Page 16 - 2019 Stallion Register

Vol. 50 • No. 13 • November 30, 2018 • Norman, Oklahoma 73070-1000
2019 STALLION REGISTER
Honors First Moonflash
Featured on our cover this year... Speedhorse Celebrates 50 Years Serving the Quarter Horse Racing Industry
SPEEDHORSE GALLERY SECTION ....................... 1
STATISTICAL SECTION..................... S1
STALLION STATISTICAL SECTION ................... SR1
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Climbing life’s ladder to reach perfection. It’s a goal of most in the horse industry. And, when it’s achieved, it is often after having gone through a myriad of peaks and valleys. After all, that is the ebb and flow of life. Only a few, however, actually reach a pinnacle
of greatness that can be called perfection. First Moonflash is one of those, and his
climb to the top has been due to his grit and determination.
Bred by Dosi and Norma Alvarez out of Nagano Moon and by First To Flash, First Moonflash made his first start for owners Pierre Jean and Leslie A. Amestoy in the trials to the Ruidoso Futurity on June 1, 2007. The 2005 brown colt finished fourth in his heat and didn’t qualify to the finals. A valley. Then he entered the gates in the trials to the Rainbow Futurity, winning his heat by 2 1/4-lengths. A peak. But, he didn’t qualify. Another valley. He next tried out for the All American Futurity, finishing a distant ninth in his heat after he was wiped out at the gate. Down again, but not out. The determined colt moved on to Albuquerque for the
trials to the New Mexico State Fair Senor Futurity-RG3, winning by an astounding
3 1/4-lengths, qualifying, and then coming back to take the finals convincingly by 1 3/4-lengths. Afterward, trainer Fred Danley prophetically said, “I think he’s well on his way. His sire, (Champion) First To Flash, is dead, so I feel pretty sure that, one day, this colt will probably stand at stud.”
In his sophomore season on the track, Marie G. Gonzalez joined as a co-owner
of First Moonflash, who once again had
his share of downs, but ultimately far more ups. Early in the year, the colt was a finalist in the New Mexico HBA Stakes-RG2 and
in the New Mexico Breeders’ Handicap- RG3 before qualifying to the All American Derby-G1 where he was also a finalist. He won his first race at three in late October in the New Mexico Classic Derby trials, coming back to take the Grade 1 finals. It was late
in the 2008 campaign, but First Moonflash wasn’t finished. He entered the gates for the Jess Burner Memorial Handicap-RG1 on Dec. 13 and won that one by 2 1/4-lengths, earning a berth to The Championship at Sunland Park-G1. A scant two weeks later, First Moonflash stepped out of the gates in The Championship. Although bumped at the start, the big three year old overcame and scored a 1/2-length victory in the $400,000 contest – stopping the timer in :18.735 for the 400-yards – a New World Record, the first of four he would set in his career.
Everyone wanted to know what was next for First Moonflash, who was named the 2008 New Mexico Hi-Point Three-Year-Old Colt. He was 100% sound and hitting his best stride, so he opened the 2009 season
up with a win in the Mesilla Valley Speed Handicap-RG2 where he set another New World Record – this one for 350-yards. Then it was a qualifying win in the trials to the New Mexico Championship Challenge – and another New World Record, this time for 440-yards. What would be next? Another New World Record, of course – besting his time in his trial run in the Grade 1 finals, winning by 2 3/4-lengths for his seventh consecutive win and earning a 122 speed index. After the race, his trainer Jose Roberto Gonzalez said, “We really don’t know how fast this horse is because we’ve never pushed him and never really asked him to give us his best. We don’t even know what his best is.”
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