American Quarter Horse Association Challenge Championship moved to Sunday after power outage

The Grade 1, $265,000 American Quarter Horse Association Challenge Championship and two other major stakes were postponed from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon at The Downs at Albuquerque after a power outage forced the track to cancel its final three races Saturday, according to the AQHA.

First post for Sunday’s card has been moved up to 12:30 p.m. Mountain.

The other races moved to Sunday are the Grade 2 Juvenile Championship and the Grade 3, $165,000 Derby Championship.

The races are part of the annual traveling series of graded stakes for Quarter Horses that make up the Challenge Championships. There are five such races this year, and purses for the stakes total $800,000.

The first two stakes in the series were run Saturday night, with Alliekat Dynasty ($4.80) becoming a Grade 1 winner in the $115,000 Distaff Challenge Championship when she battled for a neck win over Cowgurl Up. The winner covered 400 yards on a fast track in 19.20 seconds.

Handin Out Candy ($6.80) was a 2 1/4-length winner over Gjr Rooster in the Grade 1, $115,000 Distance Championship. The winner covered 870 yards in 44.49 seconds.

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