Page 97 - New Mexico Winter 2021

New Mexico Cup 870 Champ. (RG3)
Moonflash Cat, a 5-year-old gelded son of champion First Moonflash campaigned by Mario A. Ortega, was a prompt 4-5 favorite in the October 31, $100,000 New Mexico Cup 870 Championship (RG3) for state-bred Quarter Horses at Zia Park.
Ridden by Luis Negron for trainer Sherry Armstrong, Moonflash Cat covered 870 yards in :45.500 while posting a 99 speed index, and his margin of victory was 1 3/4 lengths from Why Buy The Cow. The gelding earned $60,000 from his second graded stakes win.
Moonflash Cat was bred by Dosi and Norma Alvarez of La Union, New Mexico. The gelding’s sire, First Moonflash, was a multiple graded stakes winning son of champion First To Flash and the sport’s champion aged stallion in 2009.
Racing from 2007-09, First Moonflash won 14 of 25 races -- including 10 stakes -- and banked $969,828. The stallion has sired the earners of more than $22.3 million from nine crops, includ- ing AQHA champions Handsome Jack Flash, Flash And Roll, and Foxy Moonflash. A half brother to four stakes winners, including graded stakes winners Dash Ta Moon and Moonifisant, First Moonflash died due to complications from laminitis in May 2019.
Moonflash Cat’s dam, Domeinitchy (TB), is an unraced homebred 15-year-old daughter of the Storm
Cat stallion Dome. The gelding is a half-brother to 2012 Zia Futurity (G1) winner Gonna Cha Cha.
Moonflash Cat traces back to his third dam, June Gift, a winning Florida-bred daughter of the Speak John stallion Hold Your Peace. A 1987 foal, June Gift produced Quiet Eclipse, a winning Quiet American mare who foaled four stakes winners, including Grade 3 winners Lunarpal and Astrology.
Moonflash Cat was successfully defending
his New Mexico Cup 870 Championship, as he earned a 2 3/4-length victory in this stakes last year. All told, he has won six of 26 races -- includ- ing five of 17 at the 870-yard distance and four of eight at Zia Park -- and he has banked $204,526, of which $194,813 has been earned in his 870 races.
Moonflash Cat returned a $3.60 win mutuel and teamed with Why Buy The Cow, the 6-1 fourth choice and the winner of the 2019 New Mexico Cup 870 Championship, for a $2 exacta dividend of $20.40. Bigg Jack, a 14-1 longshot, ran third, 2 1/2 lengths behind the winner, to complete a $108.10 ($1) trifecta.
El Tarasco 727, Dan The Flashman, Noreason Fordiamonds, Call Me Kash and Mr Big com- plete the order of finish.
Why Buy The Cow is a 6-year-old son of Heza Motor Scooter campaigned by Carrol A. Durbin. The bay gelding has won five of 28 starts, and the
$20,000 runner-up share of the purse increased his earnings to $253,514, of which $219,764 has been pocketed from 19 outs at the 870 trip.
A 4-year-old son of Big Daddy Cartel and a $22,000 purchase at the 2018 Ruidoso Select Yearling Sale, Bigg Jack races for Bigg Jack Partners. The gray gelding has won two of 21 starts, and the $10,000 third-place share of the purse pushed his bankroll to $54,945.
The New Mexico Cup 870 Championship
has been run every year at Zia Park since 2005, the track’s inaugural season, and it was open to state-bred Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds through 2019. It first achieved graded status in 2020, when it was restricted to New Mexico-bred Quarter Horses.
Story by Michael Cusortelli • Photos by Coady Photography
ZIA PARK
First Moonflash
First To Flash
Nagano Moon
Domeinitchy
Dome
Perfect Present
MOONFLASH CAT
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