Page 44 - January 6 2012

Evangeline Downs Futurity
SSTRICKORTREAT
by Stacy Pigott
It’s not unusual to see an owner or breeder to successfully campaign three generations of a family of horses. It’s a little rarer when it happens
to a trainer. But it happened for Janet VanBebber, who sent out Sstrickortreat to win the $161,950 Evangeline Downs Futurity on Dec. 17.
“I owned his second dam and then Ronnie (Stewart) and I foal shared to get Treat Her Lika Lady and we ran her. We decided to breed her and got the resulting foal, Sstrickortreat,” said VanBebber, who dissolved the partnership by buying the colt for $2,200 at the TQHA Yearling Sale for her father, Gene Newcomb. “We no longer had the mare, Ronnie no longer had the sire so he wasn’t real interested in keeping the colt to pursue proving the pedi- gree, and I just thought he was a nice enough colt to keep in the barn. I bought him back for my dad, and what a blessing it’s been.”
Sstrickortreat is the only starter from
four foals for Treat Her Lika Lady, which VanBebber raced at the age of 2 to two wins from 10 starts. Treat Her Lika Lady is a half- sister to graded stakes-placed La Jolla In Debt
out of the stakes-winning Coup De Kas-TB mare Northside Debutante.
“Even if you remove my involvement in own- ership, as a trainer to have the third generation in your barn...” VanBebber
continued. “I have it with the
Sin Tacha family as well, but
when you have a vision about
a bloodline and you think you
can make something out of it
and then that comes into frui-
tion, it’s just exciting. It takes it
to a whole new level.”
From the first crop of
Zoomin For Bux, Sstrickortreat
showed he had talent right
from the start. He held his own
in early schooling races against
the likes of eventual Harrah’s
Entertainment Futurity-G3
winner JLS Party Wagon, and broke his maiden impressively in his second start by 2 1/4 lengths.
“I wasn’t real sure from the get-go if he would be able to go 400 yards,” said VanBebber,
who late paid Sstrickortreat into the AQHA Challenge program and entered him in the Delta Juvenile Challenge trials. “He got sick that week and wound up popping out of the
gates and it wasn’t his best performance. It was really a heartbreaker for me because
I thought that was his real chance to make some money.”
Sstrickortreat returned to finish second in an allowance on June 11 before lining up for the TQHA Sales Futurity tri- als on July 15 at Retama Park.
“In the TQHA trials, the horse next to him false broke and he tried to leave with him,” VanBebber recalled. “He left hard and hit those gates. He wound up turning
over and was scratched. He really wasn’t trying to flip, he was trying to go somewhere. So he had some bad luck and it weighed heavy on my heart because I thought he had talent.”
Evangeline Downs $161,950 • 400 yards :19.580 • si 106
Shazoom
Zoomin For Bux
Oh No Its Uh Oh
SSTRICKORTREAT, f.
Royal Shake Em
Treat Her Lika Lady
Northside Debutante
Sstrickortreat had clear sailing from post position nine to win the $161,950 Evangeline Downs Futurity by a half-length over Jess Tee Off.
42 SPEEDHORSE, January 6, 2012
RACING NEWS
Evangeline Downs