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This Snow Is Cold
Photo Courtesy: Lone Star Park
Iowa Champion WRS Special Shoe faces This Snow Is Cold in the Bank of America Challenge.
Photo Courtesy: PRAIRIE MEADOWS, ALTOONA, IA
This Snow Is Cold, WRS Special Shoe Hook in Bank of America Central Lone Star Park PRAIRIE MEADOWS, ALTOONA, IA—AUGUST 9, 2007—Prairie Meadows gets set to host the season’s biggest weekend of American Quarter Horse racing, The Bank of America Central Challenge Races.
Six Thoroughbred races preceed the American Quarter Horse portion of Friday and Saturday evening cards, beginning at 6:30 p.m. [CT]. The American Quarter Horse races begin in race seven at 9:16 p.m. with a 330 yard maiden race.
Fifty-five American Quarter Horse contenders, conditioned by some of the top trainers in the midwest, are slated to compete in what could be the most talented Central Challenge fields yet, highlighted by The Grade III Bayer Legend Central Derby Challenge and the Grade II Bank of America Central Challenge. The six Central Challenge races combined will be worth more than $188,000.
Friday’s Bank of America Central Challenge Races, August 10, 2007The Ford Juvenile Central Challenge—$42,030—2-year-olds—350 yards
Race 8 - Entries—WRS Leading Edge, WRS Sweet Date, Lord Gardendale, Mr La Bubba, Classy Dashin, Shaconage, Mister Jess Legacy, Im Gone For A Corona, Snowburn, Captain Stoli.
The Red Cell Central Distance Challenge—$19,980—3-year-olds and up—870 yards
Race 9 - Entries—Tee Zevi, A Dasha Red, GHF Kool Kotton, Run Donnie Run, First to Ramble
The John Deere Central Distaff Challenge—$28,980—fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up—400 yards
Race 10 - Entries—JA Fast Lady, Ima Ramblin Girl, Corona Three, First Black Rose, Bold Like Magic, Miles of Knud Chicks, Okie Dokey Annie, Going to the Hague, SLM Rac A Frac, Eyem Naughty N Nice, Nanas Nite Mare.
Saturday’s Bank of America Central Challenge Races, August 11, 2007The Bayer Legend Central Derby Challenge [Grade III] —$43,560—3-year-olds—400 yards
Race 8 – Entries—High Flyin Playboy, Business Tycoon, A Silver Goblin, Hindsights Great, Wicked Nicole, Yawls Special Show, Corona With Ice, Folsfirstdown, Darlings Injun, Jess Sporty.
The Fort Dodge Central Claiming Challenge—$16,920—3-year-olds and up—350 yards
Race 9 – Entries—No Options Mister, Mr Step Ahead, WRS All I Need, This Babe Shines, King of Sudden, Eyesa Storm Too, Digital Velocity
The Bank of America Central Championship Challenge [Grade II] —$76,140—3-year-olds and up—440 yards
Race 10 – Entries—WRS Special Shoe, Feature Movie, Ice Dreams, A Radical Shot, Brindis Por Cayenne, This Snow Is Cold, Toast Freedom Flyer, Mr Chivato to You, Magical Thunder, Poker Feature, MC Special Mystery, Royal N Rare.
Some of the sires represented in this weekend’s Central Challenge include Chicks Beduino, Corona Cartel, Dashin Is Easy, Dashing Cleat, Dean Miracle, First Down Dash, Heza Fast Man, Holland Ease, Mr Eye Opener, Mr Jess Perry, Okey Dokey Dale, Rare Bar, Royal Quick Dash, Royal Shake Em, Runaway Winner, Special Leader, Stoli, Strawfly Special, This Snow Is Royal.
This weekend’s Challenge roster features the following trainers—Connie Barnes, Amber Blair, Verle Bohner, K.C. Carden, Oscar Carrete, Michael Cissell, Carl Clevenger, Edward Ross Hardy, Mark Garrison, Charley Hunt, Charlton Hunt, Glen Melson, Frank Mendez, John Moses, Jr., Don Mourning, Jack Murray, Robert Partridge, Gary Paulson, Ray Robbins, Terry Sapp, Larry Sharp, Patrick Swan, and Tom Tarwater.
