Page 85 - NM Spring 2019

SUNLAND PARK
Red Hedeman Mile (R)
by Michael Cusortelli
Abstraction
Pulpit
Andujar
Speedin Excess
In Excess (IRE)
Danish Dessert
HUSTLE UP
Hustle Up began his sophomore campaign with a convincing 5 1/2-length win in the Red Hedeman Mile Stakes (R) for New Mexico- bred 3-year-olds at Sunland Park on February 2.
Ridden by Luis Contreras and sent to
post as the 1-2 favorite in the field of 10, Hustle Up covered 1 mile in 1:39.21. Todd Fincher prepped the dark bay or brown son of Abstraction for owners Dale F. Taylor Racing LLC, Bobby J. McQueen, and Suzanne Kirby.
Hustle Up was shortening in distance off
of his wire-to-wire, three-length victory in the 1-mile & 70-yard, $145,000 Steve Prather Stakes (R) at Zia Park on December 10. The gelding was bred by Brad King and Todd Fincher, and he is one of six winners from 18 starters sired by Abstraction, a 9-year-old Kentucky-bred son of the A.P. Indy stallion Pulpit.
Racing in Louisiana, Maryland, and Kentucky in 2013, Abstraction earned $86,945 from four starts, and his two wins included a
2 1/4-length score in the 1 1/16-mile, $75,750 Federico Tesio Stakes at Pimlico Racecourse. The stallion is a half-brother to stakes winner Marion Ravenwood, and he has sired the earn- ers of more than $561,000 from two crops.
Abstraction was last year’s champion New Mexico Horse Breeders’ Association fresh- man Thoroughbred sire. He is owned by a
partnership, and he stands for a $3,500 fee at Doubletree Farm at Hobbs, New Mexico.
Hustle Up’s dam, the winning 13-year-old In Excess (IRE) mare Speedin Excess, ran second in the 2008 Barretts Debutante Stakes (R) at Fairplex Park in Pomona, California. Speedin Excess has foaled three winners
from as many starters, including On The
Low Down, a half-brother to Hustle Up who won the 2017 Mountain Top Futurity (R) at Ruidoso Downs and Copper Top Futurity (R) at Sunland Park.
Hustle Up’s second dam, the winning Regal Classic mare Danish Dessert, is a half-sister to Ever Steady, a four-time stakes winner in Canada from 1989-90, and Sparrow Lake, a two-time stakes winner at Woodbine Racecourse near Toronto in 1988. The gelding traces back to his fourth dam, the Mongo mare Barn Swallow. A ’67 foal, Barn Swallow pro- duced stakes winner Cadet Corps, and she was a half-sister to 1968 Donn Handicap winner Favorable Turn.
Hustle Up has won seven of nine starts and has earned $308,143. The gelding banked $252,143 from eight outs during his 2-year- old campaign, and his three stakes victories included a 7 1/2-length win in the 4 1/2-fur- long Copper Top Futurity (R).
Sunscreen finished second and was fol- lowed by Quite Peace, Bring All Offers, Hesa Prospector, Catch Ten, Trust N Prayer, Bashful Bob, Stoney Who, and Battlefieldmarshal.
Sunscreen is a homebred Southwestern Heat gelding owned by R.D. Hubbard and Shaun Hubbard. Sunscreen has won three of nine starts, including last year’s 5 1/2-furlong, $110,000 Rio Grande Senor Futurity (R) at Ruidoso Downs, and he has banked $166,725.
A homebred son of Abstraction racing for C. Donnell Echols, Quite Peace has won one of five outs, and the $8,500 third-place share of the Red Hedeman Mile purse pushed the geld- ing’s earnings to $38,300.
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