Page 156 - November 2021

AQHA Challenge Championship Weekend
John Deere Juvenile Challenge Championship-G2
APOLINARIA PRIZE
By John Moorehouse
It took 19 hours on the road and two days for Apolinaria Prize and her connections to make it from their home base in the Pacific
Northwest to Albuquerque for the Bank of America Challenge Championship event.
The long trip was worth it. The rookie filly pre-
vailed in the $130,625 John Deere Juvenile Challenge Championship-G2, held Oct. 23 at Albuquerque Downs.
“It would have been kind of a bummer to drive all
the way down there and not come back with the win,” said Jose Rosales Gomez, who trains Apolinaria Prize.
It marked the first
Challenge Championship
win ever for Gomez, who is
based out of Hermiston, Oregon, and has been training for seven or eight years.
“It’s tough getting there [ to a Championship race] and winning a race of that type, it makes it pretty special,” Gomez said.
Juan Manuel Marquez owns Apolinaria Prize, who won the Emerald Downs Juvenile Challenge in August to qualify for this race, and now holds four victories in six lifetime starts. The $60,087 payday from this event improved the filly’s total earnings to the cusp of six figures at $98,925.
“It seems like she’s getting better and better each time,” Gomez said. “She’s competitive. Each out, she’s improving.”
The hard work and the long drive paid off for Gomez and the team. Gomez also had a
finalist in the Adequan Derby Challenge Championship-G3. They stopped overnight at Price, Utah, along the way. All in all, they spent three weeks in Albuquerque preparing for this event.
“I’ve got family down there so that motivates us,” Gomez noted. “I had a lot of help from trainer David Gomez. We were at his barn the three weeks we were there.”
Apolinaria Prize ran at or near the front for the entirety of the 350 yards. The filly broke well from the No. 4 gate and led by a head at the first call. She maintained that advantage going into the stretch, then withstood Lil Longmire to win by a neck,
Cesar Moreno was aboard for the stakes- winning run, completed in :17.298 for a 96 speed index. It marked the third straight win for the filly, and Moreno has been in the irons for every one of them.
“Cesar Moreno has been riding her for her last five outs,” Gomez said. “They make a great team together. He has her figured out pretty good. They’re on a three-trace win streak.”
Apolinaria Prize paid off as somewhat of a surprise, going off at 8-1 odds at post time. But was Gomez surprised with this result?
“Yeah, a little bit,” he said. “I knew she could run but that’s a tough field. We’d never run against that type field. The way she’s been running, the way she’s been training, we got
our hopes up and it came out great. Cesar rode her great.”
Gomez also credited Marquez for his efforts in building the filly as a sound competitor.
“He’s a hard working guy,” Gomez said of the filly’s owner. “He does a lot of work too with us, with the horses. He’s really into the sport. He puts a lot of effort into this filly also, him and his dad, Lorenzo Marquez.”
EG High Desert Farms, LLC, bred Apolinaria Prize out of SS Calendar Girl, a 2010 mare and former stakes winner her- self who captured the 2013 running of the Speedhorse Derby-G3 at Fair Meadows.
Lil Longmire (A Revenant-Dee Zired) finished second by a nose for owner Ben Peterson and trailer Riley Moosman. Jesus Valenzuela did the riding. Scoops Dynasty (FDD Dynasty-Bye Sweet Girl) hit the board in third. Edward and Von Zae McNelis own the gelding, a Monty Arrossa trainee who had Jose Nicasio in the irons.
The remaining order of finish was
Here Comes Candy (Jess Good Candy- Candy Cartels Cat), Awesome View
(Hes Relentless-Ivory Key), De Laurentis (American Runaway-Babe On The Beach), Kas Shes EC (EC Jet One-Beaukas), Deutsch (One Fabulous Eagle-Hollie Jollie), Fly Donna Fly (Fly Thru The Fire-Lidonna Madonna) and Viva Le Zoom (Zoomin For Bux-Viva Arriba).
The Downs at Albuquerque
$130,625 • 350 yards :17.298 • si 96
Corona Cartel
Fast Prize Cartel
Fast First Prize
APOLINARIA PRIZE, ’19-f.
Finding Nemo
SS Calendar Girl
First Prize Robin
In the winner’s circle are connections for Apolinaria Prize owner Juan Manuel Marquez, trainer Jose Rosales Gomez,and jockey Cesar Moreno.
154 SPEEDHORSE November 2021
Coady Photography Coady Photography