Page 127 - December 2016

Champion of Champions-G1
ZOOMIN FOR SPUDS
by Tracy Gantz
It’s hard to buy any horse for only $250. And then, to get the dam of a Champion of Champions-G1 winner for that price is a real
accomplishment.
Idaho breeder Jim Walker purchased A
Perfect Cocktail as a 3 year old for just $250. He has proceeded to breed a host of good horses out of her, including Zoomin For Spuds, who already had been named Idaho Horse of the Year in 2015 before he added the 2016 Champion of Champions-G1.
While Walker knew he had a good horse, the Champion of Champions was expected to go to Heza Dasha Fire. Voted the 2015 World Champion, Heza Dasha Fire was trying to add a second Champion of Champions to his 2015 victory in the race.
Heza Dasha Fire went off as the 1-2 favorite, with Zoomin For Spuds the 10-1 fourth choice. Both horses bulleted out of the starting gate, and they battled on the front end throughout the 440 yards.
“My horse had a really great break, and he was running well out of the gate,” said Jesus Ayala, who rode Zoomin For Spuds.
Heza Dasha Fire took the lead, but Zoomin For Spuds caught him at the wire to win by a head in :21.300. The gelding took home the $300,000 winners share of the $600,000 purse that skyrocketed his earnings to $415,543.
“I’m thrilled to win a race this prestigious, and I feel a lot of pride,” said Ayala.
Walker, now 84, lives in Bellevue, Idaho, and foaled Zoomin For Spuds himself.
“I’ve been at this for 45 years, and this is absolutely a dream come true,” Walker said. “I just knew he was something special. At 4 1/2 months, he jumped over a four-rail fence, which was pretty impossible for a horse who was just a baby. He never even touched the thing. So I knew at that time I had an athlete. I had to keep him in a smaller corral because he kept coming out.”
Monty Arossa trains Zoomin For Spuds for Walker and said he couldn’t put into words what the Champion of Champions victory meant. “It’s incredible,” said the trainer. “It’s just a dream to be here.”
The trainer also thanked his Idaho crew. Arossa singled out Romero Fregoso, the man who started Zoomin For Spuds, saying that “a lot of being good in the gate and gate speed is because of the good job he did breaking him.”
Prior to the Champion of Champions, Zoomin For Spuds won six stakes, five of them in 2016. Though he started twice at Ruidoso Downs, Zoomin For Spuds has done most of his racing in his native Idaho and at Los Alamitos.
“This is a testament
that the small breeders, the
40-year breeders can do it,”
said Arossa, who noted the
recent difficulties of keeping racetracks going in Idaho. “If we can band together up there and keep things alive, we can produce good horses that can compete here. I hope we don’t give up.”
Zoomin For Spuds was bred out of winner A Perfect Cocktail. She has produced 100% money/ROM earners from 4 starters that include three winners, all for Walker. Arossa trained the first two as well, both of them stakes winners. Bux For Cocktail captured the 2011 Intermountain Futurity and 2012 Les Bois Derby Challenge, while Jesses Perfect One succeeded in the 2013 Dutch Masters III Futurity and Knight Transportation Futurity. Zoomin For Spuds is her top earner.
World Champion Heza Dasha Fire (Walk Thru Fire-Dasha Freda) “was a little nervous in the start- ing gate,” according to jockey Cruz Mendez. The 4-year-old gelding finished a strong second by 1/2-length. Jose Flores trains him for owner/breeder S-Quarter
K LLC. Heza Dasha Fire, in 2016, won the Go Man Go Handicap-G1 and the
Robert L. Boniface Los Alamitos Invitational Championship-G1.
Jimmy Brooks piloted Big Lew (Corona Cartel-Executive Looks) to third for trainer Mike Robbins and owner Reliance Ranches, LLC. Big Lew was coming off two consecu- tive wins and had most recently won the Los Alamitos Super Derby-G1.
AJs High (Apollitical Jess-Regally Rare) finished fourth and was followed by Heat Warning (A Regal Choice-It’s A Dry Heat TB), Sass Me Blue (Valiant Hero-Jess Sass Me), Militarist (Favorite Cartel-Hawk Kue Pie), He Looks Hot (Walk Thru Fire-Look Her Over), Forget It (Foose-Forgive Him), and Rite Regal (Favorite Cartel-A Regal Classic).
Los Alamitos $600,000 • 440 yards :21.300 • si 103 • Hand Timed
Shazoom
Zoomin For Bux
Oh No Its Uh Oh
ZOOMIN FOR SPUDS, ’13-g.
Corona Cocktail
A Perfect Cocktail
A Perfect Strawberry
Zoomin For Spuds & Jesus Ayala score a head win in the $600,000 Grade 1 Champion of Champions
SPEEDHORSE, December 2016 125
RACING NEWS
Los Alamitos