Tag Archives: American Quarter Horse

Apollitical Jess Named 2010 World Champion Racing American Quarter Horse

The American Quarter Horse Journal, January 12, 2010 – Champion of Champions (G1) victor Apollitical Jess was honored as the 2010 AQHA World Champion Racing American Quarter Horse tonight during an award ceremony at Heritage Place Sale Co. in Oklahoma City.

The 3-year-old colt is bred and owned by Juan Alberto Tirado Lizarraga Rancho El Cabresto Inc. Also named the champion 3-year-old colt and champion 3-year-old, he won six of eight starts during the year and earned $1,066,011. His victories included track-record-setting wins in the Los Alamitos Super Derby (G1) and the Champion of Champions. Trained by Juan Aleman and ridden by Felipe Garcia and Eduardo Nicasio, Apollitical Jess (Mr Jess Perry-Apollitical Time by Apollo (TB)) also finished second in the All American Derby (G1).

Double Down Special, who defeated Apollitical Jess in the All American Derby, is the champion 3-year-old gelding. Owned by Vanessa Bartoo, trained by John Stinebaugh and ridden by Salvador Martinez and Jacky Martin, Double Down Special (The Down Side-Pamper Me Special by Special Effort) won five of six starts and earned $1,147,067. He set a world record of :18.613 for 400 yards while winning the West Texas Derby (G3), then won the Ruidoso Derby (G1) in addition to the All American Derby. The gelding was bred by Bob and Jerry Gaston.

Continue reading Apollitical Jess Named 2010 World Champion Racing American Quarter Horse

Noconi Is 25th Supreme Race Horse

The American Quarter Horse Journal — Champion Noconi is the 25th racing American Quarter Horse since 1983 to earn the distinction of American Quarter Horse Association Supreme Race Horse.

The honor is given by AQHA to a horse that during its racing career earns $500,000 or more and wins at least 10 races, including two or more open Grade 1 stakes races.

Bred and raced by R. D. Hubbard and Johnny T. L. Jones, Noconi on December 5 secured the Zia Park Championship (G1) and earned his second open Grade 1 stakes to finish the needed criteria for the honor. Three weeks later, he also won The Championship at Sunland Park (G1), and has now won 11 of 26 starts, including three Grade 1s, with earnings of $1,230,504. Now 6, Noconi was the sport’s 2008 champion 3-year-old gelding.

Noconi has been trained throughout his career by champion trainer Paul Jones. Noconi, a nine-time stakes winner, including the 2008 All American Derby (G1), is by Mr Jess Perry out of the Dash For Cash mare My Dashing Lady.

Prior to 1983, there were 71 Supreme Race Horses that were retroactively given the award.

There were three other Supreme Race Horses named in 2010, including world champion Freaky, champion Stylish Jess BR and Spit Curl Diva.

American Quarter Horse Association
1600 Quarter Horse Drive
Amarillo, TX 79104

Champions Announcements Broadcast Live January 12

The American Quarter Horse Journal – The American Quarter Horse Association will announce the 2010 AQHA Racing Champions awards live at 6 p.m. CST on Wednesday, January 12, from Heritage Place in Oklahoma City. With an elite awards-ceremony atmosphere, this year’s event will include champagne and valet parking for attendees. If you can’t make it to the event, the show will be broadcast free of charge on Q-Racing Video.

This year’s awards are wide open, with a number of legitimate contenders in many categories.

The freshman crop saw a number of top performances throughout the year, including that of 2-year-old colt American Runaway, who won the Ruidoso Futurity (G1) and was second in three other Grade 1’s while leading the AQHA Racing-Horseplayernow.com 2-Year-Old Poll for much of the year. The 2-year-old filly category includes 10 tough contenders that include A Snowy Cartel, the only freshman to notch two Grade 1 wins, while California starlet Flying Fig was three times the runner-up in Grade 1 races with purses of $1 million-plus.

Continue reading Champions Announcements Broadcast Live January 12

Racing Champions Announcements are January 12 in Oklahoma City

The American Quarter Horse Journal – Who will be the 2010 World Champion Racing American Quarter Horse?

Watch the 2010 AQHA Racing Champions announcements live from Heritage Place in Oklahoma City on January 12 to find out. The program begins at 6 p.m. CST, and will be available worldwide and free of charge at www.qracingvideo.com. This year’s program will be hosted by Tom Dawson and co-hosted by Remington Park’s Dale Day.

This year’s presentation features three permanent additions to the program: recognition of the new AQHA Dams of Distinction, Supreme Race Horses and open Supreme Champions. In 2010, there were two Dams of Distinction, three Supreme Racehorses and one Supreme Champion.

AQHA will also honor Stolis Winner, who displaced Refrigerator as American Quarter Horse racing’s all-time leading money-earner. Stolis Winner is owned by AQHA Past President Jerry Windham of College Station, Texas.

Continue reading Racing Champions Announcements are January 12 in Oklahoma City

Noconi Looks to Move Up The Rankings

The American Quarter Horse Journal, December 22, 2010 – Pollsters made no changes to this week’s AQHARacing.com-Horseplayernow.com national polls for 2-year-olds or the older horses, but that figures to change this coming week. Sunday’s Championship at Sunland Park (G1) features the current No. 8-ranked older horse in the land, Noconi, against a field that includes all-time leading AQHA money-earner Stolis Winner and the highly touted Rylees Boy.

The Championship at Sunland contenders figure to move up the national rankings with top performances, but the season’s No. 1 ranking remains securely with Apollitical Jess, winner of the Champion of Champions (G1) and this week’s unanimous choice at the top of the poll.

