Man O Rose stretches out, wins E.B. Johnston Stake at Los Alamitos opener

CYPRESS – The way Man O Rose won the E.B. Johnston Stakes on Saturday, fans at Los Alamitos might have wondered what took the 4-year-old gelding’s handlers so long to try him in a two-turn race.

One reason is that Man O Rose kept winning and winning in one-turn races.

“He’s been dying to go a mile,” owner Bruce Zietz said. “But he’s so fast, you put him in a sprint and he wins. What are you going to do, change?”

Trying 1 mile, the Los Alamitos oval and the stakes level for the first time, Man O Rose went straight to the lead under regular rider Edwin Maldonado and never looked back, pulling away to an eight-length victory in the $75,000 race for California-breds.

Man O Rose paid $4.20 to $2 bettors. Dont Fight the Fed finished second, Coalinga Road fourth, Cowboy Mike Fourth in the eight-horse field.

Maldonado, tied with Armando Ayuso atop the jockey standings with three wins in the first two days of the two-week Los Al thoroughbred meet.

“My only concern was getting him to relax,” Maldonado said of Man O Rose. “When we hit the first turn, he threw his ears forward and that was the important thing.”

Man O Rose is a son of Stanford and Kathleen Rose, the dam being the third mare in the family owned by Zietz. The breeding suggested Man O Rose could race longer, but he kept racing at distances from 5 to 6 1/2 furlongs, on both dirt and turf. Racing and winning, finishing first in six of 10 sprints as high as the allowance level after moving to trainer Jeff Mullins last year.

Mullins said after the E.B. Johnson that he’d been ready to enter Man O Rose in the 1-mile Bertrando Stakes at Los Alamitos in June but backed off because it appeared for a while that leading California sprinter The Chosen Vron was going to run.

“We have a lot of options with him now, and don’t forget he can run on the grass as well,” Mullins said.

That’s more for Zietz to look forward to. The West Hills resident is a retired oncologist in his mid-80s who has been a racehorse owner and breeder for 40 years.

“This has always been my passion,” Zietz said of racing, later adding: “This horse is like a dream come true.”