Page 37 - Speedhorse, February 2019

“We had a couple out of Dashing
Phoebe and a couple out of Special Phoebe, a daughter of Dashing Phoebe that did real good for us in Mexico,” Javier continued
on the influence of Dashing Phoebe in their program. The first one we bought was out
of Special Phoebe and turned out to be a good runner, and so we just kept buying that family. Turned out to be the right choice.
So, the next year after we bought Bodacious Dream, we bought Heartswideopen from the same family.”
Heartswideopen is a half-sister to Bodacious Dream, as they are both out of Dashing Phoebe. Heartswideopen began
her race career in 2007 with wins in the
All American Futurity-G1 and Ruidoso Futurity-G1. She was named Champion 2 Year Old and Champion 2-Year-Old Filly. Heartswideopen won the 2008 Ruidoso Derby-G1, Rainbow Derby-G1 and was second in the All American Derby-G1. She was the 2008 Champion 3 Year Old and Champion 3-Year-Old Filly. She ran 13
races with 11 wins and 1 second. Her only unplaced finish was sixth in the West Texas Futurity-G1. Overall, she earned $1,885,283 in her race career.
The La Feliz Montana Ranch
LLC went through some changes after Heartswideopen won the All American Futurity-G1. “We had started breeding mares in 2008 after we won the All American with Heartswideopen,” Javier explained. Then, we decided to sell the mares as it was hard to be a breeder. So, we decided to sell all the mares as a dispersal and Bodacious Eagle was an embryo and we sold the recipient mare. Bodacious Dream was one of my favorite mares.
I didn’t want to sell her, but we had a
partnership and we decided to get out of the breeding side and sell everything. Now we each buy our own and race our own.
“Bobby Cox ended up buying several
of our mares, including Jess Significant, Miss Lena Perry, First Fervor and Bodacious Dream,” he added this about the mares they sold. Jess Significant was the winner of the 2008 Ruidoso Futurity-G1 and Miss Lena Perry was second in that same race. Giving the La Feliz Montana Ranch a one-two finish in this great race. The footnotes for the race indicate that they “dueled” with Jess Significant “inching away” for the win. Jess Significant is the dam of Significant Heart,
a multiple stakes winner of races like the Mildred Vessels Memorial Handicap-G1, and she was the 2014 Champion Aged Mare. She was bred by the La Feliz Montana Ranch LLC. Miss Lena Perry is the dam of Mr Perry Cartel, a second place finisher in the 2013 Hobbs America Derby-G3 who was bred by La Feliz Montana Ranch. First Fervor was a modest runner with earnings
of $4,300, but she is a full sister 2002 Champion 2-Year-Old Colt First To Flash. First Fervor is the dam of The Printing Press, earner of $259,703 as a stakes placed runner with a second in the Dash For
Cash Futurity-G1 and the Texas Classic Derby-G1. The Printing Press was foaled the year First Fervor was purchased by La Feliz Montana Ranch.
Javier made it clear they are still involved with racing as he continued. “We didn’t go away,” he said. “We are all still involved as we each buy our own horses. So, I am just on the racing side. I still have two or three mares. I breed two or three babies a year. But I mostly buy them in a sale and send them to the racetrack. We have been pretty lucky.”
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Sonia & Javier Rodriguez of La Feliz Montana Ranch
THE SIRE
When I asked Javier why they bred
One Famous Eagle to Bodacious Dream he replied, “I saw him run and I just loved that horse. When Johnny was running out at Los Alamitos and I saw him, I had it in my mind that Bodacious Dream would be a good cross on him. He was a runner and her being a Corona Cartel, I thought that would be a good cross and it turned out to be.”
One Famous Eagle was bred by Johnny Trotter. He was foaled in 2005 and then Trotter formed a partnership with Burnett Ranches that same year. They raced the colt, winning two and placing third in five starts at two. His big win was in the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity-G1. They came back at three, winning five of six races with
two stakes wins in the Los Alamitos Super Derby-G1 and the Golden State Derby-G1. He set new Los Alamitos stakes records in both races, which were run at 400 yards. He covered the 400 yards in the Los Alamitos Super Derby in :19.321 and in a time of :19.300 for the Golden State Derby win.