Page 112 - April2022

Mystic Blues winning the Dash For Speed Stakes at Ruidoso Downs with Walking On Katella a head behind in second.
Photos Courtesy Carlos Lujan
Above center, Carlos and Brenda Lujan with Jonathan Aguirre and children Giancarlo, Giovanni, Karina.
Above left, Jonathan Aguirre, Giovanni, Carlos and Giancarlo with Cyber Monday.
Above right, Giancarlo, Giovanni, Brenda, Carlos, KarinaandCarlos.
At left, Giovanni at the ranch.
Carlos’ business partner Abelardo Gallegos.
“We both got interested in horses together,” Carlos says. “We do everything together; she’s been involved in everything. She’s been my backbone and she keeps me straight. A man can dream big, but you still have to keep your feet on the ground, and she keeps them there for me.”
Around 2011, they got tired of working for other people, so they pulled most of the money they’d saved out of their 401(k) and started L O S (Los’s Oilfield Services), LLC. “We started with four people and now have more than 100 employees,” he says.
Brenda handles the horses’ paperwork and serves as office manager at L O S, LLC, which also owns the couple’s racehorses in partnership with Abelardo.
Since their wedding, Carlos and Brenda have added two children of their own
to their family — 18- and 17-year-old
sons Giovanni and Giancarlo, along with Giovanni’s friend, Jonathan Aguirre, whom the family has taken under their wing. “Everywhere I go, I call Jonathan my son and treat him like my son,” Carlos says. “Those youngest three are interested in the horses and help out with the ranch.”
BECOMING STAKES WINNERS
The budding partnership became stakes- winning and stakes-placed owners on the same day in May 2020, when their fillies Mystic Blues and Walking On Katella ran first and second in the Dash For Speed Stakes at Ruidoso as 4 year olds.
At two, Mystic Blues, by Walk Thru Fire and out of Shazoom daughter Queens R Blue, ran fourth in her West Texas Futurity trial, second in her Ruidoso Futurity trial and third in her trials for the Rainbow, All American and the Hobbs America futurities.
110 SPEEDHORSE April 2022
Jake Rogers, Ruidoso Downs
Susan Bachelor, Speedhorse