Page 64 - 28 December 2012

Champion of Champions-G1
rYLEES boY
by Stacy Pigott
rylees Boy has been trying to get to the Champion Of Champions-G1 for a long time—four years, to be exact. When he finally
got there, he made his presence known in a big way with a head victory in the $750,000 event on Dec. 15 at Los Alamitos.
In 2009, Rylees Boy won the West/ Southwest Championship Challenge-G3 to earn a spot in the Bank Of America AQHA Challenge Championship-G1, a race that gives a Champion of Champions berth to the winner. He finished third, and replaced his Champion of Champions hopes with a trip to El Paso, where he was second in The Championship at Sunland Park-G1.
In 2010, Rylees Boy again went the Challenge Championship route, winning the Sunland Championship Challenge-G1. And again, he fell just short of a Champion of Champions berth with a second-place finish in the AQHA Challenge Championship. The Championship at Sunland Park was again his back-up plan, and he ran third.
Last year, Rylees Boy took another path that would lead to a Champion of Champions berth—he won the Remington Park Invitational Championship-G1. However, he didn’t clear the test barn, and the positive drug test led Los Alamitos officials to deny Rylees Boy’s entry into the prestigious Champion
of Champions. His record for the year was still good enough to earn him the title of AQHA Racing Champion Aged Gelding.
Fast forward to the summer of
2012 and some new connections
for Rylees Boy. Owner-trainer
Gerardo Ochoa-Pena, who had steered
Rylees Boy to seven stakes wins—including that ill-fated Remington Park Invitational Championship—was replaced by a new owner, Lorena Velazquez Rodriguez, and trainer, Paul Jones. But the mission was still the same—the Champion of Champions.
Jones got Rylees Boy in the middle of the year, after the Heza Motor Scooter gelding had already won the Sunland Championship Challenge-G2 to qualify for the AQHA Challenge Championships. But before ship- ping Rylees Boy to Prairie Meadows, Jones sent him postward in the Grade 1 Go Man Go Handicap. With a new jockey in Ramon Sanchez, Rylees Boy suffered a terrible trip in the Go Man Go where he was bumped repeat- edly and checked, finishing tenth. It was an inauspicious start for his new connections.
“The first time I ran him (in the Go Man Go Handicap-G1), he didn’t break real well. They cut him off and he had no chance. But the horse was really doing great,” Jones said.
Bred by Gary
D. Nesbitt, Rylees
Boy showed that in
his next start—the AQHA Challenge Championship on Oct. 27. That night, he
rallied from fourth to a half-length win, finally earning, and keeping, that elusive Champion
of Champions berth. Ironically, four days after that win, Remington Park stewards disqualified Rylees Boy from his win in the May 28, 2011, Remington Park Invitational Championship Park due to an overage of fluphenazine, a long- acting tranquilizer and Class 2 drug.
“He has such a late kick on the end, and in the Iowa race he was on the outside where he can stay out of trouble and really run,” said Jones.
With nothing standing in his way and
fresh on the heels of a strong win in Iowa, Rylees Boy finally loaded into the starting gates for the Champion of Champions. The task in front of him was one of the hardest of his career, as the gate included reigning World Champion Cold Cash 123, Los Alamitos Super Derby-G1 winner Deniro, Robert Boniface Los Alamitos Invitational Championship-G1 winner Chivalry SR, the always-tough Jess You And I, who was competing in his record fifth Champion of Champions, 18-time winner
Los Alamitos $750,000 • 440 yards :21.382 • si 94
Heza Fast Man
Heza Motor Scooter
Hot Tin Lizzie
RYLEES BOY, ’05-g.
Rocky Jones
Pipistrelle
Josie Gun
Rylees Boy’s winning connections include owner Lorena Velazquez, trainer Paul Jones and jockey Ramon Sanchez.
62 SPEEDHORSE, December 28, 2012
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