Page 28 - Speedhorse February 2018

2017 World Cham
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by Larry Thornton
See Jessies First Down’s pedigree on page 40.
When we last visited with Ted Abrams, his home-bred Jessies First Down
had just been crowned the 2016 World Champion, Aged Champion and Champion Aged Gelding. Abrams’ was already excited about the 2017 racing season, as his Champion was fresh off a double win over his great rival Zoomin Effortlessly. The
wins came in the 2016 Championship at Sunland Park-G1 and the 2016 Zia Park Championship Stakes-G1. The anticipation of these two runners meeting again fueled Abrams’ excitement for a run to earn another World Championship title.
So, Jessies First Down and Ted Abrams were off to the races with Judd Kearl serving as trainer early in the year and then by James Padgett taking over for the second part of the year. Rodrigo Vallejo was his jockey in 2017. The connections gave Jessies First Down seven starts, of which he took home five wins, a second and a third with earnings of $468,757. All his starts were at the classic Quarter Horse distance of 440 yards.
Jessies First Down won his trial and the finals of the Sam Houston Championship Challenge-G2 and in the process, he set a New Track Record for 440 yards at Sam Houston Race Park in:21.214. His next start was a game second in the Remington Park Invitational Championship-G1 to his rival Zoomin Effortlessly. Jessies First Down next won the All American Gold Cup-G1, with Zoomin Effortlessly finishing second. This would mark the final time these two great horses would meet as Zoomin Effortlessly was vanned off the track and later died from a heart attack.
The All American Gold Cup-G1 was the start of a three-race win streak for Jessies First Down. He won the Downs at Albuquerque Fall Championship then the Zia Park Championship-G1 and finished the year
with a third in the Championship at Sunland Park-G1. This allowed the championship quest to be reached as Jessies First Down was voted the 2017 World Champion, Champion Aged Horse and Champion Aged Gelding.
Jessies First Down, a son of FDD Dynasty
and out of Jess A Classy Lassy by Mr Jess Perry, has now won 15 races in 34 starts and has earned $1,050,990.
The story of this horse’s success started back in the 1970’s when Ted Abrams purchased his first racehorse, Charge Royalty. As Abrams put it, “We had some success with Charge Royalty. He qualified for some futurities at the tracks around Texas and made a little bit of money. That really set the hook in me. From there I continued to buy more horses and build a string of horses and eventually a string of broodmares.”
One of the mares he purchased was Mighty Classy Lassy. Abrams stated, “I bought Mighty Classy Lassy from Connie Hall at the Vessels sale in California. I gave $20,000 for her and raced her. She had some moderate success. She qualified for the Sam Houston Futurity and the Sam Houston Derby and came within a whisker of winning the Sam Houston Futurity. I kept her as a foundation mare for the present-day lines that we breed through.”
26 SPEEDHORSE, February 2018
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