Page 62 - 28 December 2012

Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity-G1
MATAbAri
by Stacy Pigott
it takes a tough filly to beat the colts in a Grade 1 race, and it takes an even tougher filly to do so while battling a freak tongue
injury that nearly kept her out of the race in the first place. Matabari proved she is that tough when she became only the fifth female in history to win the $2,024,275 Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity-G1 on Dec. 16 at Los Alamitos in Cypress, California.
Since 1995, when the race debuted as the Los Alamitos Million Futurity, only four fillies have won the prestigious event for 2-year-olds. They are: Corona Kool in 1999; Your First Moon in 2001; First Place Queen in 2002;
and Blues Girl Too in 2006. Matabari joined that elite list with a hard-fought nose win over The August Heat, who was a nose in front of favored fastest qualifier Freedom Choice.
Ridden by Cruz Mendez, Matabari
broke expertly from post position eight and immediately found herself in a three-way duel for the lead with The August Heat, in post five, and Freedom Choice, on the inside rail. Those three rivals remained just inches apart throughout the 400 yards, with Matabari lug- ging out at the eighth pole but still getting up in the final strides to win in :19.680.
Mendez was lucky to win his first
Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity with Matabari—a week earlier the jockey had been involved in a bad spill at Los Alamitos during which he lost consciousness briefly. Fortunately he was not seriously injured and was able to add the lucrative Two Million win to a year’s record that has him leading the jockey standings at Los Alamitos and the first call rider for trainer Jose Flores’ barn.
1/2 lengths to set the third- fastest qualifying time.
“She was hell to work with in the beginning, but now I know why she was like that,” Flores said
of the filly’s gritty personality. “She kicks at everybody, she tries to bite all the vets and everything. She has a tough attitude. So now we’re here and it’s a dream come true winning one of these.”
Flores made sure to thank everyone respon- sible for the win including owner Balgo Racing Team, Inc. and Marlyn Gonzalez, Dr. Carlos Cervantes, who performed rear ankle surgery on the filly earlier in the year, and Drs. Ricky Overly and Becky Fitzgerald, who handled the day-to-day care of the filly at Los Alamitos.
“She just started blooming at the end of the year,” Flores said of Matabari, who earned $850,196 for the win, her third from five career starts. “It was all a team effort and it worked out good here for everybody.”
Balgo Racing Team’s Jose Maria Gonzalez crossed Mr Jess Perry on the Separatist mare Hold Me Now to get Matabari. Hold Me Now won
the 2007 California Breeders Champions Night Matron Stakes and 7 of 32 career starts with nearly $110,000 in earnings. Matabari is her second
foal, following her full brother Holdthemperry, a multiple winner still racing in 2012.
Finishing second in the Los Alamitos
Two Million under jockey Rodrigo Aceves was Bobby Cox’s homebred The August Heat (Corona Cartel-Jess Genuine). Racing in New Mexico and Texas for the early part of his career, The August Heat shipped to California
“It has been a dream season
for me,” said Mendez, who didn’t
decide until six days before
the race which of Flores’ three
horses—the other two being
Fires Blazin and Commando
Tres Seis—he would ride in the finals. “When I first started I never imagined that I would ride first call for Jose Flores while also having the sup- port of a lot of other great trainers.”
As lucky as Mendez was to be in the race, Matabari was even luckier. Just two weeks before the Two Million trials, Matabari got loose and nearly severed her tongue on the bit. It took many stitches and some creative care to even get the filly to the trials.
“It was a tear that could have been where she would have lost her tongue,” said Flores. “We couldn’t put a bit in her mouth, so what we did was pony her and took her to the gates and things like that. We had to find a rub- ber D-bit for her, something that wouldn’t interfere with the stitches. She was off hay, she was on orchard grass for a while, something softer, and we started cooking her grain. I told the owner, if she doesn’t go off her feed, we’re probably going to be OK as long as she doesn’t rip her stitches out or anything. She held on. She has a tough attitude.”
Flores used a mouth guard to keep Matabari from playing with her tongue and ripping her stitches out, and gave Mendez strict instructions in the trials to keep the reins loose and not pull on her mouth. Since most Quarter Horses run into pressure, it was a risky proposition. But it was a gamble that paid off. Matabari went wire- to-wire in her Two Million trial, winning by 1
Los Alamitos $2,024,275 • 400 yards :19.680 • si 87
Streakin La Jolla
Mr Jess Perry
Scoopie Fein
MATABARI, ’10-f.
Separatist
Hold Me Now
Fornow TB
Matabari’s jockey Cruz Mendez, and owner/breeder Jose M. Gonzalez, with wife Marcela and son Maxi.
Trainer Jose Flores.
60 SPEEDHORSE, December 28, 2012
Racing news
Los Alamitos
Stacy Pigott: Speedhorse