(Photo above - COUNTRY BOY 123 (5 in yellow and orange silks) has a big run representing Ajax Downs in the $200,000 Adequan Derby Challenge on Oct. 29 at Los Alamitos . The gelding was one-length behind 8 to 5 favourite Jess Good Reason (6), one of California's top Quarter Horses. Scott Martinez photo from Stallionesearch.com)
Ontario-based
Country Boy 123 had a super effort in Saturday night’s $200,000 Adequan Derby Challenge (G3) for 3-year-old Quarter Horses at Los Alamitos, finishing fourth, one-length behind the heavily favoured winner Jess Good Reason.
Owned by
Ruth Barbour of Hillsburgh, ON and saddled by
Pontypool’s Jason Pascoe, Country Boy 123 broke well from post position five in the 11-horse field and the big gelding chased the eventual winner who started from the rail. Under replacement rider Ricky Ramirez, Country Boy 123 finished strongly and was just behind third-place finisher Toughie, who was representing Alberta.
The winner's time for 400-yards was a sharp :19.731 and Country Boy 123 sped the distance in :19.859, one of his faster times for the distance this season.
Country Boy 123 was, at one time in the betting, the 8 to 5 favourite before going postward as the third choice at 5 to 1.
Jess Good Reason, a California based filly, was coming off a second-place finish in a Grade 1 event and had earlier won a Grade 3 stakes race.
For his fourth-place finish, Country Boy 123 picked up $14,400 (US). The son of Country Chicks Man won six of his seven races at Ajax Downs this season and is a contender for the track’s 2016 Horse of the Year. He is trained in Ontario by Bryn Robertson who was part of a large group of Ontario horsepeople, Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred, at Los Alamitos for the races.
In the $150,000 John Deere Juvenile Challenge (G2), Pascoe trainee
RPainted Pistol brushed the gate at the start and never got untracked in a ninth-place finish. The flashy brown gelding, winner of the John Deere Ajax Challenge in July, had battled illness following his trip from Ontario to California. He is owned by Burlington's, Milena Kwiecien.
Ontario Racing would like to congratulate the interests of Country Boy 123 and RPainted Pistol for their sportsmanship in representing Ajax Downs on the biggest stage of Quarter Horse racing in the United States.
You can watch replays of the Bank of America Challenge races at the Los Alamitos racetrack website through its replay link (select Oct. 29 and races 8 and 9 for the John Deere and Adequan finals):
http://www.losalamitos.com/Replays.aspx
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