Monday, December 19, 2011
Oscar Rincon rode Little Bit Southern to a 1 1/4-length win in Sunday's 400-yard, $110,000 Lou Wooten Handicap (RG1) for New Mexico-bred fillies and mares at Sunland Park.
Prepped by Victor Rodriguez for owner Edilberto Estrada, Little Bit Southern stopped the timer in :19.163 while earning a 91 speed index and her first career stakes victory. The $66,000 winner's share of the Lou Wooten purse increased the 4-year-old bay mare's bankroll to $184,570.
Little Bit Southern was bred by Richard and Patricia Shearer. The mare's sire, Southern Corona, is a winning 10-year-old stallion by Corona Cartel who ran second in the 870-yard The Woodlands Stakes at Sam Houston Race Park in 2004.
Southern Corona is a full brother to 2003 Ruidoso Derby (G2) winner Southern Cartel. The stallion is owned by the Shearers, and he stands for a $2,000 fee at Dr. Leonard Blach's Buena Suerte Equine at Roswell, New Mexico.
Little Bit Southern is also one of three winners from five starters foaled by Averys Little Bit, a 12-year-old mare by Streakin La Jolla.
All told, Little Bit Southern has won six of 28 races, including five of 13 this year. On May 1, the mare ran second, a head behind winner Full Moon Dasher, in the 400-yard, $85,000 Four Corners Senora Stakes (R) for state-bred distaffers at SunRay Park.
Little Bit Southern's stakes resume also includes a third-place finish in last year's 350-yard, $75,000 Firecracker Stakes (R) at SunRay Park, and a second-place finish to Seven Coronas in the 2009 New Mexican Spring Fling Stakes (R) at Sunland Park.
Snow Regard, Blushing Cartel, By By Corona, Sixy Chamisa, Rime Has A Chick, Famous Caillie, BJ Bring It On, Done Gone Blonde, and 17-10 favorite Jenuine Joy completed the order of finish.
Snow Regard earned $23,100 to push her bankroll to $197,648 for her owner, KH Logax Inc. of Oro Valley, Arizona. A homebred 3-year-old filly by the Chicks Beduino stallion Chicks Regard, Snow Regard has won four of 13 races, including the 400-yard, $149,000 New Mexico Filly & Mare Championship (RG1) at Zia Park on November 26, and the 350-yard, $75,000 Sunburst Stakes (R) at Sunland Park on April 16.
Blushing Cartel is a 6-year-old daughter of the Bugs Alive In 75 stallion Blushing Bug racing for Ramon O. Gonzalez Jr. An earner of $100,778 from 38 outs, the mare was making her first start since May 1, when she ran sixth in the Four Corners Senora Stakes (R).