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RUIDOSO DOWNS
Land Of Enchantment Stakes (R)
Dome
Storm Cat
She’s Tops
Lauren Lynn
Hadif
Soiree
THUNDER DOME
Making his 51st career start and the
second start of his 8-year-old season, Thunder Dome won the August 6, $50,000 Land of Enchantment Stakes (R) for New Mexico-bred Thoroughbreds at Ruidoso Downs.
Thunder Dome actually crossed the wire one length behind Cheese Tray, but he was moved up from second to first after a stewards’ inquiry resulted in the disqualification of Cheese Tray from first to second. Trained by Dallas Barton and ridden by Rigo Sarmiento for owners Mike H. Carson and Bill Carson, Thunder Dome banked the $30,000 winner’s share from his seventh career stakes victory.
Thunder Dome was bred by Frank Richardson and W. L. Mooring. The chestnut gelding is one of seven official black-type stakes winners sired by Dome, an unraced son of Storm Cat and a half-brother to 2000 Haskell Invitational Handicap (G1) winner Dixie Union.
Dome entered stud in 2002, and he has since sired the earners of more than $6.7 million from 18 crops, including multiple stakes winners On The Low Down and Glory Be Mine.
Thunder Dome is out of Lauren Lynn, a winning daughter of Hadif and a multiple stakes winner in Texas in 2003. A 2000 foal, Lauren Lynn has produced seven winners from nine starters, including If I Had A Bull, a half- sister to Thunder Dome who won the 2010 Sierra Starlet Handicap (R) at Ruidoso Downs.
Thunder Dome’s second dam, the New Mexico-bred Full Choke mare Soiree, won three stakes from 1996-98, including the 1996 Rio Grande Kindergarten Futurity (R) at Ruidoso Downs. The gelding traces back to his third dam, Flying B.G., a winning Barachois mare who foaled three multiple stakes winning full brothers to Soiree: Talent Connection, B.G.’s Drone, and Flying Drone.
All told, Thunder Dome has won 12 of 51 races and has earned $739,702. The gelding’s race record includes a second-place run, 6 1/2 lengths behind winner Ancient Land, in last year’s Land of Enchantment Stakes, and victories in the 2020 O.D. McDonald Stakes (R) at Albuquerque Downs and Rocky Gulch New Mexico Cup Championship Stakes (R) at Zia Park.
One Mark finished third and was followed by Delbert Too and B A Champion.
Official runner-up Cheese Tray earned $10,500 to push his bankroll to $231,466 from 19 races, all in New Mexico. A half-brother to the stakes-placed Road To Heat, the homebred 4-year-old Attila’s Storm gelding races for J. Kirk and Judy Robison.
One Mark is a 4-year-old Marking gelding campaigned by Fincher Racing LLC. One Mark has won four of 12 starts, and the $5,500 third- place share of the Land of Enchantment Stakes purse bumped his earnings to $147,438.
Freedom Flash ran third, 6 3/4 lengths behind Wascallywittlewabbit, and was followed by Why Buy The Cow, Roll Big River and Dragon On ice.
Runner-up Heza Classy Now is a homebred 4-year-old Rock Solid Jess gelding campaigned by Bob and Sissie McClure. Heza Classy Now has won four of 16 starts and has earned $74,101.
Freedom Flash races for Pierre Amestoy Jr., Leslie Amestoy and Roger K. Beasley, who also bred the graded stakes winning 6-year-old son of champion First Moonflash. The bay gelding has won five of 24 outs and has banked $259,051.
Zia 870 Championship (R)
Heza Motor Scooter
Heza Fast Man
Hot Tin Lizzie
Rabbits N Diamonds
Rabbits Rainbow
Shines Lika Diamond
WASCALLYWITTLEWABBIT
Rogers Farms’ Wascallywittlewabbit, a 7-year-old son of the Heza Fast Man stallion Heza Motor Scooter and the reigning AQHA distance champion, won the August 7, $50,000 Zia 870 Championship (R) for New Mexico- breds at Ruidoso Downs.
Trained by Mike Joiner and ridden by Benito Baca, Wascallywittlewabbit defeated Heza Classy Now by 2 3/4 lengths while covering 870 yards in :44.438 and earning a 107 speed index. The bay gelding was winning this race -- the richest distance race for Quarter Horses at Ruidoso Downs -- for the third consecutive season.
Wascallywittlewabbit was bred by Mike Weatherly, and he was coming off of a Remington Park spring season during which he was voted the meet’s best distance horse. The gelding’s sire, Heza Motor Scooter, raced from 2000-02, winning seven of 26 starts -- including the 2001 El Primero del Ano Derby (G2) at Los Alamitos -- and earning $259,682.
Heza Motor Scooter has sired the earners of more than $4.2 million from 14 crops, including AQHA champions Rylees Boy and All About Larry. The stallion died in May 2015.
80 New Mexico Horse Breeder
Wascallywittlewabbit is out of Rabbits N Diamonds, an unraced Rabbits Rainbow mare. His second dam, the stakes-winning Coup de Kas (TB) mare Shines Likea Diamond, was a finalist in the 1999 West Texas (G3) and Sunland Park Winter (G3) derbies. Shines Likea Diamond foaled Rainbows N Diamonds, a stakes-winning full sister to Rabbits N Diamonds.
Wascallywittlewabbit has won all three of his races this season, including the March 31, 870-yard Pauls Valley Stakes (G2), and the May 28, 870-yard Remington Distance Championship (G1), both at Remington Park. He ended his championship
campaign with a 2 3/4-length victory in
the October 23, $104,500 Cox Ranch Distance Challenge Championship (G1) at Albuquerque Downs.
All told, Wascallywittlewabbit has won 14 of 25 starts -- including 13 of 19 at the 870- yard trip and seven of 11 at Ruidoso Downs
-- and the $30,000 winner’s share of the purse from his ninth lifetime stakes victory increased his earnings to $374,188, of which $345,945 has been banked in his 870 races.
Bailey Ivey, Ruidoso Downs Bailey Ivey, Ruidoso Downs