FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                       
            APRIL 25, 2009

CONTACT LOS ALAMITOS PUBLICITY
714-820-2690

KAWEAH BAR BELONGS TO A MERE CHOCOLATE 

LOS ALAMITOS RACE COURSE, CYPRESS, CA... A Mere Chocolate's
last start ended in disappointment for his connections. The
4-year-old stallion by The Chocolate Rocket crossed the
finish in first place in a trial to the Los Alamitos Winter
Championship back on January 31 but he was eventually
disqualified and placed eighth, eliminating him from
qualifying to the final. 

The end of the Kaweah Bar Handicap was a lot sweeter for the
connections of A Mere Chocolate on Saturday night, as the
Felix A. Gonzalez-owned sprinter dominated the 350-yard race
en route to a half-length victory over stablemate Chiselled
In Glory at Los Alamitos.

A Mere Chocolate, who won last year's Los Alamitos Winter
Derby, was picking up his fifth win in 14 career starts.
After covering the Kaweah Bar distance in :17.382, the runner
bred by Felix's son, Jose Luis Gonzalez, earned $13,750 for
the win. He's now won $171,260. A Mere Chocolate's victory
was also sweet redemption for winning jockey Juan Andrade,
who had been so distraught over the disqualification in the
Winter Championship trials.

"A lot of people told us that it was not A Mere Chocolate's
fault but Juan's fault for being disqualified," Jose Luis
Gonzalez said. "There were a lot of jockeys that wanted to
pick up the mount on A Mere Chocolate. You know, we never
wavered on riding Juan back on this horse. He has always been
very loyal to us and has always worked hard and done his best
with our horses. He was always going to be our jockey on this
horse in this race.

"Juan has a great hunger for success and he will try his
hardest to win a race for you," Jose Luis added. "He took it
really hard when we got disqualified in the trials and then
he had the misfortune of also being disqualified with our
other horse First To Reach in the Winter Championship final.
That's in the past. Things like that happen. When he saw that
he was riding A Mere Chocolate back in this race he called us
to tell us how grateful he was to have a second chance. He
told us that he was going to give it his all aboard this
horse, and look he won the race. I'm happy for him and I'm
happy that helped us win this race. He's a good jockey and he
showed it tonight."

Jose Luis often serves as the spokesperson for his father
Felix when it comes to the family's horses. However, on the
night of the Kaweah Bar, Felix was also on hand to enjoy the
victory.

"Usually I stay at home to watch the races on TV," said
Felix, the brother of Quarter Horse owners Enrique and
Rodrigo Gonzalez. "This time I had a good feeling about this
night and I wanted to be here to watch the horse run. I loved
the way he ran tonight. He ran pretty straight and there was
no inquiry sign."

Jesus Nunez saddled A Mere Chocolate as well as stablemate
Chiselled In Glory, who earned $5,625 for running second.
Freaky, who came into this race after posting the track
record at 350 yards, ran third after a very troubled break
that left in sixth place at the start of the race. Go Love A
Lark Go ran fourth and was followed home by
Pappyscoronalilbro, Go Straight and Hawk In The City.

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