Page 65 - May 2017

© Springer
explained. “We left the farm without making a purchase, and we got 30 to 40 miles down the road, when Dosi says, ‘I don’t see how we could go wrong with $1,200 for a three-in-one.’ I said, ‘I don’t either.’ So, we turned around.”
The mare they had picked out was Pukka Up, a daughter of Pukka Gent TB out of Char- gerette 105 by Tiny Charger.
“The baby on her side was Tilted Moon, the mare that started it all for us,” said Alvarez fondly.
When Alvarez bred the daughter of Tilt
The Odds TB to Major Rime, she got Nagano Moon. The filly, named after the Winter Olym- pics held in Japan, became a stakes-placed run- ner, but had her career hampered by a broken navicular bone in a hind hoof.
Nagano Moon’s first foal, Moon A Blazin, was a little disappointing and Alvarez almost sold the mare for $2,500 to Debra Laney, but changed her mind. Her next foal was the record-setting Champion First Moonflash.
© Don Shugart
The colt is one of just 57 foals from the first and only foal crop of Rainbow Futurity winner First To Flash, a son of First Down Dash out of Marcy Darling by Six Fortunes.
“We knew he was special,” Alvarez said. “My business is to sell yearlings, but sometimes we will keep one to play with. However, financial
situations made it to where we had to sell h and he brought in $55,000.”
m,
Pierre and Leslie Amestoy, who had rac
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Kathy Donegan, Norma Alvarez, Lacey Harmon with Flashin Flitter, friends & family after the win.
Champion First Moonflash was bred by Norma Alvarez and is the sire of Flashin Flitter.
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ash ran all but one race in his home state of New
First To Flash, bought the colt. First Moon
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Mexico. He had 10 stakes victories and set
ur World Records before being named the 2009
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ou
Champion Aged Racing Stallion.
“As soon as First Moonflash went on to
stand at stud, I was the first one standing at
the door,” laughed Alvarez. “While his stud was still low, I bred as many mares to him as I could. When he became popular, I couldn’t breed as many to him.”
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SPEEDHORSE, May 2017 63
Lacey Harmon and Flashin Flitter fly to victory as the $100,000 Super Stakes Champions in the 2016 Barrel Futurities of America’s World Championships in Oklahoma City on Dec. 6, 2016.
© Springer
“She was wondering what it would be like to put all that speed on a barrel horse.”
© Alvarez
The mare that started it
all for Alvarez was stakes placed winner Tilted Moon, the dam of Nagano Moon, the dam of Champion
First Moonflash.