Page 13 - June 2015

no better time to form a partnership with a group of friends who are suddenly excited about horse rac- ing. While the articles on sale results will give a lot of ink to the royally bred high sellers at the upcom- ing yearling sales, there will be even more ink dedi- cated to the reasonably priced sale graduates that win futurities next fall. Don’t miss your opportunity to help promote our sport. American Pharoah has opened a big door for all race fans.
SALE SEASON
As a kid, I flipped though the Sears catalog at Christmas dreaming about what new toy
I’d love to receive. As an adult, I have Quarter Horse sale catalogs to fuel my dreams. Sale sea- son gets underway this month with the Texas Quarter Horse Association Yearling Sale sched- uled for July 24-25 in San Antonio.
This year’s TQHA catalog features 300 year- lings, up from 263 last year. Hips 1-150 will be sold July 24, and hips 151-300 will go through the ring July 25. The sale begins at 10:30 a.m. both days.
Thanks to technology and Robin Glenn Pedi- grees, you can download the TQHA sale catalog, and many other yearling sales catalogs, to your smart phone or tablet. The TQHA sale will be held at the Exhibition Hall at The Freeman in San Antonio.
AQHA, the Bank of America Racing Challenge and Cooper’s BBQ will host a free consignors and buyers barbecue on July 23 at 5 p.m. CDT. For more information on the TQHA sale, visit tqha.com.
The 2015 Louisiana Quarter Horse Breeders Association Yearling Sale will be held August 7-8 in Kinder, Louisiana, at the Coushatta Casino Resort Pavilion.
The LQHBA sale catalog features 599 yearlings. To request a sale catalog or for more information, visit www.lqhba.com.
Good luck as you comb the catalog pages and walk the stall aisles looking for the 2016 All American Futurity winner.
NEWS FROM THE LAND OF ENCHANTMENT
SunRay Park opened its 36-day meet July 3, and races will continue through September 1. The track will conduct races on a Friday-Sunday and Tuesday schedule, with first post time slated for 1:30 p.m. MDT.
For more information on the SunRay Park meet, visit www.sunraygaming.com, and click on the “Simulcast & Live Racing” link at the top of the homepage.
Racing in Ruidoso continues through Labor Day and the track announced another purse in- crease for 2016. The Grade 1 Ruidoso Futurity will have a $1 million purse next year. The Ru- idoso Futurity’s purse has grown 100 percent in the past five years from $500,000 to $1 million.
“We’re having a great year with the support of owners and trainers,” Ruidoso general manag- er Shaun Hubbard said. “This is another iconic step in the history of Ruidoso Downs with each of the All American Triple Crown Futurities of- fering purses of $1 million to $3 million.”
There’s also a bonus for any horse that cap- tures the Quarter Horse Triple Crown. If any horse wins all three futurities – the Ruidoso, Rainbow and All American futurities – then that horse’s owners receive the $4 million All American Triple Crown bonus. The $4 million bonus combined with the winner’s share of each futurity pays $6,340,000.
The 2016 Rainbow Futurity will also have a $1 million purse, and the All American Futurity will distribute a $3 million purse for the second consecutive year in 2016. The All American Futurity offers the largest purse of any 2-year- old race in the world.
Ruidoso is off to a successful start in 2015. Overall handle was up more than 50 percent during the first three days of racing that featured Ruidoso Futurity and Ruidoso Derby trials.
The track has also implemented new secu-
rity measures for the big stakes. Each Grade 1 futurity or derby horse must be one the grounds 10 days before the trials. Then the finalists for each of those races has to remain on the grounds and is constantly monitored and recorded by cameras. The horses are also subjected to spot checking.
The Downs at Albuquerque ended its 39-day spring meet June 18 and showed increases in handle and purses.
A total of 369 Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse races were run during the meet, which opened April 17, compared with 357 during the first 39 days of The Downs’ 56-day season, an in- crease of 3.4 percent. Purses totaling $6,770,100 were paid to horsemen during the meet, an in- crease of 6.6 percent compared to the $6,351,254 paid during the first 39 days of the 2014 season, which ran from August 2-October 26.
During its spring meet, The Downs paid purses averaging $173,592 per day, compared to $162,853 during the first 39 days of the 2014 meet.
Bettors locally and throughout North America responded to the increased quality of racing by wagering $8,087,614, or an aver- age $207,375 per day, on The Downs’ rac- ing, which was a boost of 25 percent over the $6,351,254, or an average $165,683 per day, wagered on the track’s live racing during the first 39 days of its 2014 meet.
“This meet was one of our safest in a long time when it came to injured horses and jock- eys,” said Downs director of race operations Don Cook. “It was a tribute to our racing sur- face, which is one of the safest in the country, and to our horsemen and jockeys for taking care of themselves and their animals.”
Live racing returns to the Downs September 11, when the track begins its 17-day fall meet. Visit www.abqdowns.com for more information on the fall meet.
SPEEDHORSE
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for t he Racing Quarter Horse
P. O. Box 1000 • Norman, Oklahoma 73070 405-288-2145 • 405-288-2151 fax
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SPEEDHORSE, July 2015 11
TRACK CHATTER