CYPRESS — When Los Alamitos Race Course opened a short thoroughbred meet this week, nobody was happier to return to the Orange County track than the connections of the 5-year-old gelding Man O Rose.

It was here, last year, that Man O Rose scored his first stakes-level win and first win beyond sprint distances when he and jockey Edwin Maldonado led from start to finish in the E.B. Johnston Stakes.

And it was here, Saturday afternoon, that Man O Rose recorded his first victory since then in identical style in the same $75,000, 1-mile race for California-bred 3-year-olds and up.

Maldonado again sent Man O Rose to the front immediately, and they maintained a clear advantage all the way to a 5-1/4-length win over Stamp My Passport and seven lengths over Mystic Spirit in a field of six.

Man

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