COVER 1 - NMHBA SUMMER 2017 low res

By Michael Cusortelli
C.O. “KEN” KENDRICK MEMORIAL STAKES (R)
Comics Cashw ay
Comic Genius
Swapping Lanes
Unbridled
Squan Song
The Way Home
Cats Bounty
Helen Nave’s Comics Cashway made
her career debut with a four-length
victory in the May 15, $45,000 C.O.
“Ken” Kendrick Memorial Stakes (R) at
SunRay Park.
Ridden by Tracy Hebert, Comics
Cashway covered 4 1/2 furlongs in :53.78.
Todd Fincher prepped the homebred filly,
who earned the $27,000 winner’s share of
the $45,000 purse.
Comics Cashway is one of 38 winners
sired by Comic Genius, a winning
19-year-old son of Unbridled whose
68 starters have earned more than $1.8
million and include three official blacktype
stakes winners. Racing in five states
between 2001-03, Comic Genius earned
$108,320 from 14 outs, and his resume
included a second-place finish in the
2001 Rockingham Park Derby in New
Hampshire.
Comic Genius is a half brother to
Quinpool, a daughter of Alydar who ran
third in the ’93 Kentucky Oaks (G1) at
Churchill Downs. The stallion is owned
by Mark F. McCarthy and stands in
Albuquerque.
Comics Cashway is also one of two
winners from as many starters produced
by Swapping Lanes, an unraced
homebred 8-year-old daughter of The
Way Home and a half sister to fourtime
New Mexicos-bred stakes winner
Comicsperfectstorm. The filly’s third
dam, the unraced Peninsula Prince
mare Pinkie Blue, was a half sister to
Diamond Ego, a son of Bold Ego who
won three unofficial black-type stakes at
Albuquerque Downs in 1991.
Comics Cashway was sent to post as the
2-1 second choice in the field of six and
returned a $6.60 win mutuel. Ghost Of
Creebear, the even-money choice and the
only Kendrick Memorial entry with at least
one previous out, ran second to complete a
$2 exacta payoff of $16.80.
Orogrande, Oh So Attractive, Hot Trick
and Avenue Of Fire completed the order
of finish.
Ghost Of Creebear is a dark bay or
brown daughter of Dome racing for Mike
G. Parker. The $9,900 runner-up share of
the Kendrick Memorial purse pushed her
bankroll to $11,128 from three starts.
A full sister to four-time New Mexicobred
stakes winner Lady Genius and a
half to three multiple stakes winners,
Orogrande races for W.D. Carson Sr.,
M.H. Carson, and Leach Racing LLC.
The chestnut daughter of Quinton’s Gold
was making her debut in the Kendrick
Memorial and banked $4,500 for her
third-place run.
Coady Photography
JIMMY DRAKE STAKES (RG3)
Seis Menu DOS
Southern Corona
Uno Menudo
Corona Cartel
Southern Policy
Dash Ta Fame
Shes A Hauler
A one-time $5,000 claimer, Seis Menudos
was a prompt 6-5 favorite in the May 26
Jimmy Drake Stakes (RG3) for New Mexicobred
Quarter Horses at SunRay Park.
Seis Menudos covered 400 yards in
:19.326 and earned a career-best 101 speed
index while aided by a 12-mph tail wind. J.
Martin Bourdieu rode the sorrel 6-year-old
gelding for owner Eloy Humberto Pena
and trainer Michael Megariz III.
Seis Menudos was bred by William G.
McCarty. The gelding’s sire, the winning
Southern Corona, ran second in the
Woodlands Stakes at Sam Houston Race Park
in 2004. Southern Corona has sired the earners
of more than $6.2 million from 10 crops,
including multiple graded stakes winners Little
Bit Southern and Bp Shes Southern.
Seis Menudos is one of seven winners
produced by Uno Menudo, a daughter
of Dash Ta Fame and the winner of the
’04 Zia Futurity-RG1 at Ruidoso Downs.
Uno Menudo has foaled two other stakes
winners, Quatro Menudos, who won the
2011 New Mexico Cup Derby-RG2 at Zia
Park, and Cinco Menudos, who won the
2015 New Mexico Breeders’ Championship-
RG3 at Albuquerque Downs.
Seis Menudos was stretching out in
distance off of his head victory in the
Mesilla Valley Speed Handicap-RG2 at
Sunland Park. Campaigned exclusively in
New Mexico, he has won 10 of 20 starts,
and the winner’s share of the Jimmy Drake
purse bumped his earnings to $184,811.
Seis Menudos was sent to post as the
6-5 favorite in the field of six and returned
a $4.40 win mutuel. Major Bites finished
second, 1 1/2 lengths behind the winner,
to complete a $9.80 ($2) exacta.
Play Misty Foreme, Carson City Girl,
Jess Rueben James, and Major Moonflash
completed the order of finish.
Major Bites is a 4-year-old Jesse James
Jr gelding campaigned by Israel Bordier.
Major Bites has won four of 15 races, and
was a finalist in the 2016 Shue Fly Stakes-
RG2. The runner-up share of the purse
pushed Major Bites’ bankroll to $116,424.
Play Misty Foreme races for Robert D.
Smith. A 4-year-old son of Jesse James Jr, the
gelding has earned $156,054 from 16 starts,
and his five wins include a nose victory in last
year’s Zia Derby-RG2 at Ruidoso Downs.
Contested annually at SunRay Park, the
Jimmy Drake Stakes honors the memory of
the late Jimmy Drake, a longtime resident of
Farmington, New Mexico, who died in 2011.
Drake served as president of the New Mexico
Horse Breeders’ Association, as well as on the
New Mexico Racing Commission from 1980-
85, and he was instrumental in the opening of
San Juan Downs Racetrack in ’85.
Coady Photography
68 New Mexico Horse Breeder