Martha Wells’ homebred gelding My Favorite Cartel posted the fastest 300 yard clocking at Los Alamitos since September of 2011 when he covered the distance in a blistering: 15.103 clocking over a wet fast track on Saturday at Los Alamitos.

Ridden by Erasmo Gasca for trainer Matt Fales, My Favorite Cartel led from start to finish in route to fantastic 1 ¾ length victory. Sired by Favorite Cartel and out of the Chicks Beduino mare Chicks Tell, My Favorite Cartel was picking up his fourth win in 20 starts. The winner of the Town Policy Handicap last year, My Favorite Cartel entered this race after running a solid fourth to Black Fryday in the Grade 2 Southern California Derby on December 14.

My Favorite Cartel’s winning time was aided by a 15 mile-per-hour tailwind. It was the fastest time at 300 yards recorded at Los Alamitos since Better Tobe Separate posted a :15.054 clocking on September 11, 2011. The track record of :14.863 was set by Go Love A Lark Go on October 29, 2009.

“The track crew has done an amazing job keeping the surface together with as much rain as we’ve had,” Fales said. “They deserve most of the credit. I can’t even hear the horses hitting the ground. The time, it was impressive, but I think being able to freshen the horse and just let him keep getting bigger and stronger – as Favorite Cartels tend to do – helps. We have a great owner and a great team. I’ll have to talk to ‘Mimi’ about him and come up with a plan. We’ll maybe pick an overnight stakes or another allowance. He seems to get a big heart. If we can avoid the real monsters here then we can have a lot of fun with him.”    

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