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RUIDOSO DOWNS
Mountain Top TB Futurity (R)
Attila’s Storm
Forest Wildcat
Sweet Symmetry
Our Flying Angel
Abajo
Flying Humor
STORM LEADER
the Mountain Top Futurity purse increased his earnings to $76,984. The gelding was sent to post at odds of 9-1 and returned a $20.80 win mutuel, and he paired with runner-up Marked Money, a 27-1 longshot, for a $2 exacta payoff of $291. Nostrangrtotherain, the 1-2 favorite in the field of nine, ran third, 6 1/4 lengths behind Storm Leader, to complete a $472 ($1) trifecta dividend.
Z Marks The Spot ran fourth and was followed by New Mexico Jeremy, Leave Them Behind, Crossfire Cowgirl, WF Frankly My Dear and Rattila. Finalist Bye Bye Heath was scratched at the gate.
Marked Money earned $30,314 to bring his bankroll to $30,914 from two outs. The gelded son of the Bernardini stallion Marking is campaigned by Dale F. Taylor Racing LLC.
Nostrangrtotherain banked $18,188 to bring his earnings to $82,718 from four
races for owners Jimmy Powers and Rebecca Powers. One of three winners from as many starters produced by the winning Forest Danger mare Campfire Party, the Shame On Charlie gelding has won two races, including the 4 1/2-furlong, $100,000 C.O. “Ken” Kendrick Memorial Stakes (R) at SunRay Park on May 8.
Alfredo Juarez Jr. rode Storm Leader to
a clear 5 3/4-length victory in the June 26, $151,568 Mountain Top Thoroughbred Futurity (R) for New Mexico-bred 2-year-olds at Ruidoso Downs.
Storm Leader covered 5 furlongs in :58.83 while earning his first stakes win and the $75,784 winner’s share of the purse. Todd Fincher prepped the homebred Attila’s Storm gelding for owners Mike Abraham, Leslie Amestoy and Pierre J. Amestoy Jr.
Storm Leader was coming off of a second- place finish in a Mountain Top Futurity
trial on June 10. The bay gelding became the 27th official black-type stakes winner sired
by Attila’s Storm, a Kentucky-bred son of the Storm Cat stallion Forest Wildcat. Raced from 2004-07, Attila’s Storm banked $534,983 from 18 starts, and his five wins included a 1 1/4-length victory in the 6-furlong Toboggan Handicap (G3) at Aqueduct in 2007. The stallion was also the runner-up in the 2005 Malibu Stakes (G1) at Santa Anita Park.
Attila’s Storm has sired the earners of more than $16.5 million from 12 crops, including multiple stakes winners Bella Dona, Diabolical Storm and Waltzing Attila. The stallion died after colic surgery on June 23, 2021.
Storm Leader is one of six winners from as many starters foaled by Our Flying Angel, a homebred 13-year-old daughter of the Robyn Dancer stallion Abajo. Raced in New Mexico from 2011-13, Our Flying Angel earned $249,641 from 10 starts, and her five wins included the 2011 Rio Grande Senorita Futurity (R) at Ruidoso Downs and New Mexico Cup Juvenile Fillies Stakes (R) at Zia Park.
Storm Leader’s second dam, the Kentucky- bred Distorted Humor mare Flying Humor, produced seven winners from as many starters, including Storm Warrior, a half- brother to Our Flying Angel who won the 2015 Rio Grande Senor Futurity (R), and Spartan Warrior, a winning half-brother to Our Flying Angel who ran second in the 2010 Rio Grande Senor Futurity (R).
Storm Leader traces back to his third dam, Flying Donna, an Ohio-bred daughter of
the Affirmed stallion Sovereignty who won the 1994 Richard A. Kirchberg Memorial Handicap (R) at Beulah Park. A 1990 foal, Flying Donna was a half-sister to Poplar
Zar, the winner of the 1988 Shaker Heights Handicap (R) at Thistledown near Cleveland.
Storm Leader was winning for the first time in two races, and the winner’s share of
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Bailey Ivey, Ruidoso Downs