MONOPOLIST IMPRESSIVE AGAIN TO POST FASTEST TIME TO PCQHRA BREEDERS DERBY

              Ed Allred’s Monopolist will look to become only the fifth horse in the history of the PCQHRA Breeders Futurity and Derby series to sweep the two races after scoring an impressive derby trial victory which earned him the fastest qualifying time on Saturday at Los Alamitos.

                Ridden by Henry Reynoso Lopez for trainer James Glenn Jr., Monopolist (left) led the 400-yard trial from start to finish in route to easily posting the fastest qualifying time of :19.633. His winning time was nearly 3/10ths of a second faster than the next fastest qualifier College Scandal, who finish second in this trial with a time of :19.90. Monopolist now looks like the one to beat in the $122,000 final on October 2, as he will seek to become the first runner to sweep the PCQHRA Breeders Series since Ima Chickie Too in 2011-2012. The others to sweep this series are Hawkish (2003-04), Make It Anywhere (2000-01), and A Zure Hope Too (1985-86).

                Now a winner in six of 13 career starts, Monopolist has been tremendous in derby trials this year. He was the second fastest qualifier to the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Winter Derby when winning his trial by a length and he was the fastest qualifier to the Governor’s Cup Derby trials when scoring an awesome three-length victory in that heat. He won this trial by 1 ½ lengths over College Scandal and after running third in the Winter Derby final and second in the Governor’s Cup Derby, the third time could be the charm for Monopolist.

                Gentry Farms’ College Scandal came into the trials after running a solid third in the Golden State Derby final. Prior to that race, she won her derby trial by a neck. This time around, the filly by Coronas Leaving You broke in at the start but had the difficult task to trying to catch Monopolist throughout. The Juan Aleman trainee was ridden by Ramon Sanchez.

                In the other trial of the night, Steve Burns’ Go To Girl continued her terrific form while scoring her third victory in a row. A full sister to Grade 1 winners Powerful Favorite, Runforyourlife and Cyber Monday, Go To Girl led from start to finish in route to a ¾ length win over Les and Kim Sweeting’s solid sprinter BF Outfoosed.

                “(Go To Girl) is really sound,” trainer Mike Casselman said. “She used to be nervous in the gate. She’s a lot better there now.”

                The homebred filly needed 10 starts to break her maiden, but she has not looked back since earning her diploma on April 10. After a brief layoff, she returned with a half-length win against allowance foes on August 7. Her winning time in this trial was :19.926, good enough for the third fastest qualifying time of the night.

                Here are the 10 qualifiers to the PCQHRA Breeders Derby: Monopolist (:19.633), College Scandal (:19.900), Go To Girl (:19.926), BF Outfoosed (:20.047), Baccarat Attack (:20.056), Roving Kind (:20.059), Expedited (:20.114), Milan Red (:20.191), Katella Avenue (:20.257), and Copauinos Best (:20.297).

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