Apollitical Pence gets a break

Apollitical Pence, the surprise winner of the $600,000 Champion of Champions on Dec. 12 at Los Alamitos, was recently shipped to co-owner Matt Dunn’s ranch in Oklahoma for a winter break.

There was talk immediately after the Champion of Champions that Apollitical Pence would be considered for the Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship, which has trials on Jan. 24 and a final Feb. 14.

Instead, Dunn plans to start Apollitical Pence at the Remington Park winter-spring meeting, which begins March 4. Races under consideration for him include the Leo Stakes for Oklahoma-breds at 400 yards and the Debbie Schauf Remington Park Championship at 440 yards.

“We’ll give him a break for now and start getting him ready for Remington and go from there,” Dunn said last weekend.

“We had him X-rayed and he’s all good.”

Co-owned by Sammy Valeriano, Apollitical Pence won the Mighty Deck Three Stakes at 250 yards for Oklahomabreds and was later third in the Remington Park Championship in three starts at Remington Park in 2020.

Apollitical Pence won the Champion of Champions at 440 yards by a neck at 12-1 over the 3-year-old Tell Cartel.

Dunn said the 4-year-old filly Southern Wagon, a stakes winner at Los Alamitos in 2020 who was second in the Los Alamitos Oaks and third in the Rainbow Oaks at Ruidoso Downs, has been retired after finishing last of nine in the Southern California Derby on Dec. 20 at Los Alamitos.

Dunn has been expanding his breeding operation in Wynnewood, Okla. In late 2020, Dunn purchased the 17-year-old mare A Perfect Cocktail. She is the dam of 2016 Champion of Champions winner Zoomin for Spuds, who is still active, and of Apollitical Patty, winner of the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity on Dec. 13.

A Perfect Cocktail will be bred via embryo transfer to Apollitical Blood, the sire of Apollitical Patty, and to Apollitical Jess. Quarter Horse mares are often bred via embryo transfer more than once during the breeding season.

Kiss Thru Fire, second in the Southern California Derby, won the $100,000 Charger Bar Handicap for fillies and mares on Sunday. Customary for topclass Quarter Horse fillies and mares, Kiss Thru Fire is scheduled to be bred via embryo transfer in coming months before an expected return to training in the summer, trainer Juan Aleman said.

The Charger Bar was Kiss Thru Fire’s ninth appearance in a six-figure race and first win at that level.

◗ The $2 pick six at Los Alamitos will begin on Sundays with a $10,000 pool on programs without a carryover, a promotion that began last weekend and will continue through January. Sunday’s pick six had a pool of $72,251 compared to $34,631 on Dec. 27, days that did not begin with carryovers. The pick six at Los Alamitos does not have a rainbow or jackpot format.