Page 76 - New Mexico Summer 2022

SUNLAND PARK
Photos by Coady Photography
New Mexico State University H. (R)
Attila’s Storm
Forest Wildcat
Sweet Symmetry
Road To Reason
Redattore
Loveontheroad
CHEESE TRAY
Dominguez Memorial Handicap (R) at Sunland Park. His sophomore season included second- place runs in the September 4, one-mile Casino at The Downs Derby (R) at Albuquerque Downs, and the October 31, 6-furlong New Mexico Cup Derby Championship (R) at Zia Park.
Shining Source ran third, two lengths behind Cheese Tray, and was followed by Delbert Too, All Chrome, Effort N Results, Evacuee, Comet Causey, Next Affair, Storm Bayou, Sea Emperor and Risky Revenge.
Runner-up Jet N G is a homebred son of the Old Trieste stallion Mr. Trieste racing for Maurcenia Cross. The 7-year-old gelding has banked $374,033 from 38 outs in New Mexico and Arizona, and his seven wins include last year’s 1-mile, $100,000 Rocky Gulch New Mexico Cup Championship (R) at Zia Park.
An 11-year-old son of the Montbrook stallion Source owned by Terri Rust and Barton Ranch Stables LLC, Shining Source has won 15 of 66 races and has earned $716,405. The dark bay
or brown gelding has won seven stakes in New Mexico, including last year’s O.D. McDonald Stakes (R) at Albuquerque Downs.
Cheese Tray, a homebred 4-year-old gelding and the 5-2 favorite in a full field of 12 state-bred thoroughbreds, earned his first career stakes win in the Mar. 27, $120,000 New Mexico State University Handicap (R) at Sunland Park.
Prepped by Todd Fincher for owners J. Kirk and Judy Robison of El Paso, Texas, Cheese Tray covered 1 mile & 70 yards in 1:41.82,
and his margin of victory was three-quarters
of a length from 7-2 third choice Jet N G. Joel Rosario, the winner of last year’s Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey, rode the bay gelding.
Cheese Tray earned the $72,000 winner’s share of the purse. The gelding became the 26th official black-type stakes winner sired by Attila’s Storm, a Grade 3-winning Forest Wildcat stallion who has sired the earners of more than $16 million from 12 crops.
Attila’s Storm earned $534,983 while campaigned from 2004-07, and his five wins included the 2007 Toboggan Handicap (G3)
at Aqueduct. His top progeny include multiple stakes winners Waltzing Attila, Stormin The Jewels, Hush’s Storm and Thermal. The stallion died after colic surgery on June 23, 2021.
Cheese Tray is one of five winners from as many starters and the first stakes winner foaled
by Road To Reason, a winning California- bred daughter of the Roi Normand stallion Redattore (BRZ). The gelding is a half-brother to Road To Heat, a Southwestern Heat gelding who ran third in the 2019 Mountain Top Futurity (R) at Ruidoso Downs.
Cheese Tray’s second dam, the California- bred Jahafil (GB) mare Loveontheroad, won the 1998 Santa Paula Stakes for sophomore fillies at Santa Anita Park. The gelding’s third dam, the winning Kennedy Road mare Ona Lucky Road, produced Mister Lucky, a winning and stakes- placed half-brother to Loveontheroad who ran second in the 2000 California Cup Starter Handicap (R) at Santa Anita.
Cheese Tray traces back to his fifth dam, Easter Junction, a Florida-bred daughter of the Nearco (ITY) stallion Amerigo who won the 1969 Santa Ysabel Stakes at Santa Anita and foaled stakes winner Five Up Player.
Campaigned exclusively in New Mexico, Cheese Tray has won four of 16 races and
has earned $204,786, of which $106,650 has been banked from four starts this season. The gelding was coming off of a third-place finish, two lengths behind winner Sea Emperor, in the February 27, 1 1/16-mile Albert & Henry
74 New Mexico Horse Breeder
Cheese Tray winning the $120,000 New Mexico State University Handicap (R) at Sunland Park.