STRAWKINS TAKES BOA CALIFORNIA CHALLENGE

COURTESY OF STALLIONESEARCH.COM & LOS ALAMITOS.COM


Strawkins and Freddie Martinez win the Bank of America California Challenge Saturday.

Strawkins Beats Talented Field In Challenge Qualifier



LOS ALAMITOS RACE COURSE, CYPRESS, CA—AUGUST 25, 2007—Trainer Paul Jones said that the field for Saturday's $75,150 Grade 2 Bank of America California Region Challenge resembled what a field might look like for December's $1 million Champion of Champions, Los Alamitos Race Course's premier race for older Quarter Horses.
Jones's Strawkins won the California Region Challenge, and now the trainer is hoping for a similar performance if the 4-year-old gelding can qualify for the Champion of Champions on December 15.

Saturday's victory earned Strawkins, who was making his first start of the year, a berth to the $300,000 Bank of America Challenge Championship to be run at Los Alamitos Race Course on November 3. Jones said Strawkins' next race could be the $100,000 Go Man Go Handicap on September 15. A victory in either race would qualify the son of Hawkinson to the Champion of Champions.

"This was almost like a Champion of Champions field tonight with Catchmeinyourdreams, Apollitical Time, Strawkins and Leading Spirit," Jones said. "There were four world champions in that race."

Strawkins, owned by Don and Peggy Boyle of Madras, Oregon, was making his first start since finishing fifth in last year's Champion of Champions. As the 6-1 fourth choice in a field of 10 that included four AQHA champions and 2005 Los Alamitos Million Futurity winner Value The Man, Strawkins won by a neck under jockey Freddie Martinez in a time of 21.26 seconds for the 440 yards.

Rodrigo Gonzalez' Budj held on for second after leading at the halfway stage for jockey Rodrigo Aceves and trainer Adan Farias. Leading Spirit, owned by Dr. Barry Thompson and Dan and Jolene Urschel and also trained by Jones, took third in his first race in 14 months and his Los Alamitos debut. Juan Alberto Tirado-Lizarraga's Apollitical Time, who won this race last year as the 2006 AQHA Champion Aged Horse, was fourth. Kirk Goodfellow's 8-year-old millionaire Catchmeinyourdreams, the 2005 winner, finished fifth.

"I'd say he surprised us a little bit, but we knew he was capable of it," Don Boyle said after Strawkins' victory. "It's always great beating a field like this. You have four world champions, and a couple of them are multiple champions - so to come up with a win like this first out in nine months is great. He hasn't lost any ground from last year. He's ready to go."

The Boyles and Jones said that Strawkins was given time off after a particularly difficult 3-year-old campaign in 2006. The homebred won the $268,335 Rainbow Derby at Ruidoso Downs in track record and near-world-record time in July 2006. He also finished third in Ruidoso's $406,299 All American Derby, second in the $200,000 Los Alamitos Championship, and fifth in the Champion of Champions.

"He was getting tired last fall," Don Boyle said. "He'd had six big races up at Ruidoso at 7,000-foot elevation. We brought him back down here [to Los Alamitos], and he had [three] more races. That's hard on him. Our plan was to come back a little earlier, but he came up with a foot abscess, and we had to scratch him out of the first race we were going in."

Second-place finisher Budj, a gelded son of Count Corona, was trying to qualify to the Challenge Championship after winning the West/Southwest regional last year and finishing sixth to This Snow Is Cold in the final at Lone Star Park in Texas.

Third-place finisher Leading Spirit, a winner of the 2005 Ruidoso and Rainbow futurities as a 2-year-old, was competing in his first race after undergoing stem cell surgery to repair damaged bone and cartilage. The 4-year-old Special Leader gelding had registered a 350-yard workout in a time of 17.50 seconds on June 30 and was highly touted after undergoing a procedure that had been previously successful for former AQHA world champion Be A Bono.

"[Leading Spirit] didn't quite break as sharp he can," Jones said. "He only ran three-quarters of a length off Strawkins. He didn't really lose any ground. He probably needed a race first time under the lights and first time back going 440 yards. He's a bigger and bulkier horse and got tired just a little bit. I think he'll come back sharper."

Strawkins joined the field for the $300,000 Bank of America Challenge Championship that includes: Brando Bryan (South America), Let It Snowman (New Mexico), SM Country Cowboy (Oklahoma), Angelas Toast (East), LDS Dash For Dylan (Northwest), Ride With The King (Texas), Snowy Flyer (Canada), and Poker Feature (Central).

The Mexico and West/Southwest regions will also conduct trials for the November 3 final. The winner of the Bank of America Challenge Championship will earn a berth to the $1 million Champion of Champions to be run at Los Alamitos on December 15.