Page 123 - NM Summer 2023

ZIA PARK
Hobbs Fall Classic Stakes (R)
Photos by Coady Photography
Marking
Bernardini
Seventh Street
Bekat Bekat
Lawyer Ron
Bastet
ANTONIOS MARK
Andy A. Banegas’ Antonios Mark kept his perfect record intact with his 2 3/4-length victory in the December 12, $125,000 Hobbs Fall Classic Stakes (R) for New Mexico-bred 2-year-old Thoroughbreds at Zia Park
Ridden by Oscar Ceballos and sent to post as the 7-2 third choice in a field of eight, Antonios Mark covered 1 mile & 70 yards in 1:44.69. Dallas Barton prepped the chestnut gelding, who banked the $75,000 winner’s share of the purse from his third win in as many outs.
Antonios Mark was bred by Fred Alexander. The gelding’s sire, Marking, is a multiple graded stakes placed 10-year-old son of the A.P. Indy stallion Bernardini. Racing in two countries 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 $3.7 million from four crops, and his seven official black-type stakes winners include Grade 2 winner Slammed and multiple stakes winners Delbert Too and Better Believe. A half-brother to Grade 2 winner Lake Avenue, the stallion stands for a $6,000 fee at Fred and Linda Alexander’s A & A Ranch at Anthony, New Mexico.
Antonios Mark’s dam, Bekat Bekat, is a winning Kentucky-bred daughter of the
Langfuhr stallion Lawyer Ron. Now 13, Bekat Bekat has produced two winners from three starters. The gelding’s second dam, the unraced Marfa mare Bastet, foaled six winners from seven starters, including Smokescreen, a winning half- brother to Bekat Bekat who ran third in the 2005 Pennsylvania Derby (G2) at Philadelphia Park.
Antonios Mark’s third dam, the winning Maryland-bred Fabulous Bid mare Tammy Jean, produced Platinum Punch, a half-sister to Bastet who won three stakes in Maryland and Delaware in 1994 and ran second in the 1994 Miss Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Racecourse, and Viking Ship, a winning half-brother to Bastet and the runner-up in the 1995 Alabama Derby at Birmingham Racecourse.
Antonios Mark traces back to his fourth dam, Funny Tammy, an unraced Tentam mare who foaled Joe’s Tammie, a half-sister to Tammy Jean and winner of the 1987 Arlington-Washington Lassie Stakes (G1) at Arlington Park.
Antonios Mark was coming off of a three- quarter length victory in a 6-furlong, $39,000 first-level allowance race for New Mexico-bred 2-year-olds at Zia Park on November 14. Raced exclusively in New Mexico, Antonios Mark has earned $102,000.
Ol’ McClintock, a 17-1 longshot, finished second and was followed by Sweet Money,
George Who, Seventh St Diamond, 2-1 favorite Smartsrealgood, Sense Of Urgency and Shame On Sam.
Ol’ McClintock was coming off a wire- to-wire, one-length win in a 6 1/2-furlong maiden-special-weight race at Zia Park on December 1. A bay son of Marking and the stakes-placed Pleasant Tap mare Joyful Tap owned by Jerry Tom Cannon, the gelding has won one of seven races and has banked $50,880.
Sweet Money is a homebred son of 2017 Arkansas Derby (G1) runner-up Conquest Mo Money racing for Tom and Sandy McKenna’s Judge Lanier Racing LLC. A maiden, the dark bay or brown gelding has earned $20,400 from two outs.
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