As for the 2-year-olds, the consistent futurity finalist American Runaway, hero of the Ruidoso Futurity (G1), remains on top of the rankings with just one poll remaining in 2010.

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Spit Curl Diva Honored as Supreme Race Horse

The American Quarter Horse Journal, December 9, 2010 – With her victory in the November 19 Merial Distaff Challenge Championship (G1), Spit Curl Diva became the 24th racing American Quarter Horse since 1983 to earn the distinction of an American Quarter Horse Association Supreme Race Horse.

The honor is given by AQHA to a horse which during its racing career earns $500,000 or more and wins at least 10 races, including two or more open Grade 1 stakes races.

Owned by the Lepic-Morgan Partnership of Iowa City, Iowa, Spit Curl Diva has won 16 of 29 starts, including nine stakes, and earned $695,938. She won the Refrigerator Handicap (G1) on October 2, then earned her second Grade 1 victory in the Merial Distaff Challenge Championship.

Spit Curl Diva is a nine-time stakes winner, and her other stakes wins include the Speedhorse Gold & Silver Cup Futurity (RG1), Blue Ribbon Futurity (G2), Bob Moore Memorial Stakes (G2), Oklahoma Derby (G3), Decketta Handicap (G3), Keokuk Stakes (G3) and Merial Arapahoe Distaff Challenge.

Spit Curl Diva is by Spit Curl Jess out of the Some Dasher mare Some Kinda Diva. She was bred in Oklahoma by Little Deer Creek Quarter Horses of Thomas, Oklahoma.

Prior to 1983, there were 71 Supreme Race Horses that were retroactively given the award.

There have been two other Supreme Race Horses named in 2010, including world champion Freaky and champion Stylish Jess BR.

AQHA news and information is a service of AQHA publications: The American Quarter Horse Journal and America’s Horse.

American Quarter Horse Association
1600 Quarter Horse Drive
Amarillo, TX 79104

AQHA Studies Clenbuterol Abuse, Recommends Action

The American Quarter Horse Journal, December 3, 2010 – Veterinary medical professionals and horsemen gathered at the American Quarter Horse Association’s annual racing conference on November 18 in New Orleans to consider the use – and misuse – of drugs and medications in racehorses. Topics included laboratory testing and procedures, out-of-competition and pre-race examinations, therapeutic and illegal medications, joint injections, acceptable threshold levels and withdrawal time, zero-tolerance policies, public education and the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium.

Once the panelists and attendees started talking, the discussion focused primarily – indeed, almost exclusively – on clenbuterol.

Approved for veterinary use in horses with allergic respiratory disease and for medical use in humans with asthma, clenbuterol acts as a bronchodilator. The problem, however, is how the drug is being misused – both in horses and humans: While it is not an anabolic steroid, clenbuterol has some of the same effects, increasing muscle mass and enhancing performance.

Read more> http://www.horsesinthesouth.com/article/article_detail.aspx?id=12657

First Down Dash Dies at Age 26

The American Quarter Horse Journal – American Quarter Horse racing’s most prolific stallion, First Down Dash, died on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, at Vessels Stallion Farm in Bonsall, California. He was 26.

“He lay down and went to sleep peacefully. He was missing Scoop and his sunflower seeds,” said Bonnie Vessels, referring to her late husband, Frank “Scoop” Vessels.

Dr. Ed Allred, the sport’s all-time leading breeder, released the following statement: “First Down Dash is unquestionably the greatest stallion of all time. No horse has had the influence of the great First Down Dash. He was an amazing horse. He was a sire of sires. What an incredible and great career… he was in one word ‘amazing.’”

The stallion was laid to rest at Vessels Stallion Farm on November 26. Bonnie Vessels said that First Down Dash was quietly eating hay in his stall when observed by ranch manager Kevin Dickson at 1 a.m. Thanksgiving Day. Three hours later, the night man observed First Down Dash taking his last breath.

Read more> http://www.horsesinthesouth.com/article/article_detail.aspx?id=12652

USA’s Tom McCutcheon Wins Individual Gold at Reining World Championships

Lexington, Ky., Sept. 30, 2010 — All week, U.S. reiner Tom McCutcheon has been trying to keep his mount, Gunners Special Nite, fresh and happy. Thursday afternoon, the 6-year-old American Quarter Horse stallion returned the favor by turning in a score of 228 in the individual finals at the FEI Reining World Championship, presented by John Deere, held as part of the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. The score was enough to earn the individual gold medal by a margin of 5 points.

“I knew he was pretty special tonight,” McCutcheon said. “I felt pressure, for sure, because I wanted to do him justice. He’s a great little horse.”

Earlier in the week, McCutcheon and his horse helped the U.S. team to a gold medal in the team reining competition. Gunners Special Nite is sired by Colonels Smoking Gun and is out of Mifs Doll by Mifillena. He is the 2007 National Reining Horse Association Futurity intermediate open champion and has $194,237 in NRHA lifetime earnings

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After Day 1 of WEG, Team USA Leads the Team Reining Competition

By Holly Clanahan of America’s Horse

With roughly half of the rides completed in the team reining competition of the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, Team USA is on top. The reining world championships are presented by John Deere.

Here is the team ranking so far (Download full results here):

  • Team USA – 444
  • Team Austria – 432.5
  • Team Brazil – 425
  • Team Belgium – 424.5
  • Team Netherlands – 422
  • Team Mexico – 420.5
  • Team Australia – 420
  • Team Great Britain – 404.5
  • Team Italy – 224
  • Team Germany – 220.5

Continue reading After Day 1 of WEG, Team USA Leads the Team Reining Competition