Page 59 - January 2017

2016 A YeAr In revIew
March 2
Noconi (Mr Jess
Perry-My Dashing
Lady, Dash For
Cash) was laid to
rest after suffering
from laminitis.
The 11-year-old
gelding had been in
retirement at Johnny
T. L. Jones’ J Bar 7 Ranch in Quanah, Texas. Bred by
R. D. Hubbard and J. Jones Jr. Int. Ltd. and owned by
R. D. Hubbard and J Bar 7 Ranch LLC, Noconi earned $1,348,900 winning 15 starts and 12 stakes races, including the All American Derby-G1, Zia Park Championship-G1, The Championship at Sunland Park-G1, and the All American Gold Cup-G1. Noconi is the only horse to win all four of those races. His 12 stakes wins, all of which were graded events, are the most for any horse among AQHA’s top 40 all-time money earners. Noconi was named the 2008 Champion 3-Year-Old Gelding, the 2010 Champion Aged Gelding, and is an AQHA Supreme Race Horse.
March
March 3
Jockey Omar Reyes, who was the inaugural winner of the monthly AQHA Jockey of the Month award in March of 2015, for the second
time received the award
for the month of February
2016. Reyes, who topped all
AQHA riders in February
with 23 wins and was second
with $309,129 in earnings,
finished the Hialeah Park meet as leading rider for second straight season with 43 victories.
March 5
Longtime Lone Star Park announcer John Lies, 39, became the new racing secretary and announcer at Will Rogers Downs and Fair Meadows in Oklahoma. Lies will continue as the announcer at Kentucky Downs and as simulcast host at Del Mar, but resigned from his position at Lone Star Park. Lies has been the race caller for the Thoroughbred meet at Will Rogers Downs for the past 3 years and will expand his role to racing secretary since Jesse Ullery, formerly in the position, is now based in Kentucky.
March 6
The Multiple Medication Violation System (MMVS) was temporarily suspended after the AQHA Executive Committee determined it appropriate to conduct a thorough evaluation of the program and how to best address medication abuse in the racing industry. There were no MMVS penalties issued for races that occurred prior to March 7 or during the evaluation period. During the suspension, AQHA continued to collect medication violation data on Quarter Horses for the purpose of tracking violation trends as well as continued to employ the clenbuterol hair- testing program for the 2016 regional AQHA Challenge Races. Among the goals of the MMVS are to provide a national tracking system of drug violators, and to impose uniform and serious consequences for repeat violators and violators who use forbidden drugs or historically abuse therapeutic medications. The MMVS evaluation was conducted with the assistance of the AQHA Racing Council and AQHA Racing Committee.
March 12
In the 2016 budget plan, the Ontario government announced its plans to continue support for Ontario’s horse racing industry. Detailed in the budget was an extension of the Horse Racing Partnership Plan for an additional 2 years as well as a plan to develop a “longer-term funding arrangement with the industry.” The Quarter Racing Owners of Ontario Inc. (QROOI) will continue to work with the Ontario Lottery & Gaming Corporation, OMAFRA, Ontario Racing & the province to ensure that Quarter Horse racing remains part of the long term vision for horse racing in the province.
March 14
A 5-member committee unanimously approved the recommendation of Ismael “Izzy” Trejo as executive director of the New Mexico Racing Commission (NMRC) to Gov. Susana Martinez, who appointed the longtime racing official to the post. The son of Thoroughbred trainer Milo Trejo, Izzy spent much of his youth at the Downs at Santa Fe and the New Mexico State Fair. He worked at the Downs of Santa Fe while attending college, graduated with a B.S. Degree in Animal Science from the University of Arizona Race Track Industry Program and earned his Stewards’ Accreditation from the University of Louisville. Trejo served as a State Steward for the West Virginia Racing Commission, Association Steward at Turf Paradise, and as a racing official at Colonial Downs. Trejo was a stakes coordinator at Delaware Park and served as that track’s Racing Secretary.
March 16
The Kentucky Quarter Horse Racing Association, Inc. (KyQHRA) announced that, in anticipation of a new sprint track to be built in the next few years, they elected a new board and executive committee. The 2016 board members (executive committee) are Stuart Burns DVM, Gerald Coltharp, Dick Connelley DMD (president), Chuck Givens, Talmadge Hays MD (vice-president), Norm Luba (treasurer), Graham Martin Esq. (at-large), Tommy Short, and Rich Wilcke (secretary). A partnership between
the KyQHRA and the state affiliate of the AQHA was also created at their January meeting. The “Kentucky Sprint Racing & Stock Horse Alliance, LLP” was created, bringing together the two primary American Quarter Horse organizations in the Commonwealth, establishing reciprocal associate memberships, and establishing a new Racing Council that gives representatives of Appaloosa and Paint racing interests the opportunity for input into issues and policies related to sprint racing. New bylaws were also adopted to ensure legal compliance with the KyQHRA’s role under State statutes and regulations.
SPEEDHORSE, January 2017 57