Page 175 - October 2023

SOLAIA
by Michael Cusortelli
Solaia, a daughter of EC Jet One racing for owner Carlos Ponce, scored her first stakes victory in the inaugural $150,000 Big Easy Futurity at Delta Downs on Sept. 1.
Prepped by Juan Diaz Jr., Solaia covered 350 yards in :17.789, and her winning margin was a neck from Lightning Trend. Victor Urieta Jr. rode the bay filly, who earned the $75,000 winner’s share of the purse.
Solaia was coming off of a third-place finish in the ninth Big Easy Futurity trial on Aug. 10. Raced in two states, including Texas, the filly has won three of six starts and has earned at total of $92,410.
Solaia was bred in Texas by TYKHE Racing LLC, and she was the eighth-fastest qualifier from the trials. She is now a winner of three races at Delta Downs, Retama Park and Sam Houston Race Park.
The filly is out of Truly Favorite, a winning 10-year-old daughter of the Favorite Trick TB stallion Favorite Cartel. Solaia’s second dam, Truly A Delightful, is an unplaced daughter of 2003
Champion 2-Year-Old Colt Teller Cartel. She produced 100% winners from five starters, including Separate Delight, who ran third in the AQRA President’s Fall Futurity and Glen Ellyn and, who finished third in the Canterbury Park Distaff Challenge in 2018. Solaia’s third dam, A Delightful Legacy, won the 2003 All American Juvenile Invitational-RG3 and was a finalist in that season’s Los Alamitos Million Futurity-G1. A 2001 foal, A Delightful Legacy was an AQHA Dam of Distinction who foaled three stakes winners, including multiple
graded stakes winner and 2009 Champion 3 Year Old Inseperable and Grade 3 winner Seperate Interest. Solaia traces back to her fourth dam, Fortune Of Delight,
a stakes-winning and multiple graded stakes placed daughter of Six Fortunes. A champion broodmare and AQHA Dam of Distinction, Fortune Of Delight produced Champions Hes My Dasher and A Delightful Dasher.
Lightning Trend (Mr Piloto- Cash Cartel) banked the $25,500
runner-up share of the purse for his owners, Angelo Potts and David Bustamante, who also trained the sorrel gelding. Guadalupe Lucio Jr. rode Lightning Trend. The gelding ran third in the Firecracker Futurity-G2 in July and was a finalist in the Old South Futurity in May of this year.
Special Royal Zipper (Special Royal Corona-Zippen Bok) ran third for her owner Luis Armando Castellanos, who purchased the gray filly for $5,200 at last year’s TQHA Yearling Sale in San Antonio. Ubaldo Luna rode Special Royal Zipper for trainer Ray Mayo. Special Royal Zipper has hit the board in four of her five starts.
Jonezs (Apollitical Blood-Swinging Dash) finished fourth and was followed by Sorona Rose (Duponte-Always Roses), fastest qualifier Apollitical Queen (Apollitical Jess-Heros Queen), Serious Eagle Rising (One Dashing Eagle-Serious Ground), G Nah Nah B (Freighttrain B-Jess Tempting To Fly), and Hemmingway (One Fabulous Eagle-Miss Sadie Thompson). B Second Cowboy was scratched.
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RACING NEWS
SPEEDHORSE October 2023 173
Big Easy Futurity
Coady Photography
Delta Downs
$150,000 • 350 yards :17.789 • SI 86
The Louisiana Cartel
EC Jet One
Pretty Girl Perry
SOLAIA, ‘21-f.
Favorite Cartel
Truly Favorite
Truly A Delightful