GREATFUL HEART

COURTESY OF AQHA RACING.COM

GREATFUL HEART IS LIGHTLY RACED, AND THAT’S ACCORDING TO PLAN


September 1, 2007—Greatful Heart so impressed his connections when he won his career debut in late April at Sunland Park that he did not race again until the August 16 trials to the All American Futurity (G1). At Sunland, the New Mexico-bred gelding by Corona Caliente captured a 300-yard maiden race in :15.181 to earn a 95 speed index.

Based on that performance, owner Ron Hanna knew he had a talented runner, and he decided to aim the gelding at American Quarter Horse racing’s biggest prize, the $1.9-million All American on Monday.

“I’ve been fortunate to be in a lot of other races – the Ruidoso, Rainbow, Texas Classic – but I’ve never been in this race, and this is really the race I wanted to be in,” said Hanna, who bred and races Greatful Heart with his wife, Kati, and said he named the gelding to represent the family’s many blessings.

Trainer Carlos Sedillo gave Greatful Heart two official works in July before sending out the gelding in the first of 18 trials to the All American. With Joe Martinez aboard, Greatful Heart won by a half-length in :21.438 for 440 yards.

“He ran a good race,” Hanna said, “then we sweated for 17 races while we waited.”

Hanna said he paced so much while watching the remainder of the trials in The Jockey Club at Ruidoso that he nearly wore out the carpet near his seat. After six trials, Greatful Heart still had the fastest time. But the seventh trial produced four qualifiers, including fastest qualifier Heartswideopen, pushing Greatful Heart to fifth place on the list of horses who would advance to the final.

By the end of the day, Greatful Heart’s time of :21.438 had held up as the ninth-fastest qualifying time, and a relieved Hanna was in the All American for the first time.

“He was very fresh, lightly raced and really the only thing that allowed us to pull it off was because the horse is so good-minded,” Hanna said. “He’s really good at the gates, nothing bothers him.

“Because he is intelligent and laid-back, we knew the experience factor wouldn’t be a factor,” he added. “What we were concerned about was his conditioning. But we just didn’t want to take a bullet (performance) out of him. We knew he could run; we just hoped he’d be in the right trial, that he would run his race.”

Hanna lives in Ruidoso and is chairman of the board of Prime Source Mortgage, a publicly traded mortgage company based in New Mexico. He became involved in racing in 1994 and began building his racing stable with fillies purchased at the Ruidoso Select Quarter Horse Yearling Sale. Among them was Greatful Heart’s dam, You Light Up My Life, a daughter of Special Task who qualified to the 2001 Ruidoso Derby (G2) and earned $18,006 during her 13-race career for trainer John Bassett. She now is one of Hanna’s six broodmares at Double L Farm in Bosque, New Mexico, home of Corona Caliente.

Perhaps breeding Greatful Heart gave Hanna some added insight into how to manage the nearly black gelding to have him able to earn a chance to compete in the All American Futurity.

“The last two weeks, we’ve been walking on air,” he said. “Whatever we do – (finish) first, fourth, eighth – it doesn’t matter. It’s been a journey that you can’t even describe.” By Amy Owens