Jones, Badilla Winning Team in ‘Champions

With a world championship on the line, Whosleavingwho dominated a star-studded field to win the $500,000 Champion of Champions on Saturday night at Los Alamitos.

In providing trainer Paul Jones and jockey Joe Badilla Jr. with their first victory in the Grade I, the 4-year-old son of Chick Beduino broke great and went on to beat 7-1 longshot Runahalf by three-quarters of a length in 21.27 seconds for the 440 yards.

The clocking was the fastest in the race since SLM Big Daddy won in 21.20 in 1997.

Compromised by some trouble at the start when beaten by a nose by A Ransom in the Los Alamitos Championship two months earlier, Whosleavingwho, the 9-2 third choice, made no mistake in winning for the 13th time in 26 starts.

Owned by Jim Geller and Kim Kessinger, Whosleavingwho looks to be sitting on the world championship given the fact the winner of this race has been bestowed the honor the last six years.

Bob Mieszerski