Page 52 - 27 April 2012

Bank of America Sunland Championship Challenge-G2
rylEES Boy
by John Moorehouse
There are those racehorses who are high- strung and high-maintenance. Then, at the other end of the spectrum, there’s Rylees Boy.
“It can be the day before race and a truck will pass and something might drop and he’ll just look. He won’t
jump. He’s so unbelievably
calm. That’s why I think he’s so consistent,” jockey Joe Ruiz said of Rylees Boy, the AQHA Champion Aged Gelding in 2011.
Rylees Boy notched his
first stakes victory since
receiving that AQHA
accolade, besting the field
in the Bank Of America
Sunland Championship
Challenge-G2 with rela-
tive ease and winning the
$120,510 event on April 8 by a strong mar- gin of two lengths.
Rylees Boy also qualified for the $350,000 Bank Of America AQHA Challenge Championship-G1, which will take place on Oct. 27 at Prairie Meadows in Iowa. This marks the fourth straight year in which Rylees Boy has earned an invitation to that prestigious stakes.
Ruiz brought Rylees Boy out of the No.
6 gate, and the gelding broke sharply and quickly sprinted to the front of the field. He won with style, drawing away from the compe- tition to post the substantial margin of victory.
Owner Gerardo Ochoa-Pena also trains Rylees Boy, who covered the 440 yards in :21.072 and tallied a 92 speed index.
Ruiz compared the gelding’s break in this race to the one he enjoyed in last year’s version of the Remington Park Invitational Championship-G1.
“When we bombed away from there it was all over. He’s such an honest horse,” the jockey said. “Gerardo Ochoa, he does such a wonderful job with him. There’s not a whole lot to riding him. He just does his job. If he gets outrun, it’s not that he let you down.”
All told, Rylees Boy has reached the win- ner’s circle in 19 of his 39 outs and finished in the money in 32 of his career starts and all 12 of his races at Sunland. This marked Rylees Boy’s seventh victory on the Sunland Park course. The payday for this latest vic- tory, a sum of $55,435, pushed his lifetime earnings to $783,666—ever closer to that $1 million milestone.
offspring, but Rylees Boy is the only member of the brood to distinguish themselves in stakes competition.
A Spring Snow (This Snow Is Royal-Lexines Legacy) claimed second place for owner Leticia Jaquez and trainer Abraham Jaquez. The gelding was ridden by Alonso Rivera. Zoomin Express (Azoom-Sweet As Cash) prevailed by
a nose in a three-way photo finish for third. Patrick Sanchez owns and trains Zoomin Express, who had Macario Rodriguez aboard.
The remaining order of finish was What
I Want (Country Chicks Man-Secret Down Dash), Jess Mr Manny (Feature Mr Jess- Lady Dee Vee Em), Little Bit Of Baja (First Down Dash-BCR Pale Moon), Corona For The Lady (Corona Cartel-Lady Tenaya) and Sir Seth (First Down Dash-Quiet Courage). Champion Little Bit Of Baja returned to rac- ing in February after an absence of more than two years. Kool Angel and Ultimate Wave were scratched.
“He’s been invited back to the Remington Park Championship,” Ruiz noted. “And so this guy’s kinda looking that way, going through the same road he made last year going to the championship.”
Ruiz credited Ochoa-Pena for the success of Rylees Boy on the racetrack, a career record that includes seven wins in stakes company:
“It’s just amazing. It’s this trainer that makes this horse. (Ochoa-Pena) could be trying to be overly aggressive. He doesn’t. He gives the horse the same races every year, same schedule. He does right by the horse.”
Gary Nesbitt bred Rylees Boy out of Pipistrelle,
his homebred 1993 mare. Pipistrelle has produced six starters among eight total
Sunland Park $120,510 • 440 yards :21.072 • si 92
Heza Fast Man
Heza Motor Scooter
Hot Tin Lizzie
RYLEES BOY, ’05-g.
Rocky Jones
Pipistrelle
Josie Gun
50 SPEEDHORSE, April 27, 2012
Rylees Boy draws clear to win the Bank of America Sunland Championship Challenge by two lengths.
Racing news
Tommie Morelos: Coady Photography