Page 135 - December 2020

Chicks With Coronas winning connections include owners Sharon Hafliger and R.J. Ziegler, trainer Casey Black and jockey Cristian Esqueda.
and allowance circuit running at the three Oklahoma tracks. After winning an allowance at Prairie Meadows on Sept. 6, Chicks With Coronas won her trial and topped the qualify- ing ladder for the Speedhorse Derby, finishing her 350-yard trial in :17.681 on Oct. 24. That also established the filly as the even-money favorite at post time.
Chicks With Coronas’ owners opted to skip attending the race—which marked the debut in stakes company for the filly—in person.
“We’d only seen her run two times person- ally and we were going to go down and I told Ronnie, I’m not going to go down. I don’t want to jinx her.”
No worries of a jinx here. Chicks With Coronas broke from the 7-post and got stron- ger as the race progressed, making a driving finish during the stretch to close from fifth to first, winning the Speedhorse Derby by a neck.
“She just deserves the spotlight, that horse does,” Hafliger stated. “She’s as honest as they can be.”
It was a watershed moment for the filly, and her owners. Hafliger and Ziegler have been on their current partnership in the horse business for about five years, but primarily own Paints.
“With the luck we’ve had with this Quarter Horse filly, you’ve got to be pretty happy,” Hafliger said. “We’re hoping, if she stays sound, we’re going to keep running her.”
Cristian Esqueda was aboard for the stakes victory, covering the distance in :17.459 for a 101 speed index.
“Cristian, since he started riding, he just loves that mare,” Hafliger said, adding of Casey Black that “he’s one of the few hands-on trainers left. He doesn’t want a big barn, so he limits the horses that he gets. He just had a barn of exceptional horses this year.”
Jim and Natalie Montgomery bred Chicks With Coronas and home-bred her dam, Cache Corona, an unraced 2014 mare who has pro- duced four starters thus far among six total off- spring. With this result, Chicks With Coronas becomes the first stakes winner in the brood.
Morning-line favorite Cajun King (The Louisiana Cartel-Easydoesitcindy), the win- ner of last year’s version of the OHA Mystery Futurity, finished second by a neck for owner Abel Flores after also placing second to Chicks With Coronas in their Speedhorse Derby trial. The Eddie Willis trainee had jockey Jimmy Brooks in the irons. Jess Vamoose (Mighty B Valiant-Jess Because
I Could), a 15-1 longshot, hit the board in third for Ellen Kennedy Racing LLC. Luis Villafranco is the trainer and L. Martinez drew the riding assignment.
NSM Ice Angel (FDD Dynasty-Corona With Ice), Valiant Memories (One Valiant Hero-Painted Memories), Johnny De Capo (Capo De Capi-Dash For Ted), Gold Diggers Avenger (Inseperable-Corona For Ashley), RJ Little Less Talk (Mighty B Valiant-Let Me Tell Her), Relentless Heat (Hes Relentless-Three Hot Dreams) and Nice Socks Ms Hocks (Kiss My Hocks-Lil Famous Dash) completed the order of finish.
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SPEEDHORSE December 2020 133
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