Monday, August 30, 2010
Noe Garcia rode 11-10 favorite Sheet Burns to a neck victory in the 870-yard, $30,000 Special Hank Stakes at The Downs at Albuquerque on Sunday.
Saddled by Ramon Ronquillo for owner Regalado MacLovio, Sheet Burns made his trip in :44.854, posting a 101 speed index and his second stakes win. The $18,300 winner’s share of the purse increased his earnings to $237,471.
Sheet Burns was bred in Colorado by Don R. Hill, and the gelding is one of 549 starters sired by Okey Dokey Dale, the AQHA champion 3-year-old colt in 1999 who has sired 48 stakes winners and the earners of more than $9.9 million from eight crops. The 14-year-old stallion stands for a $2,500 fee at Dee and Betty Raper’s Belle Mere Farm at Norman, Oklahoma.
Sheet Burns’ dam, the Easy Jet mare Shes Alive And Easy, has produced three winners from six starters. The gelding’s third dam, Go For Lily (TB), was a winning daughter of the *Sea Charger (TB) stallion Gold Charger (TB) who produced Go For Bugs, a colt by Bugs Alive In 75 who ran second in world champion Special Effort’s 1981 All American Futurity.
A $3,200 claimer in California back in ’05, Sheet Burns has won 16 of 70 races, including seven of his 29 outs at the 870 distance. Last year, the 8-year-old gelding won the 870-yard, $40,000 Fine Loom Handicap at Ruidoso Downs and was the AQHA New Mexico region high-point distance horse.
Contradictions finished second and was followed by Prince Carson (TB) and Loves Bonus (TB). Reigning AQHA champion distance horse Gone To The Mountain, the 3-5 morning-line favorite, was listed as a stewards’ scratch by the Equibase chart.
Contradictions earned $6,600 for his owner, Ramon O. Gonzalez Jr., who claimed the 7-year-old gray gelding by Windhams Winner for $6,250 on May 8. All told, Contradictions has banked $220,062 from 38 starts, and his nine wins include the 2008 Zia 870 Championship (R) at Ruidoso Downs.
Prince Carson is a 6-year-old chestnut Lord Carson (TB) gelding owned and trained by Alberto Amperan of El Paso, Texas. A California-bred, Prince Carson earned $3,600 to push his bankroll to $182,425 from 12 wins in 64 outs.