Loud Mouth Wins E. B. Johnston Via DQ

CYPRESS, CA – Making his first start since June 12 and the longest shot in the field of six at 10/1, Loud Mouth captured the $75,000 E. B. Johnston Stakes via disqualification Sunday at Los Alamitos Race Course.

At the finish, the 5-year-old son of Boisterous was a 1/2-length behind 7/1 shot Peaceful Transfer but was bumped solidly by that rival inside the final 1/16 of a mile, leading stewards Grant Baker, Luis Jauregui, and Tom Ward – by a 2-1 vote – to make the change in the order of the top-two finishers in the race restricted to California-breds.

Owned by Thomsen Racing LLC and trained by Steve Knapp, Loud Mouth, who is out of the Tale of the Cat mare Drama Cat, is now 8 for 29 in his career. The $42,000 winner’s share of the purse pushed his bankroll to $374,070.

Well-positioned early in third off the pace set by 8/1 shot Tom’s Surprise, Loud Mouth had failed to hit the board in 4 previous tries at the Johnston distance of 1 mile, but he was ready after 3 months on the sidelines.

“(Jockey Abel Cedillo) told me there would be a change for sure,” said Knapp regarding the inquiry. “He said (Peaceful Transfer) hit him pretty good and knocked him off stride.

“He’s such a hard trier and he’s easy to train. He’d had a lot of hard races, so I needed to give him a break and I didn’t know if I had him fit enough for this race, but his last 2 works were better. He’s got such a big heart and ran huge.”

Unplaced in two earlier races at Los Alamitos, Loud Mouth paid $22.60, $9.40, and $4.40. Peaceful Transfer, who had won in his Los Alamitos debut earlier in the year, returned $8 and $5.20 while the show price on Desmond Doss, who was defeated by 3 lengths as the 9/5 second choice, was $3.40. The final time was 1:35.87.

“He ran a big race,” said Cedillo, who also won Sunday’s sixth with I Know Cash Flow. “He was going by (Peaceful Transfer) when he got bumped. He lost his momentum, but he dug right back in and kept trying.”

Galilean, the 13/10 favorite, finished fourth, his first loss in 4 starts at Los Alamitos. Tom’s Surprise and Big Fish completed the order of finish.