Page 118 - November 2015

Hobbs America Futurity-G2
GAME CHANGES & MISS FEET DOWN FIRST
Zia Park $297,831 • 400 yards :19.918 • si 83
Chicks Beduino
Game Patriot
Fire And Nice
GAME CHANGES, ’13-g.
Stoli
Xo Kate
Streakin Kate
Mr Jess Perry
Dominyun
Runaway Dee Dee
MISS FEET DOWN FIRST, ’13-f.
First Down Dash
Feet Down First
Racing Feet
by Michael Cusortelli
The photo-finish camera couldn’t separate Martin C. Ybarra Jr.’s Game Changes and Esequiel Porras’ Miss Feet Down First at the wire, as the two rivals finished in a dead heat for the win in the $297,831 Hobbs America Futurity-G2 at Zia Park on Oct. 11.
Racing on a fast track against a 10-mph head wind, Game Changes and Miss Feet Down First were both clocked in :19.918 for 400 yards, and their margin of victory was a neck from fastest qualifier Burns Folly.
Larry Gamez was aboard Game Changes, a gray gelding by Game Patriot, for trainer Umberto Belloc.
Oscar Cordova was aboard Miss Feet Down First for trainer Carlos Alvidrez.
Game Changes, the third-fastest qualifier, was coming off of a neck victory in one of seven Hobbs America Futurity trials on Sept. 26. The gelding was bred in Louisiana by Noel Balderas of Red Oak, Texas.
Game Changes is one of three winners from five starters produced by Xo Kate who won four stakes from 2008-11, including the 2010 Harrah’s Distaff Stakes-G3 at Louisiana Downs. He is a half brother to a pair of stakes- placed runners: On The Wagon, a colt who ran third in this year’s Sam Houston Derby-G3 at Sam Houston Race Park, and Stolin Wagon,
the runner-up to Cartel Rosie in last year’s Heritage Place Juvenile Invitational Stakes at Remington Park.
Raced in New Mexico and Oklahoma, Game Changes has won four of seven outs and has banked $125,560
for Ybarra, a resident of Fort Stockton, Texas.
The gelding’s resume includes a fourth-place finish, one length behind winner BV Midnite Express, in the 440-yard, $200,000 All American Juvenile Invitational at Ruidoso Downs on Labor Day.
Miss Feet Down First was the ninth-fastest qualifier, and she was two weeks removed from a neck victory as the 6-5 choice in her Hobbs America Futurity trial.
The filly was bred in Texas by Charolais Isbell of Alto, New Mexico. Miss Feet Down First’s dam, the First Down Dash mare
Feet Down First, won the 1995 Rainbow Futurity-G1 at Ruidoso Downs.
Feet Down First has foaled eight winners from 12 starters, including Jess Cashin In,
a half brother to Miss Feet Down First who won the ’11 Queen City Dash Stakes at River Downs in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Cognac Kid, the runner-up in Planet Holland’s 2003 Rainbow Futurity-G1.
The $95,307 co-winner’s share of the Hobbs America Futurity purse pushed Miss Feet Down First’s bankroll to $104,442. The filly has won three of seven starts.
Jaime Leos rode Burns Folly (Stel Corona-Sixes Folly) to his third-place finish. The sorrel gelding was trained
by Chris Zamora for owner
Alberto Villanueva.
Silver Tarzan (Simply Silver Sage-Shes
Mischief) finished fourth, 1 3/4-lengths behind the winners. Apollitical OK (Apollitical Jess-Taka Puna), EBW Catalyst (Mr Jess Perry-EBW Obsession), Seis Me (Tres Seis-Cash For Kas), Boss Regard (Chicks Regard-Anneopen), Queen Arabella (Heza Motor Scooter-Wild Wonder Child), & T Tornado Seis (Tres Seis-D E Bella Vita) com- pleted the order of finish.
Game Changes (#7) and Miss Feet Down First (#8) deadheat for the win in the $297,831 Grade 2 Hobbs America Futurity
116 SPEEDHORSE, November 2015
RACING NEWS
Coady Photography