Sunday, May 30, 2010
Van Zant, a California-bred colt by Hawkinson owned and trained by Harvey Baeza, sprinted to a wire-to-wire victory in Saturday’s $50,000 Animas Stakes for 3-year-olds at SunRay Park.
Covering 400 yards in :19.426 under jockey Esgar Ramirez, Van Zant defeated recorded his first career stakes win. The colt was sent to post as the 9-2 third choice, and his margin of victory was a head from 30-1 longshot Jess Eye.
Van Zant was bred by Dr. Steve Burns, and he became the 24th stakes winner from six crops sired by Hawkinson, a 13-year-old stallion by First Down Dash and the sport’s champion aged stallion in 2001. A two-time Grade 1 winner, Hawkinson has sired the earners of more than $6.6 million from 408 starters, including two-time champion Strawkins. He stands for a $4,000 fee at Enrique Gonzalez’s EG High Desert Farm in Temecula, California.
Van Zant is also one of seven winners from 12 starters produced by Pretty Jet High, a winning 17-year-old daughter of On A High who was a finalist in the 1995 Rainbow (G1) and West Texas (G1) futurities. Van Zant’s half sister, the stakes-placed A Regal Choice filly Loved Her First, was a finalist in the ’08 Kindergarten Futurity (G1) at Los Alamitos.
Van Zant’s second dam, the winning Easy Jet mare Omnii Jet, ran second in Tolltac’s 1983 Bay Meadows Futurity (G1), and she produced Omnii Plex, a gelding by Seventy One North who won the $16,200 El Camino Real Handicap (G3) at The Downs at Santa Fe in ’92. The colt’s third dam, Lady Meyers, was a winning daughter of Mr Meyers who foaled four stakes winners, including 1976 AQHA champion 2-year-old colt Megahertz.
The $30,000 winner’s share of the Animas Stakes purse increased Van Zant’s earnings to $69,510. Racing exclusively in New Mexico, the colt has won two of nine races, and he ran third, one length behind winner Louisiana Blue Dream, in last year’s 440-yard, $150,000 All American Juvenile Invitational Stakes at Ruidoso Downs. He also ran second in the $20,000 Ruidoso Juvenile Invitational Stakes.
El Campecino ran third and was followed by 8-5 favorite JA Golsablazin, Valiant Feature, Panther Canyon, De Great Cartel, On The Up Side, Fire Higher, and Banjo Bob.
A gray colt racing for Mac Murray and Janis Spencer Murray’s MJ Farms at Veguita, New Mexico, runner-up Jess Eye earned $10,000 to push his bankroll to $39,890. Jess Eye was coming off of a nose victory as the 2-1 favorite in a 350-yard allowance at SunRay on April 30. The colt was a finalist in last year’s 350-yard Four Corners Futurity (G3).
El Campecino banked $5,000 for owner Ramon O. Gonzalez Jr. of Edgewood, New Mexico. The gray colt by SC Chiseled In Stone was making his first start in New Mexico after shipping in from Indiana. El Campecino has earned $40,170 from three wins in eight outs, and he ran third in last year’s 350-yard, $100,000 QHRA of Indiana Stallion Service Auction Futurity (R) at Hoosier Park.