Page 195 - April_2023

Cartel Kisses’ winning connections include owners Larry and Bobbie Rice, trainer Heath Taylor and jockey Rodrigo Vallejo.
Invitational. Cartel Kisses finished up the season at Will Rogers Downs, running third in the Black Gold Fillies Futurity after winning her trial.
“Heath wanted to bring her out here and let her have some time off here,” said Larry Rice. “It worked out.”
Cartel Kisses was away from the races for almost four months, from mid-November until the Los Alamitos Oaks trials on March 4. She aced her trial by 3/4-lengths, qualifying the second fastest, and went off as the third choice in the final.
Rodrigo Vallejo has ridden Cartel Kisses in all but one of her races, and he was back aboard for both her Oaks trial and the final. They got out of post 7 in good order, taking the lead, but Candys Special Power from post 2 wrested back the advantage. Cartel Kisses never gave up, regaining the lead right at the wire to win by a nose in :19.764.
“She’s a once-in-a-lifetime filly,” said Larry Rice. “She likes to run at the end, but she sure waited until the last minute, it looked like, tonight. I love to stand by the finish line and see
it myself, but I didn’t know if she had won. She’s the most honest, dependable horse I’ve ever had.”
The Oaks was the richest all-female Quarter Horse race, with a purse of $461,500. Last year’s All American Oaks-G1 grossed $460,963. Taylor said that Cartel Kisses is eligible to this year’s All American Oaks and the Rainbow Oaks.
The Rices bred Cartel Kisses in the name
of their Flag Ranch LLC, and Larry admitted that he initially had planned to sell the filly. “I was talking to Heath, and he really liked her,” Larry recalled. “Bobbie always liked her when we sale-prepped her. We bought her back out of the Heritage Place sale for $50,000. Bobbie and Heath saved Larry from himself because Larry wanted to sell her.”
Bobbie Rice added, “She would have been somebody else’s filly running right here.”
The Rices operate a cattle ranch in Wyoming and raise Quarter Horses in a variety of disciplines in Oklahoma. Larry said that Bobbie does the breeding and foaling in Oklahoma.
Cartel Kisses is out of 2013 Black Gold 330 Futurity winner Midnight Cartel. The mare,
a half-sister to stakes winner Nightly Fire and five stakes-placed runners, has produced five winners in six starters.
Candys Special Power (Power Jam TB-Candys Special Wagon), owned by Ken O’Brien, trained by Monty Arrossa, and ridden by Eduardo Nicasio, finished second. The filly also ran second in the 2022 Black Gold Fillies Futurity.
Legacy Ranch’s homebred Mid Knight Flash (First Moonflash-Weownthenite) ran third. Jose Nicasio rode Mid Knight Flash for trainer Lindolfo Diaz. In seven previous starts, the filly won twice, ran second twice, and ran third twice.
Completing the field were AJ Born Runnin (Apollitical Jess-Runaway Trs Seis), Streaks Of Power (Power Jam-TB-Streaks Of Ivory), Budder Off Friends (FDD Dynasty-Budderfly Effect), Fearless Moon (First Moonflash-Heartbeat), AJ Run For Cash (Apollitical Jess-Shyann Cash), BF Lizzierageous (Foose-BF Outrageous), and Quirky Bitty Jess (Apollitical Jess-A
Bit Quirky).
RACING NEWS
SPEEDHORSE April 2023 193
William Zuazo, Los Alamitos