Sunday, November 21, 2010
Freddie Martinez rode Tango Blue to a 3 ½-length victory in the Grade 2, $55,000 King Rick Rack Handicap at Zia Park on Sunday.
Racing for Donald Boyle of Madras, Oregon, and trainer Paul Jones, Tango Blue went 870 yards in :45.619 to earn a 90 speed index and his first stakes win. The $33,000 winner’s share of the King Rick Rack Handicap, named in honor of the sorrel Gone To The Man gelding who won 11 distance stakes from 2001-05, boosted his earnings to $73,405.
Tango Blue was bred in Texas by Becklyn Farm, and the 3-year-old gelding became the 23rd stakes winner from 464 starters sired by the late Favorite Trick (TB), a son of the Clever Trick (TB) stallion Phone Trick (TB) who died in a barn fire in New Mexico in 2006. In 1997, Favorite Trick won five graded stakes, including the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Stakes at Hollywood Park and Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga Racecourse, and he was voted that season’s champion 2-year-old colt.
To date, Favorite Trick’s nine Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred crops have earned more than $19.3 million and include Good Reason SA, the winner of last year’s Los Alamitos Two-Million Futurity (G1) in California.
Tango Blue is also one of nine winners from 10 starters foaled by his dam, the winning and Grade 3-placed Hooked On Cash mare Oodles Of Cash. The gelding’s half sister, the Shazoom filly Fifty Party Night, won the ’06 Robert Heubeck Memorial Stakes at Yavapai Downs in Arizona. Tango Blue is also a half brother to Royce Rogers, a gelding by champion Okey Dokey Dale who ran third in both the Bank of America Texas Challenge (G1) and Sam Houston Classic (G2) in 2009.
Tango Blue’s second dam, the winning Outward Bound (TB) mare Calamity Miss, produced Cash Crunch, a half brother to Oodles Of Cash who won two stakes in Texas from 1996-97 and ran second in the 870-yard Governor’s Cup Marathon (G3) at Sam Houston Race Park in ’96. Another of Oodles Of Cash’s half brothers, the winning and stakes-placed Rare Form gelding Rare Ruler, was a finalist in the 1996 All American Futurity (G1) at Ruidoso Downs.
A winner of four of his 13 races, Tango Blue was coming off of a fourth-place finish in the 870-yard, $55,090 Herman Jefferson Stakes (G3) at Zia Park on October 16. Earlier this year, the gelding scored consecutive 870-yard allowance victories at Ruidoso Downs and Zia Park.
Louisianafeature One, Whata Lucky Man, odds-on favorite Shineys Magic T, Royal Initiative, and Zoomin N Cashin completed the order of finish.
A 4-year-old stallion racing for Mark Allen’s Double Eagle Ranch at Roswell, New Mexico, Louisianafeature One banked $12,100 to push his earnings to $111,498 from four wins in 21 outs. Louisianafeature One was coming off of a third-place finish in the Herman Jefferson Stakes, and he was a finalist in last year’s 440-yard, $625,130 All American Derby (G1) at Ruidoso Downs.
Whata Lucky Man was claimed by owner and trainer Rene Saucedo of El Paso, Texas, for $12,500 at Sunland Park on December 27. The 8-year-old gelding by 1998 Texas Classic Futurity (G1) winner Fast Debonair has won seven of 62 races and has earned $245,037, of which $60,030 has been banked since the claim. Racing at The Downs at Albuquerque last summer, Whata Lucky Man ran second, three lengths behind winner Cowboy Got Game, in the 870-yard, $40,000 John Augustine Stakes (R) for New Mexico-breds.