Grade 1 winners from California, Oklahoma, and Texas will meet in New Mexico on Saturday night in the $265,000 American Quarter Horse Association Challenge Championship at the Downs at Albuquerque.
The Grade 1 race at 440 yards is the feature on a card of 10 stakes for Quarter Horses beginning at 6:05 p.m. Mountain. There are five graded races, and those comprise the annual traveling card known as the Challenge Championships.
There are qualifiers for the Challenge races throughout the year, and 47 runners who earned spots in the starting gate will see action in the graded races Saturday. Purses for those stakes total $800,000, and they will be run in succession from races six through 10. The first five stakes on the card are each worth $40,000.
Scoops Dynasty, winner of the Grade 1 Go Man Go for the second time in his career last out at Los Alamitos; Hooked N Gone, who accounted for the Grade 1 Remington Park Invitational in May; and Relentless Eagle, who won the Grade 1 Texas Classic Derby last November at Lone Star Park; should get the most support in the Challenge Championship.
Scoops Dynasty will start from post 8 in the field of nine after his nose win over a Champion of Champions winner in Empressum in the Go Man Go. Prior to the race, Scoops Dynasty was a nose winner of the Turf Paradise Championship Challenge over an All American Futurity winner in Kj Desperado. Scoops Dynasty will be making his first start for trainer Diego Cervantes. The earner of $675,261 was bred in Idaho.
Hooked N Gone, who was bred in Oklahoma, leads the field in earnings with $762,443. He is seeking to win his third consecutive graded stakes, behind the Remington Park Invitational and the Grade 2 Prairie Meadows Championship Challenge in his most recent start Aug. 17.
Hooked N Gone has never raced at Albuquerque, but he’s worked over the surface. In his last drill on Sept. 25, he went 220 yards in a bullet 11.61 seconds. He will break from the rail for trainer Dean Frey.
Relentless Eagle is an Oklahoma-bred who has earned $329,580. He, too, has had a chance to work over the local surface in advance of his first start at Albuquerque. Relentless Eagle enters the Challenge Championship off a runner-up finish in the Grade 3 Retama Park Championship Challenge. He boasts a 4 for 5 record at 440 yards for trainer Marc Jungers, including wins in the Texas Classic Derby and the Grade 2 Dash for Cash Derby.
◗ Volcoms Favorite will be looking to win the Grade 1, $115,000 Distance Championship for the second year in a row when he starts from post 4 in the race run over 870 yards. A threat is Gjr Rooster.
◗ Paige, who has won back-to-back graded stakes at Albuquerque, leads the Grade 1, $115,000 Distaff Championship at 400 yards. Others of interest in the 10-horse field include Grade 2 winner Alliekat Dynasty and Sunday Sylence.
◗ The fillies Full Moon Desire, who is a Grade 3 winner; Camila Girl, who is multiple stakes-placed; and Flyin Summer will take on colts in the Grade 2, $140,000 Juvenile Championship that drew 10.
◗ First Famous Prize, a filly who has compiled a 5-for-11 record while defeating both males and older rivals, tries to nail down the biggest win of her career in the Grade 3, $165,000 Derby Championship.
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