Monday, April 11, 2011
Fastest qualifier Rylees Boy led at every call en route to a 1 1/4-length victory in Sunday's 440-yard, $117,000 Bank of America New Mexico Challenge Championship (G2) at Sunland Park.
Ridden by Joe Ruiz for owner and trainer Gerardo Ochoa-Pena of Laveen, Arizona, Rylees Boy made his quarter-mile trip in :20.423, bettering his winning time of :20.79 when he won last year's New Mexico Challenge Championship. The $54,990 winner's share of the purse boosted his earnings to $460,651.
Rylees Boy is a 6-year-old bay gelding bred in Arizona by Gary D. Nesbitt. His sire, Heza Motor Scooter, is a 13-year-old stallion by 1994 AQHA champion sophomore colt Heza Fast Man who won the 2001 El Primero del Ano Derby (G2) at Los Alamitos and ran second in world champion Whosleavingwho's Los Alamitos Winter Derby (G1).
A half brother to the stakes-placed Mr Jess Perry colt Jess Magic, Heza Motor Scooter has sired several stakes winners, including Grade 3 winner Motorin. The stallion is owned by Joyce D. Erickson of Albuquerque and stands for a $1,500 fee at Ralph and Carrie Fales' Fales Ranch at Coolidge, Arizona.
Rylees Boy's dam is the Rocky Jones mare Pipistrelle.
A one-time $6,250 claimer, Rylees Boy has finished first, second, or third in his last 21 outs. All told, the gelding has won 16 of 33 races, including two of three this year, and he is coming off of a 1 1/2-length victory in the second of three New Mexico Challenge trials on March 26.
Rylees Boy's stakes resume includes a second-place finish in last year's 440-yard, $350,000 Bank of America Challenge Championship (G1) at Fair Grounds Racecourse in New Orleans. His win on Sunday earned him a berth in this year's race, which will be held at Los Alamitos in October.
Kool Cade finished second and was followed by Shakem Blue, whose third-place finish snapped a four-race win streak. Pepper Perry, Mystery Perry, Honor Me Good, Muted Voices, NCC Grand Slam, and Streakish completed the order of finish. Fourth-fastest qualifier Cash For Cottontail was scratched.
A 5-year-old gelding by champion Hawkinson racing for Rosa M. Guevara, Kool Cade banked $23,400 to push his earnings to $166,426. Kool Cade has won five of 27 outs, including last year's 550-yard, $18,000 Brigand Overnight Stakes at Ruidoso Downs.
Shakem Blue has earned $148,356 from six wins in 19 starts for his owners, Dan and Jolene Urschel. The brown 4-year-old gelding by champion Jess Louisiana Blue ran second, a neck behind winner Sophisticated Snow, in last year's 440-yard, $100,000 South Florida Derby at Hialeah Park, and he placed third in the 350-yard, $116,000 Oklahoma Derby at Remington Park.