Jockeys assigned include Roy Brooks, Thomas W. Byrd, G.R. Carter, Jr., John Coffman, Dave Essman, Noe Garcia, Nickey Laws, Tad Leggett, Kenny Muntz, Jason Olmstead, Berkley Packer, Larry Payne, Esgar Ramirez, Alonso Rivera, Clyde H. Smith, Stormy Smith, Terry Thompson, Rodrigo Sigala Vallejo, Helen M. Vanek, Tom Wellington, Randy Wilson, and Jerry Winters.
Some of the most active trainers on Central Challenge weekend are those with multiple stakes victories here.
Pat Swan, who qualified three of Friday’s field of 10 in the 350-yard Ford Juvenile Central Challenge—Lord Gardendale, Mister Jess Legacy, and Captain Stoli. Swan, who has recorded seven previous stakes victories here since 2000, also sends Darlings Injun for his fourth straight attempt at 400 yards in Saturday’s Bayer Legend Central Derby Challenge [GIII].
Classy Dashin landed the fourth fastest overall qualifying time and he has been assigned the third spot in the starting gate with the lowest odds, 5-2, as he hopes to string his fifth victory in as many tries. Trainer Amber Blair assigns rider Jason Olmstead.
Trainer Don Mourning, who posts 71 percent on the board and is third overall at Prairie Meadows with 13 American Quarter Horse stakes wins, saddles Snow Burn, the fifth fastest qualifier in the Ford Juvenile trials. Friday will be the 2-year-old filly’s fifth career start as she leaves from the ninth spot in the starting gate. She won her maiden victory at 300 yards back in May at Los Alamitos for owner Horton Racing LLC.
Mourning entered GHF Kool Kotton, a 5-year-old, in Friday’s Red Cell. He broke the 100-Speed Index barrier a fourth straight time in his last victory, a $25,000 stake at Fair Meadows-Tulsa in which he prevailed over a muddy surface by 1-1/4 lengths. The son of Dean Miracle-Beautiful Gift by Gone to the Man is the second favorite in the race program.
Mourning tops off Friday evening with SLM Rac A Frac heading at 6-1 odds to the John Deere Central Distaff. The 4-year-old gray filly is the daughter of Dashing Cleat bred by Steve and Lindsay Mitchell in March 2003. Lindsay Mitchell Pruett owns the horse with her husband, Scott Pruett. She has one win at 400 yards that she recorded this past April at Remington Park.
The lone statebred, Nanas Nite Mare, foaled in Iowa by owner Richard Reed, starts from the eleventh post position. Trained by Glen Melson, she is the fourth leading money earner in the race and has been assigned to carry jockey Kenny Muntz.
On Saturday, Don Mourning saddles Digital Velocity in the Fort Dodge Central race. The 3-year-old gelding, by Special Leader, makes his ninth start from the outside seventh post position, outfitted for the first time with rider Tad Leggett.
Mourning rounds out Challenge weekend here in the Bank of America signature race with Mr Chivato to You. At 6-1 odds, this 5-year-old is no stranger to Prairie Meadows, having won three races at Prairie Meadows in 13 career victories overall. He is stakes-placed in four of his last five tries, including first place in the Remington Park Leo [$100,000] and Eastex Handicap Stakes [$50,000].
Ed Hardy, who is the second leading stakes winner here with 17 trips previously to have his picture taken, sends Toast Freedom Flyer in Saturday’s Grade II Bank of America Central Championship. The 4-year-old gelding earned 12-1 morning odds following his victory at Canterbury in the 440-yard Great Lakes Stakes on July 3 for breeder and owner Randy Brungard.
No one will be busier than Charley Hunt, who leads all American Quarter Horse trainers here, both past and present, with a landslide 31 stakes wins to his credit. Im Gone For A Corona secured the fastest Ford Juvenile trial time, 17.58 seconds, for Nancy McCoy who cinched her first title as an owner here in 2006. The daughter of Corona Cartel is 5-1 in Friday’s program, the fourth betting interest behind the gelding Classy Dashin, who hopes for his fifth straight win for owner Leo Butell and trainer Amber Blair.
