Page 150 - Speedhorse March 2018

Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship-G1
BH LISAS BOY
by Tracy Gantz
Winning a major race two years in suc- cession takes talent. Bill Hoburg’s homebred BH Lisas Boy accomplished the feat amid vastly different circumstances when he became the first back-to-back winner of the Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship-G1 on Feb. 11.
In 2017, a rare Southern California rain- storm forced postponement of the race for two days. The delay didn’t faze BH Lisas Boy, who was the fastest qualifier to the race. He defeated Zoomin For Spuds in that $150,900 race by a 1/2-length.
This year in the $157,250 contest, about the only thing remaining the same was that BH Lisas Boy again defeated Zoomin For Spuds while being ridden by Cesar DeAlba.
This time, BH Lisas Boy was the fourth fastest qualifier from the Jan. 21 trials after finishing third in his heat.
BH Lisas Boy entered the finals in the two- gate. He and DeAlba broke well and ended with a strong driving finish. The sorrel gelding crossed the finish line with a neck margin
of victory and completed the 400 yards in :19.636, just shy of last year’s :19.629.
After BH Lisas Boy bled while finishing third in his Brad McKinzie
Los Alamitos Winter Championship trial, he had to go on the veteri- narian’s list. He needed a workout 15 days later to get off the vet’s list and run in the final.
Los Alamitos’s racing
surface was undergoing
renovation, so on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 5, Hoburg, who also trains the gelding, shipped him across town to the Thoroughbred track Santa Anita, where BH Lisas Boy worked 220 yards with a time of :12.60.
Several people at Santa Anita visited BH Lisas Boy in his stall, and they also watched him work.
“They were telling me the last Quarter Horse to work at Santa Anita was Griswold for his big match race over 25 years ago,” said Hoburg. “It was a lot of fun.”
Hoburg credited several people with BH Lisas Boy’s successful second Winter
Championship, which earned the gelding a berth in the Champion of Champions-G1.
“It takes a village to win a horse race,” he said. “I’ve had so much support behind me with this horse. Scott Craigmyle, the Los Alamitos assistant director of racing and stable superinten- dent, setting up the workout
at Santa Anita, and friends of mine came together and got
behind me to give me suggestions on what we needed to do.”
The Los Alamitos Winter Championship also received a new name in 2018 to honor Brad McKinzie, the longtime Los Alamitos executive and all-around nice guy who died last year.
BH Lisas Boy holds a special place in Hoburg’s heart.
“This horse is my best friend in the world,” he said. “I love this horse, and when you talk to him, he looks you right in the eyes.”
BH Lisas Boy has now earned $519,243 with the addition of this $66,045 winner’s
Los Alamitos $157,250 • 400 yards :19.636 • si 96
Mr Jess Perry
Mighty Invictus
Mighty B Doll
BH LISAS BOY, 12-g.
Snowbound TB
Apollo Snowbound
Stars Lady Bug
BH Lisas Boy (#2) and Cesar DeAlba score a neck victory in the $157,250 Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship-G1
148 SPEEDHORSE, March 2018
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