Page 129 - December 2020

Perrys Double Down’s winning connections include owner Stinebaugh Equine Enterprises LLC, trainer John Stinebaugh and jockey Franciso Calderon.
him. Everything just fell right into place, everything went perfect. He still got the win.”
Perrys Double Down was ready for it, agreed his trainer and jockey.
“I always said don’t give up on him,” said Stinebaugh. “I kept saying he’s good and he’s gonna get better.”
Calderon rides the gelding in races and gal- lops him in morning works.
“He’s a handful in the morning, sure a handful,” the jockey said. “I usually let my horse gallop out before a race, but I can’t do that with him because he’s such a handful.”
Purchased for $45,000 at the 2018 Heritage Place Yearling Sale, Perrys Double Down races for the trainer’s brother, James Stinebaugh, in the name of Stinebaugh Equine Enterprises LLC of McKinney, Texas.
“This was his second time running on this kind of track,” James said. “We ran him in Louisiana last year, in trials to the Evangeline Downs Futurity. It was night, it was rain-
ing and it was his first time under the lights, and he kept jumping the shadows and water puddles and whatnot on the track, but he still ran third and was 11th fastest qualifier. It was close – he just missed.”
Perrys Double Down was bred in Texas by Bob and Jerry Gaston, whose homebred Dulce Sin Tacha won the $1,031,211 Texas Classic Futurity-G1, on Lone Star’s closing-night.
“Yeah, how about that?” Bob asked, with a laugh. “The Futurity and Derby on the same night, that’s pretty good.”
Perrys Double Down has a license to run. His dam’s half-brother, Double Down Special, set a World Record at 400 yards in the 2010 West Texas Derby-G3 at Sunland Park.
The gelding is the first stakes winner from four starters out of the Fishers Dash mare Double Down Darling, who won once in five starts while earning $4,373. Perrys Double Down is a half-brother to the stakes-placed One Famous Eagle mare One Famous Darling ($39,844), who in 2016 finished second in the Texas Classic Juvenile Stakes.
With all but three career starts in stakes trials or finals, Perrys Double Down has won three of 12 lifetime races, including two of seven at the classic 440-yard distance. The gelding finished third but went winless in each of his four starts as a two year old at Ruidoso Downs and Evangeline. Coming into his own as a three year old, Perrys Double Down lit the board in the Rainbow Derby-G1 and ran in the All American Invitational Stakes last summer at Ruidoso.
The seventh-fastest qualifier to the Texas Classic Derby, the gelding came into the final off a second by 3/4-length to fastest qualifier Kiss My Astica in the fourth of five trials on Nov. 7. The $174,979 winner’s share of the
purse from his first stakes victory increased his earnings to $248,254.
“My brother kept telling me, don’t give up
on him,” said James Stinebaugh. “The horse has always kind of lumbered coming out of the gate, but as we’ve gone further and further through the year, you could see that he has that other gear on the end that a lot of other horses don’t have.
“John always said he’s going to be a derby horse. Well, he qualified for the Rainbow and we lost a shake in the All American. He’s been a good horse – consistent, maturing and getting better and better. Glad we waited.”
Multiple stakes placed winner KJ Mucho Macho Man (Apollitical Jess-Wild Six) ran second under Alan Hernandez for owners John & Wanda Kathy Lee and Ruben Mares and trainer Wesley Giles.
Multiple stakes finalist A Valiant Zoomer (Valiant Hero-Signs Zoomer) and jockey Victor Urieta Jr. were third for owner TYKHE Racing LLC and trainer Alonso Neri.
Wow What A Dynasty (FDD Dynasty-A First Down Chick), Silk And Stilettos (Favorite Cartel-Tallulah Moon), Jess U R Blue (Jess Louisiana Blue-U R Blue), Jess Sumokin Hot (Apollitical Jess-Sumokin), Avyator (One Famous Eagle-Quick Moon Sign), KJ Frankie B (Apollitical Jess-Xquizit) and Kiss My Astica (Kiss My Hocks-Astica) completed the order of finish.
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SPEEDHORSE December 2020 127
Dustin Orona Photography