Page 95 - NMHBA_Winter2022

New Mexico State Fair TB Futurity (R)
Better Believe scored a wire-to-wire victory in the September 25, 6-furlong New Mexico State Fair Thoroughbred Futurity (R) for state- bred 2-year-olds at Albuquerque Downs.
Trained by Todd Fincher for owners R.
Lee Lewis and Brad E. King, Better Believe set fractions of :21.96, :45.37 before reaching the wire in 1:10.64, and her winning margin was 1 3/4 lengths from Storm Leader. Drayden Van Dyke rode the homebred bay daughter of Marking.
Better Believe earned the $164,974 winner’s share of a stakes-record $323,348 purse. The filly is one of five stakes winners from 56 starters sired by Marking, a 10-year-old son of the A.P. Indy stallion Bernardini. Racing from 2015-16, Marking earned $426,200 from eight starts, and his race record included a second-place finish in Runhappy’s 2015 Malibu Stakes (G1) at Santa Anita Park.
Marking has sired the earners of more
than $2.8 million from three crops, including multiple stakes winner Slammed and stakes winners Delbert Too and Proofsinthepuddin. The stallion is owned by Fred A. Alexander and Todd Fincher, and he stands for a $4,000 fee
at Fred and Linda Alexander’s A & A Ranch at Anthony, New Mexico.
Better Believe is also one of two winners from as many starters foaled by Lookin Better, an unraced homebred 8-year-old daughter of 2010 Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Lookin
At Lucky. The filly is a full sister to Marked, a Marking filly who won the 2021 Mountain Top Futurity (R) at Ruidoso Downs.
Better Believe’s second dam, Better Again, is a winning homebred daughter of 1995 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Thunder Gulch. The filly’s third dam, the stakes-winning Unbridled mare Scenic Point, ran third in the 1997 Long Island Handicap (G2) at Aqueduct. A 1993 Kentucky- bred foal, Scenic Point produced four winners from six starters, including Better Now, a
full sister to Better Again who won the 2005 Tempted Stakes (G3) at Belmont Park.
Better Believe traces back to her fourth dam, Bangkok, an unraced daughter of Riverman who foaled a total of three stakes winners, including River Squall, a half-brother to Scenic Point who won two Grade 3 stakes in 1997, including the $200,000 Hawthorne Derby (G3) at Hawthorne Racecourse near Chicago, and Eastern Dude, a half-brother to Scenic Point who won two listed stakes in 1991, including the Transylvania Stakes at Keeneland Racecourse.
Better Believe was coming off a second-place finish in the first of three trials on September 10. All told, the filly has won four of six races and has earned $273,166, and her two career stakes victories include a 2 1/4-length victory
in the 5 1/2-furlong, $129,000 Rio Grande Senorita Futurity (R) for state-bred juvenile fillies at Ruidoso Downs on August 14.
Musics My Vice ran third, five lengths behind Better Believe. New Mexico Jeremy, Nacho Grande, M G Lookingood, Leave Them Behind, and George Who completed the order of finish. Finalists Ar Ya Weegee, Rattila, Sheza Hailstorm, and Z Marks The Spot were scratched.
Runner-up Storm Leader was coming off of a four-race win streak that included victories in the June 26, $152,000 Mountain Top Futurity (R) and August 14, $138,000 Rio Grande Senor Futurity (R). A son of Attila’s Storm racing for Mike Abraham, Leslie Amestoy, and Pierre J. Amestoy Jr., the bay gelding has won four of six outs and has banked $220,185.
Musics My Vice is a dark bay or brown son of Marking. The gelding has earned $47,094 from six races for his owners, Joe Dee Brooks and R. Lee Lewis.
Better Believe’s winning connections include owners R. Lee Lewis and Brad E. King, trainer Todd Fincher and jockey Drayden Van Dyke.
Photos by Coady Photography
DOWNS AT ALBUQUERQUE
Marking
Bernardini
Seventh Street
Lookin Better
Lookin At Lucky
Better Again
BETTER BELIEVE
WINTER 2022 93