One Famous Eagle soared on Sunday, November 9 to set a new stakes record in the Grade 1 $933,750 Los Alamitos Super Derby at Los Alamitos Race Course. The 400-yard sprint, in a time of :19.32, was the Mr Jess Perry son’s seventh consecutive win. In addition to a $381,255 winner’s purse, the victory also earned him a berth in the prestigious Champion of Champions to be run on December 13 at Los Alamitos.
“I’m so glad this race is over because this was his most imortant race ever,” said trainer John Bassett, who conditions One Famous Eagle for Johnny Trotter and Burnett Ranches. “To be in the Champion of Champions is a fantastic honor, but we had to win this race to qualify for it.”
One Famous Eagle, the fastest qualifier to the Super Derby, began his seven-win streak with a win in the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity nearly a year ago. Since that time, he has been plagued by soreness in the heel of his left front foot. But farrier Brad Payne seems to have solved the problem with a bar shoe that prevents the heel from hitting the ground first.
“I think the special shoe that we designed for him was a big factor in this race,” Bassett said. “It gives him so much relief. He doesn’t actually wear it during the races, only in the time leading up to race day. Tomorrow we’ll put the bar shoe back on him.
“He is one of the best horses that I’ve ever trained,” added Bassett, who has saddled two All American Futurity winners. “Blues Girl Too was an exceptional horse and she could really run 440 yards. But I think even she would have a big problem with this horse, right now.”
It was Bassett’s son, Joe Bassett, who trained Blues Girl Too, winner of last year’s Champion of Champions in a 440-yard track record time of :21.17.
One Famous Eagle’s time in the Super Derby bettered the previous mark of :19.36 set by Apollitical Time, when she defeated a field that included eventual Champion of Champions winner Ocean Runaway, in the 2005 Los Alamitos Super Derby.
“Anybody can have a good horse, but it is guys like the Bassetts that can keep them going,” said co-owner Trotter, who bred One Famous Eagle out of the Chicks Beduino daughter One Famous Lady. Trotter, president and CEO of Bar-G Feedyard, Hereford, TX, supplies thousands of cows for use during the National Cutting Horse Association events in Fort Worth, including the NCHA Futurity, which runs this year from November 22 through December 14.
Burnett Ranches and Four Sixes Ranch owner Anne Windfohr Marion (third from left, with husband John Marion) was on hand with Trotter (far left) in the Los Alamitos winner’s circle. Marion also has strong ties with cutting and cattle. Dating back to 1875, the Four Sixes Ranch has been a major force in the American Quarter Horse Association. From Joe Hancock, Hollywood Gold and Grey Badger II to Dash For Cash, Streakin Six and Mr Jess Perry, it would be hard to find a modern race or performance horse pedigree that does not carry Four Sixes bloodlines.
One Famous Eagle has career earnings of $1,334,952.