Several horsemen and horses are nearing victories with statistical importance at Los Alamitos. Jim Walker’s Zoomin For Spuds, the 2016 Champion of Champions winner, has scored 10 stakes wins during his career at the Cypress track. His next win at this level will make the son of Zoomin For Bux only the 10^th Quarter Horse in the track’s history with 11 stakes victories.  Bill Hoburg’s BH Lisas Boy has won eight stakes races at Los Alamitos. His next one will make him only the 23^rd Quarter Horse with nine stakes wins here. According to our figures, Corona By Corona became the 1,800^th different Quarter Horse to win a stakes race at Los Alamitos since the track’s inaugural season in December of 1951 when he won Holiday Handicap on December 29. There have been a total of 3,358 Quarter Horse stakes races contested in the history of Los Alamitos. Charger Bar and Kaweah Bar share the all-time record with 18 stakes wins each.

      In the Quarter Horse ranks, trainer Paul Jones begins 2019 needing 46 wins to reach 3,700 for his career. The leading conditioner at Los Alamitos in 20 of the last 21 years, Jones is the track’s second all-time leading trainer and trails only Blane Schvaneveldt’s record of 3,982 wins. John Cooper, the third all-time leading Quarter Horse trainer here, needs 36 more wins for 1,500, while Jose Flores, who ranks fifth all-time, needs 59 to reach 1,400 for his career. Felix Gonzalez, the 15^th all-time leading Quarter Horse trainer, is only 14 away from 700, while Juan Aleman needs only six more victories for 600. Scott Willoughby, who enjoyed a great opening weekend with 3 wins, is only 13 away now from 600 Quarter Horse wins. Only 16 trainers have gone over the 600 Quarter Horse win mark at Los Alamitos. Jesus Nunez is only one away from 500 wins, while Chris O’Dell needs 51 more to reach 500.

Paul Jones is also nearing a milestone in graded stakes wins. The trainer has won 244 total graded stakes wins with Quarter Horses in his great career. His 100^th graded win came with Volcom in the 2006 El Primero Del Ano Derby and his 200^th came with A Dream To Remember in the 2012 Hobbs America Futurity.  Jones won seven graded stakes in 2017 and three in 2018 so it’s possible that with a solid year he could reach 250 in 2019. Locally, Jaime Gomez is only five Quarter Horse stakes wins away from reaching a 100 at Los Alamitos. He would become only the 4^th trainer at Los Alamitos to reach the century mark. Juan Aleman is one away from 60 stakes wins here.

            As for the Quarter Horse jockeys,  Cruz Mendez is 39 wins away from becoming only the 20^th rider to reach 900 wins at Los Alamitos. Eduardo Nicasio needs 57 Quarter Horse wins to become the 30^th rider to reach 600 at the Orange County track. In the stakes ranks, Ramon Sanchez is only six away from joining Eddie Garcia as the only jockey with 150 Quarter Horse stakes wins at Los Alamitos. Garcia is the track’s all-time leader in that category with 152. Cody Jensen has won 178 Quarter Horse stakes races in his career and 97 of those have been at Los Alamitos. Of his career stakes wins, exactly 100 of them have been in graded stakes wins. He reached the milestone with Bodacious Eagle in the Grade 1 Champion of Champions on December 15. Cruz Mendez is three away from 80 Quarter Horses stakes wins here, while Eduardo Nicasio needs eight to reach 80. Twelve other riders in history have gone over the 80 Quarter Horse stakes win mark at Los Alamitos.

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