Hunt also trains Pat and Walt Fletcher’s 870-yard specialist First to Ramble [First Down Dash-Kiptys Kisses by Kipty’s Charger], favored at 9-5 program odds while averaging 37 percent wins and 53 percent on the board. He drew Friday’s outside post in the Red Cell field of five coming from five straight wins, the richest being May’s $42,000 Oklahoma Distance Challenge. His last race was June’s $35,000 Remington Park Distance Handicap. Randy Wilson is a natural fit returning to the saddle for his sixth straight mount.
First to Ramble’s full sibling, Ima Ramblin Girl, notched a 104-Speed Index in her last try here, a 400-yard allowance, coming to Friday’s John Deere Central Distaff. Including that race, she has seven wins plus six finishes on the board in her resume of 23 starts.
Corona Three, another McCoy charge trained by Hunt, searches for her first win this year at 7-2 odds. She ran second in the Woodlands’ Kansas Jackpot Derby and again in her last allowance here on July 28.
The Bayer Legend Central Derby Challenge, Grade III, will test Charley Hunt’s mettle as a trainer with four entries going postward. They are A Silver Goblin, who charted the fastest 400 yards here in the trials flashing a 105-Speed Index in 19.56 seconds. Once the American Quarter Horse Association makes its ruling, this could be the undoing of the ten-year reign held by Past Performance in :19.63.
McCoy’s Corona With Ice at 8-1 odds and the paired Fletcher entries, High Flyin Playboy and Business Tycoon, complete Hunt’s responsibilities to the Bayer Legend race.
G.R. Carter, Jr. comes in to ride Eyesa Storm Too, which trainer Hunt sends to the fourth post position as the 6-5 favorite in the Fort Dodge Central Claiming Challenge for owner Joaquin Lopez. The 5-year-old son of Mr Eye Opener out of a Bully Buillion mare notched seven wins over the course of his last nine appearances over the past year.
Charlton Hunt, the son of Charley and Starlet Hunt, has three previous stakes wins at Prairie Meadows. He qualified Williams Racing Stables, Inc.’s coupled stablemates WRS Leading Edge, a gelding, and WRS Sweet Date, a filly, at 7-2 paired odds in Friday’s Ford Juvenile. Both entries have four starts and strikingly similar race results, each winning their maiden in addition to a pair of third place finishes thus far.
Charlton Hunt also saddles Norma and Everett Salley’s Run Donnie Run in Friday’s Red Cell. Stormy Smith, last year’s leading quarter horse jockey, hops aboard at 9-2 odds.
The talk of the series could come down to the featured Bank of America race when Iowa Champion WRS Special Shoe, owned by Gwen Williams, takes his place in the starting gate’s first spot on the counterattack against National Challenge Champion This Snow Is Cold, taking her place in the sixth post position.
WRS Special Shoe, second by a nose in this year’s Keokuk Stakes behind Bullions N Garters, looks for his fifteenth career win. With $380,666 in earnings to date, he was a game second behind This Snow Is Cold in last November’s $302,000 National Challenge Championship. WRS Special Shoe hopes for the home court advantage with slightly lower odds than This Snow Is Cold, listed at 5-1 on the morning line.
On July 14, this Snow Is Cold was a close second behind Ride With the King in the $100,000 Texas Challenge Championship. she is the high money earner in the field of twelve with $516,747. She recorded two wins this year, one at Delta Downs and the other at Sam Houston.
As owner and trainer, K.C. Carden returns to Prairie Meadows the elder statesmen No Options Mister and Mr Step Ahead to Saturday’s Fort Dodge race. The 12-year-old No Options Mister, with a dozen wins from his career of 75 starts, averages 57 percent on the board. Mr Step Ahead averages 52 percent on the board and comes from his last win by a neck at Houston in $18,000 conditions. Carden is also the owner and trainer of Brindis Por Cayenne in the Bank of America race. This horse notched a 105-Speed Index while leading by a half-length back in June in Retama’s $25,000 Texas Hall of Fame.
Trainers Swan, Mourning, Charley Hunt, and Charlton Hunt will also saddle trial contenders on Friday for the Jim Bader Futurity [RGIII]. The final will be held on Iowa Classic Night, Saturday, August 25. Twenty-four statebred entries will compete in the Jim Bader trials on Friday between 5:05 and 5:55 p.m. [CT]. Each trial race is worth $4,164 and will be available for wagering.
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Subject: CHALLENGE RACES AT PRAIRIE MEADOWS THIS WEEKEND 
August 10th 2007, 4:03 am
