Sent to post as the 3-5 favorite, fastest qualifier American Runaway responded with an easy 1 ¼-length win in the $500,000 Ruidoso Quarter Horse Futurity (G1) at Ruidoso Downs on Sunday.

American Runaway went 350 yards in :17.467 and earned a 94 speed index under jockey Cody Jensen, who rode the gray colt by Ocean Runaway to a 4 ¾-length victory in the sixth of 19 trials on May 28. Paul Jones saddled American Runaway for owners Sammy Martinez, Johnny Martinez, and Bobby D. Cox.

“He had a beautiful break from the gate,” said Jensen. “We had the lead in three or four jumps.”

Bred in Utah by Lance K. Robinson, American Runaway became the sixth stakes winner from two crops sired by Ocean Runaway, a Grade 1-winning son of First Down Dash and a two-time AQHA champion. Now 8, Ocean Runaway is a full brother to two Grade 1 winners, including 2003 world champion Wave Carver, and he has sired 145 starters and the earners of more than $1.7 million. He stands at 6666 Ranch at Guthrie, Texas.

American Runaway’s dam, the winning Strawfly Special mare Allamericandreamgirl, was a finalist in the 2004 AQHA New Mexico Juvenile Challenge (G3) at Ruidoso Downs. The 8-year-old mare has produced two winners from three starters, and she is a half sister to five graded stakes winners, including champions Special Phoebe and Heartswideopen, the winner of the ’07 Ruidoso Futurity.

American Runaway’s second dam, the Grade 1-winning Dash For Cash mare Dashing Phoebe, was the sport’s champion 2-year-old filly in 1985 and champion sophomore filly the following year. The colt’s third dam, Phoebe’s Moon Bug, was a sorrel daughter of the Top Moon stallion Lady Bug’s Moon who won two stakes at Los Alamitos as a 2-year-old in 1973.

Phoebe’s Moon Bug’s half brother, the late Little Brown Jug (TB) gelding No Chance At All, won the $43,550 California Breeders’ Championship Stakes (R) at Bay Meadows in 1984, and he ran third in the Grade 1 Peninsula Championship at Bay Meadows the previous season.

American Runaway has won two of five races, and he ran a close second to Llano Teller as a 48-1 longshot in the $596,041 Remington Park Futurity (G1). The colt posted a career-best 105 speed in that race, which was run on a sloppy track.

The Ruidoso Futurity is the first leg of the All American Triple Crown, which consists of the Ruidoso, Rainbow (G1), and All American (G1) futurities. Only one horse, world champion Special Effort in 1981, has swept all of Ruidoso Downs’ Grade 1 futurities.

“It’s a really good start to the meet, and you can’t win the Triple Crown if you don’t win this race,” said Jones after the race. “I knew this was a good horse, but he has really blossomed here at Ruidoso.”

Jones said that American Runaway would be pointed to the 400-yard Rainbow Futurity trials on July 8.

“The Martinez brothers had him going really well before he came here,” added Lisa Saumell, who manages the Jones stable in New Mexico. “He wasn’t breaking (from the gate) as well as he could, so we fiddled with that, and he doesn’t like being in a stall in the saddling paddock, so we saddled him outside his stall today. We just gave him his way in the paddock.”

Treason, Bodacious Dash, Royally Sandra, Legendary Express, Unanchored, Absolut Treasure, Brimmin To Pass, Fredona, and No Dice Special completed the order of finish.

A California-bred gelding by champion Hawkinson racing for Donna Aldridge and Lola Willis, Treason earned $80,000 to boost his bankroll to $82,100. Treason won the 13^th Ruidoso Futurity trial in his career debut and was the sixth-fastest qualifier.

Bodacious Dash earned $40,000 for his owner, Jim D. Pitts of Burkburnett, Texas. The sorrel Texas-bred colt by First Down Dash was coming off of a half-length trial victory and was the eighth-fastest qualifier.