Friday, December 31, 2010
Juan Ochoa rode Jannas Pride to a come-from-behind, 1 ½-length victory in Thursday’s Red Hedeman Mile Stakes for New Mexico-bred 2-year-olds at Sunland Park.
Prepped by Todd Fincher for owners Charles W. Hunter and Dale Taylor, Jannas Pride covered one mile in 1:40.33 after closing off of fractions of :23.32, :47.21, and 1:12.09 set by pacesetter Silent Sunday. The dark bay or brown Desert God gelding returned a $3.80 win mutuel as the 9-10 favorite.
Jannas Pride was bred by Hunter, and the gelding is one of 14 stakes winners from 123 starters sired by Desert God. A unraced 19-year-old son of the Mr. Prospector stallion Fappiano and half brother to stakes winners Better Than Honour, Smolensk, and Turnberry Isle, Desert God has sired the earners of more than $6.5 million from 15 crops, including the undefeated $1-million earner Peppers Pride. He is owned by Joe Allen and Ron Allen and stands for a $6,000 fee at A & A Horse Ranch at Anthony, New Mexico.
Jannas Pride’s dam, Janna, is a winning daughter of the Yukon stallion Candi’s Gold. Now 15, Janna has foaled three winners from four starters, including Janna’s Gold, a half sister to Jannas Pride who ran second in the 2004 Sierra Starlet Handicap (R) at Ruidoso Downs and ’05 Carlos Salazar Stakes (R) at The Downs at Albuquerque
Jannas Pride’s second dam, the Shanekite mare Frans Lass, won two stakes at Santa Anita in ’93, including the $111,650 California Breeders’ Champion Stakes (R) for state-breds. Frans Lass has produced six winners from seven starters, including the late French Lass, a filly by French Deputy who ran second in the 2002 Bayou City Stakes at Sam Houston Race Park
Frans Lass is a full sister to two stakes winners – the late Irishkite, the winner of the 1988 Bustles & Bows Stakes during the Los Angeles County Fair meet at Fairplex Park, and the late Shanes Lass, a filly who won three stakes in Northern California from 1990-91. A half sister to Frans Lass, the Tricky Creek filly Unique Creek, won two stakes at Louisiana Downs and Sam Houston Race Park from 1999-2000
Jannas Pride traces back to her fourth dam, the winning and stakes-placed Montparnasse II mare Metropo Miss. A 1970 California-bred foal, Metropo Miss produced four-time stakes winner Elegant Bargain and Bourbon And Blues, a colt by Olympiad King who won three stakes in New Mexico from 1984-86, including the ’86 E.T. Springer Handicap at Albuquerque.
Jannas Pride currently has a four-race win streak that includes the one-mile, $120,000 Eddy County Stakes (R) for state-bred 2-year-olds at Zia Park on December 5. The gelding has won four of six starts, and the $72,000 winner’s share of the Red Hedeman Mile purse increased his earnings to $187,350.
Also, Jannas Pride is undefeated in three outs at the mile distance.
Jannas Pride teamed with Deity, a 47-1 longshot, for a ($1) exacta return of $41. Desert Gulch, a 57-1 longshot, completed a $281.70 ($1) trifecta.
Numberoneson, It’s Tera, Mostly Dust, Beau Wizer, Silent Sunday, Keddy Kaufaye, and Texas Silver completed the order of finish.
Deity is a chestnut gelding by Desert God acquired by Freda McSwane and Joe Walters for $2,000 at the 2009 New Mexico-Bred Yearling Sale at Ruidoso Downs. An earner of $51,246 from one win in eight races, Deity was coming off of a fourth-place finish in the Eddy County Stakes, and he also was a finalist in the August 1, 5 ½-furlong Rio Grande Senor Futurity (R) at Ruidoso Downs.
Desert Gulch was just 13 days removed from a 4 ¾-length victory in a one-mile state-bred maiden special weight route for at Sunland Park. The Union Mills gelding, who is owned and trained by Barbara J. Brown and raced for a $7,500 tag in September, has banked $46,009 from 10 starts.