Cattail Cove edges Winners Share to win Kaweah Bar Handicap at Los Alamitos

Cattail Cove kept proving why age does not automatically dull a champion’s edge. The 9-year-old gelding dug in through a nose-bobbing stretch duel with Winners Share on Saturday at Los Alamitos and came away with the Grade 3 Kaweah Bar Handicap by a head, covering 350 yards in 17.524 seconds.

Breaking from the rail under Martin Arriaga, Cattail Cove made the kind of straight, stubborn run that has turned him into a fixture in Southern California quarter horse racing. The $40,000 race for 3-year-olds and up had six starters, and the field included proven stakes horses such as Show N Tell Cartel, Jess Being A Friend and Cheater. In the end, though, it came down to Cattail Cove and Winners Share, with Cheater third.

The win was worth more than a check. It was Cattail Cove’s ninth career stakes victory and lifted his bankroll to $855,432, further cementing a résumé built on durability as much as speed. This was his 61st career start and his fifth attempt in the Kaweah Bar Handicap, a race that has long demanded toughness and repeat effort. Cattail Cove had already shown he belonged in this event, finishing second in 2022 and third in 2024 before finally getting the job done.

That made the result especially fitting in a race named for Kaweah Bar, the legendary iron horse who made 114 starts. Cattail Cove is carving out his own version of that kind of legacy at Los Alamitos, where he has now finished in the top three in 39 of his starts. Few horses hold up at that level for that long, and fewer still keep showing up in the biggest spots with enough punch left to settle a photo finish.

Owner Link Newcomb traveled in person to watch the race, a reminder of how much this horse means to his connections. Trainer Juan Aleman has kept Cattail Cove sharp deep into his ninth year, and the horse rewarded that confidence again here.

The Kaweah Bar also fit into the bigger arc of Cattail Cove’s late-career run. In July 2025, he won the Spencer L. Childers California Breeders’ Championship Handicap at Los Alamitos, his 13th career victory and his eighth stakes win at the time. Saturday’s performance added another hard-earned chapter, and it suggested the old pro still has more meaningful runs left in him.