Page 34 - 8 June 2012

Bitterroot Futurity-RG3
FURIOUS JESS
by John Moorehouse
Of the nine competitors who took to
the track at Les Bois for the $100,000 Bitterroot Futurity-RG3, four of them came
out of the barn of Ron Moosman.
Sounds like a pretty sweet situation, right?
Yes... and no, as Moosman observed. “When we go into a race like that, I tell
people it’s nice to have four darts to throw at the dartboard rather than one. We just hope we leave there winning the thing,” Moosman said. “I’ve had multiple horses in finals like that before and not won them. That’s a hor- rible feeling.”
That didn’t happen in the Bitterroot. Furious Jess led at every call of the 350 yards, and brought home winner’s honors in the Memorial Day stakes for Moosman and owner Gloria Martineau.
According to Moosman, it’s a big deal whenever victory comes in the Bitterroot Futurity, which he described as “the biggest race we have in the intermountain area.”
It was especially significant for Martineau, who had never had one of her racehorses tally a stakes win. Even though she was not in atten- dance to witness it.
“I’ve trained for her about 12 years now and she’s never been to a horse race,” Moosman said. “She’s a little leery of going to the races
so she’d rather me call her as soon as the races are over.
“She was real excited when we called her,” Moosman noted.
Those who put money down on Furious Jess had good cause to be excited as well. The gelding faced odds of nearly 15-1 at post time, but was the best from begin-
ning to end in the Bitterroot.
Jockey Paul Greene brought
Furious Jess out of the No.
3 gate at the front of the
nine-horse field. The gelding
led by a head at first call, and
remained in front narrowly
by a neck going into the
stretch. Furious Jess reached
the wire leading by that same
margin, bringing home a
$40,000 payday that pushed
the gelding’s total earnings
to $40,468 and notching his
second win in three outs.
Furious Jess finished in :17.729, easily surpassing his performance in the trials. The gelding ran a :17.913, earning the next-to-last spot in the field for the futurity.
“He ran a little green in the trials,” Moosman said. “It was his first time up there. He came
back really good and had a really nice race in the finals. Broke good and had clear sailing.”
Clear sailing despite some trouble on the track that caught up one of Furious Jess’ stablemates. Makn A Legacy, the fastest quali- fier, broke alongside Furious Jess from the fifth
gate. Moosman
said his two trainees bumped a little at the break, then Makn A Legacy got bumped by Secret Sweetheart, who drew the six hole.
“Furious Jess kind of cleared them and went on with it. My fastest qualifier, Makn A Legacy, he just had a really tough trip,” Moosman said. “That 6 horse turned him sideways two or three times. That’s horse racing.”
That being said, Moosman wasn’t shocked to see Furious Jess win the race.

Mr Jess Perry
Fly Jess Fly
Missy Nine
FURIOUS JESS, ’10-g.
Special Leader
Shes Furious
Furyx
32
SPEEDHORSE, June 8, 2012
Furious Jess (#4) goes wire-to-wire under jockey Paul Greene to win the Bitterroot Futurity-RG3.
“He’s definitely one of our best 2-year-olds in the barn,” the trainer noted. “We’ve been high on him from the get-go. When we got working him, we thought he was one of our nicest 2-year-olds.”
The Running A LLC bred Furious Jess out of Shes Furious, a lightly-raced 2003 mare whom Martineau also owns. Shes Furious
has foaled four offspring, two of whom have made starts. Both competitors have been to the winner’s circle.
Furious Jess may not be done winning futurities yet. Moosman said the young geld- ing has been paid into the Wild West Futurity in Los Alamitos in October.
Dynasty Red (FDD Dynasty-Red High Heels) finished second by a half-length for owners Lin Melton and Spackman Racing. Melton also saddled the gelding and Nate Smith was up. Go For Sixes (Sixes Royal-Go For Miracles) out-nodded Heza Secret Chick for third. Andrea and Eddy Jensen own Go For Sixes, a Robert Smith trainee ridden by Jason Packer.
The remaining order of finish was
Heza Secret Chick (No Secrets Here-Its All About Dreams), RM Looking For Fame (Maknmoves-Switching Fame), Makn A Legacy (Maknmoves-Ms Legacy Lane), Secret Sweetheart (Dashair-Donnasecret), Bekas Ima Snazzysign (Devons Signature-Snazzy be Kas) and Alilbita Lacey (Finding Nemo-Lacey Jn Me). Im That Right was scratched.
RACING NEWS
Linda Berntsen