money, Stoli and You Scare Me.

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At a Glance

* Sunday: The $500,000 Champion of Champions, a 440-yard race for quarter horses 3 years old and up. It will be the 13th race on a card that begins at 5:30 p.m.

* Where: Los Alamitos Race Course.

* Tonight: The $1.25-million Los Alamitos Million Futurity, a 400-yard race for 2-year-old quarter horses. It will be the 12th race on a card that begins at 6:30.