Page 61 - New Mexico Horse Breeder Summer 2018

New Mexico Breeders’ Stakes (RG3)
Sent to post at odds of 18-1, Tempting Star Gazer responded with a wire-to-wire victory in the New Mexico Breeders’ Stakes (RG3) for state-bred 3-year-olds at SunRay Park on May 11.
Tempting Star Gazer covered 400 yards in :19.553 and recorded a 95 speed index while aided by a reported 22-mph tail wind. Adrian Ramos rode the bay son of champion First Moonflash for owners Jose R. Espinosa and Jill B. Giles and trainer Wes Giles.
Tempting Star Gazer was bred by Mike Abraham, and he was a $23,000 yearling purchase at the 2016 New Mexico-Bred Sale at Ruidoso Downs. The gelding’s sire, First Moonflash, was the AQHA champion aged stallion in 2009. Racing from 2007-09, the 13-year-old son of First To Flash banked $969,828 from 25 outs, and his 10 stakes wins included the Grade 1 Championship at Sunland Park in 2008 and ’09.
First Moonflash has sired the earners
of more than $11.1 million from six crops, including AQHA champions Handsome
Jack Flash and Foxy Moonflash, and graded stakes winners Too Flash For You, Mad About The Moon, and A Passion For Flashn. A half brother to graded stakes winners Dash Ta Moon and Moonifisant, the stallion is owned
by a partnership and stands at W.L. and Dee Mooring’s Double LL Farm at Bosque, New Mexico.
Tempting Star Gazer’s dam, Most Tempting, is a winning daughter of Runaway Winner and a half sister to Grade 2 winners Meter Me Ready and Redigo Rona. Most Tempting has produced two stakes-placed runners, Tempting Winner and Winning Runaway, both of whom are half sisters to Tempting Star Gazer.
Tempting Star Gazer’s second dam, the unraced Dash For Cash mare Redigo Chickie, is a full sister to stakes winner All About Cash. The gelding’s third dam, the Ettabo mare Ettago Chickie, was the sport’s champion 2-year-old filly in 1980.
Campaigned exclusively in New Mexico, Tempting Star Gazer has won three of eight outs and has earned $101,671. His resume includes a third-place run, a half of a length behind winner Moneys A Maker, in last year’s 300-yard, $362,987 New Mexican Spring Futurity (RG2) at Sunland Park.
Jessa Diva, the 3-1 second choice in the field of nine, ran second, a head behind Tempting Star Gazer. Hollywoodcrown, Cadilac Flash, Jessies Gone, Flashin Cartel, Osbaldo Blue Diamond, Daddys Copy, and
17-10 favorite A Passion For Flashn completed the order of finish.
Jessa Diva races for Bennie A. Vanecek, who acquired the bay daughter of Jesse James Jr for $15,000 at the 2016 New Mexico-Bred Sale. A finalist in last year’s Zia (RG1) and Mountain Top (RG3) futurities at Ruidoso Downs, the filly has won two of 12 starts and has banked $59,305.
Hollywoodcrown is owned by Fred Danley, who also bred the brown Heza Motor Scooter filly. Hollywoodcrown has won two of 10 races and has earned $76,818, and she ended her 2-year-old campaign with a third- place finish in the New Mexico Cup Futurity (RG2) at Zia Park.
by Michael Cusortelli
sunray park
First Moonflash
First To Flash
Negano Moon
Most Tempting
Runaway Winner
Bedigo Chickie
TeMpTiNG STaR GazeR
SUMMER 2018 59