Page 12 - January 2016 Speedhorse

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by Jennifer K. Hancock
TRACKS OPEN 2016 SEASON
The new year is off to a great start with America’s fastest athletes racing from the East Coast at Hialeah Park to the West Coast at Los Alamitos and points in between.
El Nino hit Sunland Park with snow in late December, which forced the Grade 1 Championship at Sunland Park and the Sunland Park Winter Juvenile Championship to be delayed from the last weekend
in December to the first weekend in January. An interesting note that might win you a trivia contest
in the future is that the Sunland Park Winter Juvenile Championship was won by Bella Vista Farms’ BV Midnite Express, who was a 3 year old by two days.
Louisiana Downs opened its winter American Quarter Horse meet Jan. 9 and has 11 stakes on the schedule. The 46-day meet will have the first 2-year-old racing of the year as Louisiana Downs hosts the trials for the Mardi Gras Futurity-RG2 on Feb. 20. The finals for the $100,000-added Mardi Gras Futurity will be run March 12 along with the 400-yard $50,000-added Mardi Gras Derby. The $75,000-added Harrah’s Futurity-G3 will be held on closing day.
The Bossier City, Louisiana, track opened Oct. 30, 1974 and has a rich history of racing over the past four decades. The 2016 Quarter Horse meet will run on a Saturday-Tuesday schedule and conclude on March 23. First post is scheduled for 1 p.m. (CST) each race day.
To see the track’s full schedule, visit Louisiana Downs’ website at www.caesars.com/harrahs-louisiana- downs/racing/.
CHAMPIONS ANNOUNCEMENT
On Jan. 20, the American Quarter Horse Association will hold its annual Champions Announcement Ceremony at Heritage Place in Oklahoma City. The 2015 AQHA Racing Champions Announcement – honoring both four and two legged champions from the sport – will begin at 6 p.m. (CST). A reception will follow the announcements.
If you are unable to attend the event in person, you can watch the ceremony live through a free webcast at www.aqharacing.com.
The Champion announcements are coinciding with Heritage Place Winter Mixed Sale, which runs Jan. 21-23. You can access the full catalog of the 38th annual Winter Mixed Sale at www.heritageplace.com.
2016 RUIDOSO HALL OF FAME CLASS
Ruidoso Downs announced the 2016 class to be inducted into the Ruidoso Downs’ Racehorse Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony will take place in late June. The 2016 inductees include owners John and Sue May, trainer Bill Leach, jockey Casey Lambert and Champion racehorse Ochoa.
John and Sue May were married for 61 years
and lived in Fort Stockton, Texas, where they bred, owned and raced Quarter Horses for 40 years. Most of the horses were registered in Sue’s name. The two- time Champion Prospect To The Top, who was the 2011 Champion Two-Year-Old Colt and the 2012 Champion Aged Stallion, was bred by Sue, who was also listed as the breeder of the Champion’s dam and granddam. Sue May also co-bred Champion Easily Smashed, who raced for the partnership of Sue May, trainer Bill Leach and Carol Child. The Mays were among the ownership group of his dam Smash It TB. Easily Smashed won the Sun Country Futurity at Sunland Park and then became the 1981 Champion Three-Year-Old Colt after winning the Kansas Derby and running third in the Rainbow Derby at Ruidoso Downs. John May died Dec. 10, 2014 at the age of 84.
Leach, who won the 1983 Kansas Futurity
with Double Dutch Bus, also excelled at training Thoroughbreds. He trained Smash It TB to win the Ruidoso Thoroughbred Futurity. Miss Einstein TB was a multiple stakes winner for Leach that earned $105,205 and then became a superlative producer. Co-owned by Leach Racing when competing, Miss Einstein is the dam of stakes winners Mr. Wizard ($441,742), Beau Wizer ($400,562), Lady Genius ($353,142) and Double Smart ($347,698).
Jockey Casey Lambert joins his dad, Cliff Lambert, who is a Ruidoso Downs’ Racehorse Hall of Fame inductee. They are the first father-son duo in the Hall of Fame. Casey, 50, retired at the end of the 2015 Ruidoso season and was the leading Thoroughbred jockey for the summer season. He won more than 2,700 Thoroughbred races and more than 500 Quarter Horse races since he began riding at age 16.
The most famous horse that Casey ever rode is Mine That Bird, winner of the 2009 Kentucky Derby. Lambert rode the 3 year old in the WinStar Derby (now the Grade 3 Sunland Park Derby) that year, just weeks before the horse upset the field at Churchill Downs. He points to Heritage Of Gold, third-place finisher in the 2000 Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Distaff,
as the best Thoroughbred he’s ever ridden. He states that 1995 Champion Aged Mare Special Phoebe is the finest Quarter Horse he has ridden.
Send photos and news items to jennifer_k_hancock@hotmail.com.
THE MONTH IN REVIEW
10 SPEEDHORSE, January 2016
TRACK CHATTER