FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                       
  MAY 16, 2009

CONTACT LOS ALAMITOS PUBLICITY
714-820-2690

LOS ALAMITOS RACE COURSE, CYPRESS, CA... Jaime Gomez had
lofty expectations going into the Grade 1 $300,00
Kindergarten Futurity on Saturday at Los Alamitos. 

    "I thought I could finish first, second and third," said
Gomez, who on trial night qualified four 2-year-olds to the
rich final, including three owned by 2006 AQHA Champion
Owners Double Bar S Ranch.  "I really thought I had a chance
to sweep the top three spots. This is the Kindergarten and
I've been lucky in this race before."

     Gomez's luck continued in this race, even if the
veteran trainer had to settle with "only" winning the race.
Gomez ended up winning the 300-yard race with the Dutch
Masters III-homebred Twin Spires en route to equaling the
stakes record for a trainer with seven Kindergarten
victories.  

       "My plan was to sweep the top three spots, but I'll
take the win," said Gomez. "I'm happy to have won the race
for Dutch Masters III. I've been with them the longest and
they've been the best owners that I've had in my career. I'm
always pleased to win a race for them. The girls of Double
Bar S Ranch, they're the sweetest people in the world, so I
was hoping that I could make them happy as well."

      For Double Bar S Ranch, Gomez saddled Dig Down Deep to
a fourth place finish while stablemate Notawalkbehinder
finished seventh. Fastest qualifier Effectiveimmediately,
also owned by Double Bar S Ranch, was scratched out of the
race earlier in the week due to a minor leg injury.

      "She's okay," Gomez said of Effectiveimmediately.
"She's healing. She got a cut on the back of her leg and it
needed a couple of stitches. It's a deep cut but it's purely
on the skin. We'll probably miss the trials to the Ed Burke
Million Futurity (on June 6), but she'll be back for the
futurities later in the year."

        Alejandro Luna rode all four of Gomez's trainees in
the trials, so when it came time for the final, the jockey
had to decide on a horse to ride. Luna opted to ride Twin
Spires, which proved to be an inspired selection. With the
veteran pilot aboard, the Separatist gelding delivered a
half-length victory over Juan Azevedo and Boyles Family
Trust's Runaway Tyme in the Kindergarten final in a time of
:15.45. 

         "I wish I could have ridden all four in the final,"
Luna explained. "I had to make a choice so I went with Twin
Spires. After Effectiveimmediately got scratched, I thought
he was the safest choice of the three remaining qualifiers.
Notawalkbehinder got left in the gate while Dig Down Deep was
a little green and ran a little zig zag in the trials. Twin
Spires, meanwhile, had done every coolly in the trials. He
broke sharp and was very professional. He's a pretty mature
horse. All three are good horses but I could only ride one in
the Kindergarten." 

        Twin Spires was bumped at the start of the
Kindergarten according to Luna, a bump that could be costly
despite his victory in this $300,000 race. "He's in the Ed
Burke but he got cut up in this race," Gomez explained. "It's
a pretty good sized cut, so we'll have to take care of it
right away and see what happens. Maybe we'll have to miss the
Ed Burke trials but I don't know that for sure right now."

       Twin Spires, who is now a perfect three wins from
three starts on the year, earned $128,571 for his victory
over the 13-1 longshot Runaway Time. Bred by Dutch Masters
III, Twin Spires is out of Docs First Card, a 15-year-old
broodmare that has now produced a pair of Kindergarten
winners. In addition to Twin Spires, Docs First Card is the
mother of 2000 winner Secret Card, the sport's champion
2-year-old filly that year after also running second in the
Ed Burke and Golden State Million futurities. Docs First Card
is also the mother of Never Fold, who ran in the 2004
Kindergarten Futurity final, as well as the staked placed
winner Docs Flying Card. On the track, Docs First Card was a
stakes winner of more than $96,000. 

       Known around Los Alamitos as the "King of the
Futurities" thanks to his outstanding recent success in
winning the track's top races for 2-year-olds, Gomez is
actually on quite a roll in Grade 1 races dating back to last
December. The veteran trainer won the Champion of Champions
with Jess You And I and has since won the Grade 1 Los
Alamitos Winter Derby with A Tempting Dash as well as the Los
Alamitos Winter Championship with the aforementioned Jess You
And I. His victory in the Kindergarten makes him the winner
of four of the last six Grade 1 stakes races contested at Los
Alamitos. The two that he missed are the Southern California
Derby on December 14 and the Charger Bar Handicap on January
3. 

       Gomez is now tied with Blane Schvaneveldt for the
most wins ever in the Kindergarten with seven. Since saddling
Corona Cartel to victory in the 1996 Kindergarten, Gomez has
won this race with Secret Card (2000), Sassy Smith (2001),
Gold Nugget Rd (2005), Vachetta (2006) and Carters Cartel
(2007). Dutch Masters III, meanwhile, equaled Ivan Ashment's
Kindergarten record for an owner with four victories. Ashment
teamed up with Schvaneveldt to win this race in 1970, '75,
'76 and '77, while Dutch Masters III campaigned the
aforementioned Secret Card plus Sassy Smith and Gold Nugget
Rd to go along with Twin Spires. 

       Runaway Tyme, trained by Paul Jones and ridden by
Ramon Sanchez, earned $52,040 for his runner-up effort in
this race. Ocean Runaway, who ran fourth in this race in 2004
before exploding into the racing scene with outstanding wins
in the Governor's Cup Futurity, Golden State Million Futurity
and Los Alamitos Million Futurity, is the sire of the colt
Runaway Tyme. 

       EG High Desert Farms' Buttlerfly Kisses earned
$36,734 for running third in the Kindergarten. Sent off as
the longest shot on the board at odds of 27-1, Buttlerfly
Kisses was ridden by Juan Andrade for trainer Mario Loza.

       Dig Down Deep, Its All About FDD, Tylerite,
Notawalkbehinder and Azshecanfly completed the field.  

     "Dig Down Deep is a horse that Jerry Young at Double
Bar S Ranch loves," Gomez said. "He came out a little bit at
the start of this race. Notawalkbehinder got left at the gate
and she didn't like it when she got dirt in her face, at
least that's what I saw. I think Dig Down Deep came out and
got in her way a little bit. It was just bad luck." 

       Earlier on the card, jockey Eddie Garcia went down in
a spill after the wire of the sixth race. Garcia was
conscious and alert but was in a lot of pain and was taken to
Los Alamitos Medical Center for further testing. 
 
      "It looks like Eddie is going to be okay," said his
agent, April Ward. "We are waiting the results of a CAT scan
and he may still have some injuries, but Eddie says he feels
okay, and we're thrilled about that." 

     Garcia, the track's all-time leading rider, was
scheduled to ride the previously undefeated Tylerite in the
Kindergarten. Rodrigo Aceves replaced him aboard Tylerite,
who ended up running sixth in the futurity final.

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