Shakers No Secret won a major Quarter Horse stakes for the second time in his last three starts with neck victory in Sunday’s $350,000 Championship at Sunland Park.
Ridden by Christian Ramos, Shakers No Secret ($8) fought off a sustained challenge from 3-1 Kj Desperado to win the 440-yard race in 20.99 seconds. Vegas Trick (10-1) finished third, beaten a length.
Shakers No Secret broke well and briefly trailed Kj Desperado after 100 yards before taking the lead.
Jeriko, the 4-5 favorite, bumped with Vegas Trick at the start and failed to recover, finishing last in a field of six.
Shakers No Secret earned $210,000 for the Texas-based partnership of Manny Dutchover and Abel and Ethan Lopez and trainer Marc Jungers. Shakers No Secret, a 5-year-old gelding by the Corona Cartel stallion Five Bar Cartel, has won 10 of 29 starts and earned $712,414. Last year in a nine-race campaign, Shakers No Secret won three times and earned $259,847.
Shakers No Secret ended his 2024 season with a win in the $277,975 AQHA Challenge Championship in Albuquerque on Oct. 26, and a good third in the $600,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos on Dec. 14.
Jungers plans to target the Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos in December with Shakers No Secret.
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Two horses reached financial milestones in the Championship at Sunland Park.
Kj Desperado earned $70,000 and has earned $3,340,109 in his career, an all-time Quarter Horse record. Hes Judgeandjury, the winner of the $3 million All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs in 2022, finished fourth on Sunday and earned $17,500. Hes Judgeandjury surpassed $2 million in career earnings, to $2,007,772 in his 20-race career.
Earlier on Sunday’s program at Sunland Park, the filly Boot Scootin Mama won her first stakes in the $182,755 Shue Fly Stakes for 3-year-old New Mexico-breds. Ridden by Ramos, Boot Scootin Mama ($11.60) finished a half-length in front of 5-1 One Oh Too. Track Starr (6-1) finished third in the field of six, with 9-10 favorite Beyond Rime in fourth, beaten about three-quarters of a length.
Boot Scootin Mama ran 400 yards in 19.55 seconds.
Boot Scootin Mama, by the Corona Cartel stallion Prime Talent, races for Robert and Del Rae Driggers and Ben Ivey and trainer Simon Buechler. Boot Scootin Mama has won 2 of 8 starts and earned $129,308. Her only previous win was a division of the New Mexico State Fair Futurity trials in Albuquerque in September.
Only six ran in the Shue Fly Stakes after eight eligible runners tested positive for albuterol in recent out-of-competition testing, according to New Mexico State Racing Commission officials.
The list of ineligible horses included Pavel, the winner of two futurities at Sunland Park and SunRay Park last year who had the fastest qualifying time from four trials for the Shue Fly on Jan. 11.
New Mexico officials routinely conduct out-of-competition tests of the 14 fastest qualifiers from time trials. Typically, a Quarter Horse futurity has 10 starters.
Of the horses with the 11th through 14th fastest times for the Shue Fly, Bone Shaker and Eye Cue tested positive for albuterol and were not permitted to be entered. Myy Flashin Denali and Track Starr, who had the 11th and 14th fastest times, were late additions to the final.
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