Page 168 - Speedhorse, December 2018

AQHA Challenge Championship Weekend
Bank of America Challenge Championship-G1
BH LISAS BOY
By Tracy Gantz
Bill Hoburg, the owner, breeder, and trainer of BH Lisas Boy, can trace the 6-year-old gelding’s victory in the Nov. 17 Bank of America Challenge Championship-G1 back some 50 years.
“Going back to about 1968, there was a gentleman from Yakima, Washington—Bob Pulse—who had a mare called Stars Apollo in a futurity in Emmett, Idaho,” said Hoburg. “She was about the runningest horse I’d ever seen. I was so impressed by that little mare.”
Years later, Hoburg moved to Washington and visited Pulse’s farm. Pulse had bred Stars Apollo to Shawne Bug to get Stars Lady Bug.
“I remember as a little kid my dad talking about Shawne Bug, that he was a really great horse,” said Hoburg.
Hoburg bought a yearling filly by Pulse’s Thoroughbred sire Snowbound out of Stars Lady Bug for $3,500. That filly, Apollo Snowbound, was “a mediocre racehorse,” said Hoburg. But she is now the dam of BH Lisas Boy, who raised his earnings to $697,662 with his Challenge Championship win.
Hoburg had won eight stakes with BH Lisas Boy through the years. Never had the gelding approached a race in as fine a shape.
“He came into this race
really, really well,” said
Hoburg. “The morning before,
I was sitting on my pony horse
from a distance looking at him. I thought, ‘This horse is absolutely perfect right now. He’s not too heavy or too thin, not too soft or not too hard.’
I had all the confidence in the world when I led him over that night that he was running his best race—win, lose, or draw.”
It turned into a spectacular win. With jockey Cesar DeAlba aboard, BH Lisas Boy broke well and revved up midway through the 440 yards
to hit the front and hold off all rivals by a length in :21.506.
“The only time I got goose bumps was after h h e e c c r r o o s s s s e e d d t t h h e e w w i i r r e e , ,” ” s s a a i i d d H H o o b b u u r r g g . . “ “ I I t t h h o o u u g g h h t t , , ‘Wow, what a horse.’”
The race would have given BH Lisas Boy a berth in the Dec. 15 Champion
of Champions-G1 at Los Alamitos. But the gelding had already obtained one when he scored in the Feb. 11 Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship-G1.
Hoburg, who lives in Kennewick, Washington, when he’s not training at
Los Alamitos, sent Apollo Snowbound to his friend Lisa Caldwell in Idaho when the mare was carrying BH Lisas Boy so that the foal would be eligible for Idaho-bred programs. Hoburg named the colt for Caldwell.
“She loved that little baby,” Hoburg said. “She foaled him out. He was in a five-acre pasture with grass up to his knees. Mom and h h i i m m g g o o t t g g r r a a i i n n t t w w i i c c e e a a d d a a y y, , a a n n d d L L i i s s a a j j u u s s t t s s p p e e n n t t a lot of time with him. She gets a win picture every time he runs.”
Los Alamitos $250,000 • 440 yards :21.506 • si 98
Mr Jess Perry
Mighty Invictus
Mighty B Doll
BH LISAS BOY, ’12-g.
Snowbound-TB
Apollo Snowbound
Stars Lady Bug