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New Mexico Classic QH Derby (RG2)
Bob and Sissie McClure’s Classy Moon led
at every call en route to a neck victory in the October 30, 400-yard New Mexico Classic Derby (RG2) for 3-year-old Quarter Horses at Zia Park.
Ridden by Noe Garcia Jr. for trainer Fred Danley and sent to post at odds of 2-1, Classy Moon stopped the timer in :19.616 while recording a 94 speed index. The homebred First Moonflash gelding also earned the $105,700 winner’s share of the $211,400 purse.
Classy Moon was the fastest qualifier from his one-length victory in the second of three New Mexico Cup Derby trials on October 9. The bay gelding also became the latest graded stakes winner sired by First Moonflash. A
son of 2002 AQHA champion 2-year-old colt First To Flash and the sport’s champion aged stallion in 2009, First Moonflash won 14 of 25 races and banked $969,828, and his 10 stakes victories included the 2008 and 2009 Championship at Sunland Park (G1), and the 440-yard, $115,740 Bank of America New Mexico Championship Challenge (G1) at Sunland Park.
From 10 crops, First Moonflash has sired the earners of more than $25.1 million, including champions Flash And Roll, Handsome Jack Flash, and Foxy Moonflash, graded stakes winner and 2014 All American
Futurity (G1) runner-up Mad About The Moon, and 2014 All American Derby (G1) winner Too Flash For You. The stallion died in May 2019 after a battle with laminitis.
Classy Moon’s dam, Shez Classy Now, is
a daughter of champion Now I Know who
won two graded 870-yard stakes in 2006, including the $60,600 New Mexico Horsemen’s Association Handicap (RG2) for state-bred distance specialists at SunRay Park. The gelding’s fourth dam, the winning Kentucky-bred City Line mare Cattin Around, foaled Hold The Onions, a stakes-winning Bald Eagle colt.
Classy Moon was stakes placed twice during the Ruidoso Downs summer meet, as the gelding ran third, 1 3/4 lengths behind winner River Flash, in the 350-yard, $163,000 Mountain Top Derby (R) on June 18, and second, 1 3/4 lengths behind winner River Flash, in the 400-yard, $174,000 Zia Derby (RG2) on August 6. All told, Classy Moon has won five of 16 races, and the winner’s share of the purse from his first career stakes score bumped his earnings to $205,524, of which $176,289 has been pocketed from 10 outs this season.
Hunky McGoo finished second and was followed by Passeanna, Wine Dont Lie, Z Ya, JC New Dawn, Chicksbabycartel, Daddys Mony and Cowboy Zulu. Sixth-fastest qualifier Run Time was scratched.
The seventh-fastest qualifier, Hunky McGoo is a homebred son of the Corona Cartel stallion Big Daddy Cartel campaigned by William R. Robertson and Mary Robertson. The gray gelding has won three of 11 races,
and the $36,672 runner-up share of the
New Mexico Cup Derby purse increased his bankroll to $73,872.
Passeanna is a daughter of Big Daddy Cartel and the graded stakes winning Woodbridge mare Woodys Allstar racing for Denis and Julie Schoenhofer, who purchased the brown filly for $52,000 at the 2020 Ruidoso Select Yearling Sale. Unraced at 2, Passeanna has won two of nine outs, and the $21,572 third-place share of the purse pushed her earnings to $61,808.
Classy Moon’s winning connections include owners Bob and Sissie McClure, trainer Fred Danley and jockey Noe Garcia Jr.
Photos by Coady Photography
ZIA PARK
First Moonflash
First To Flash
Nagano Moon
Shez Classy Now
Now I Know
Aunt Nelly
CLASSY MOON
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