Page 123 - December 2020

“You can just count on him to be there,” said Matt. “He’s just so honest and he tries so hard. He’s so sound. He’s always been so con- sistent. Every time he’s right there in the money and gives you a chance to win.”
The Dunns bred Apollitical Pence in Oklahoma with the late Mike Womack’s Womack Cavender Farms. They own him with Sammy Valeriano’s Valeriano Racing Stables LLC. John Cooper, who was winning his 1,500th Quarter Horse race and won the 1979 Champion of Champions with Mr Doty Bars, trains Apollitical Pence.
“He’s a good gate horse and left there run- ning,” said Cooper. “I’m so happy I can hardly talk. It doesn’t get better than that.”
The Dunns raced Apollitical Pence in the name of their Dunn Ranch through 2019. He won the 2019 Heritage Place Derby-G3 and qualified for sev- eral major futurities and derbies. Valeriano bought into the gelding before the 2020 racing season.
“For the past year before that, every time I’d see him, he’d say, ‘Man, why don’t you sell me half of Pence,’ and so we ended up selling him half of Pence,” said Matt. “I started breeding some mares for him and started standing his stallions.”
Valeriano owned Dexxter, another Champion of Champions runner. The Dunns bought into Dexxter after he had an exceptional work at Remington Park in early 2020. Dexxter proceeded to reel off three Grade 1 victories, including the All American Gold Cup.
Womack died just prior to the Heritage Place Derby. The Dunns had gotten to know him through their purchase of Send City, the dam of Apollitical Pence.
Trainer John Cooper and jockey Raul Valenzuela.
“Mike was a great, great guy and a great friend,” said Matt. “After I bought the mare, he had a breeding to Apollitical Jess and he asked if I wanted to partner with him on it.”
Womack once had his photo taken with Vice President Mike Pence, which led to the name.
“I named a horse that year Trump Policy,” said Matt. “Mike was a big Trump guy.”
Send City got sick as a young horse and never raced. The Dunns bought her as a brood- mare prospect. Apollitical Pence was her first foal. She has a second starter and winner, the Cartel Success filly Send Success. Send City has two 2018 foals, a 2019 full sister to Apollitical Pence, and a 2020 full brother. Matt said that she has two full siblings due in 2021.
Martha Wells’ homebred Tell Cartel (Favorite Cartel-Chicks Tell) finished second under jockey Ruben Lozano for trainer Matthew Fales. The 3-year-old colt was coming off of a victory in the Los Alamitos Super Derby-G1.
Powerful Favorite (Favorite Cartel- Remember Me Rose) ran third under jockey Eduardo Nicasio for owner Rosenthal Ranch LLC and trainer Christopher O’Dell. The 4-year-old gelding’s most recent outing was a win in the Go Man Go Handicap-G1.
Completing the field were Chocolatito (Favorite Cartel-Enjoy The Walk), Eagle Coast (One Dashing Eagle-Coastal Candy), Dexxter (Corona Cartel-Tres Of Linda), Curls Happy Wagon (PYC Paint Your Wagon-Eye A Spit Curl), Hotsempting (Tempting Dash-Pandorum), Zoomin For Spuds (Zoomin For Bux-A Perfect Cocktail) and Bos Time Machine (Bodacious Dash-One Prompt Chick).
Apollitical Pence and jockey Raul Valenzuela return to the winner’s circle after their victory.
RACING NEWS
SPEEDHORSE December 2020 121
William Zuazo, Speedhorse William Zuazo, Speedhorse