Chief Cicatriz streaks into KLAQ Handicap

It’s been a whirlwind month for trainer Shawn Davis and his stable star Chief Cicatriz, who makes an appearance Saturday at Sunland Park in the $65,000 KLAQ Handicap.

The race, which will be run over five furlongs, is one of two stakes on the card. The $100,000 New Mexico State Racing Commission Handicap is for fillies and mares at 5 1/2 furlongs and is restricted to those bred in New Mexico.

The stakes races are the first of the meet that opened Thursday. The stakes action continues Sunday with the Grade 1, $350,000 Championship at Sunland, an invitational for Quarter Horses.

Chief Cicatriz last raced on Nov. 27 and won the $100,000 Zia Park Sprint. Since that race, Davis has retired from a prestigious career in rodeo. He hung up his Wranglers on Dec. 14, the last day of the National Finals Rodeo competition in Las Vegas. Davis has been the event’s general manager of production the past 34 years and prior to that was a competitor.

“This [was] my 57th year attending the National Finals Rodeo in one capacity or another,” Davis said.

Davis is a three-time champion bronc rider who qualified for the national finals 12 times. He was inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1979.

Chief Cicatriz has been the star of Davis’s racing stable the past few years, winning 12 of 19 starts and earning $423,845 for owner Roy Evans. Those wins include eight stakes races, among them the 2016 running of the KLAQ and the Grade 3 Aristides in 2018 at Churchill Downs. For his effort in the Aristides, Chief Cicatriz earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 110.

In the KLAQ, Chief Cicatriz will be looking for his third straight stakes win. His streak started Nov. 9 at his home track of Turf Paradise, in the $30,000 Luke Kruytbosch. Chief Cicatriz earned a 90 Beyer for the win. One start later, he put up a 91 for his victory in the Zia Park Sprint in which he covered six furlongs in a blazing 1:08.84.

“We were quite pleased,” Davis said.

Chief Cicatriz on Saturday will break from post 7 under Elvin Gonzalez.

“He has such a high cruising speed,” Davis said.

Chief Cicatriz is a 6-year-old son of Munnings.

The New Mexico State Racing Commission Handicap is led by 123-pound highweight Waltzing Attila.