Danjer will be tested in bid for Challenge Championship repeat
Quarter Horse champion Danjer will have to overcome a sharp Valiant Tiberias to defend his title Saturday in the Grade 1, $266,250 Challenge Championship at the Downs at Albuquerque.
The race for 3-year-olds and up over 440 yards is the richest of five divisional stakes making up the Challenge Championships. The traveling series for Quarter Horses is being held for the third year in a row at Albuquerque. The New Mexico track has carded five of its own stakes on the 10-race program that starts at 4 p.m. Mountain.
Danjer was crowned the American Quarter Horse Association's champion older horse of 2020 for a season highlighted by his victory in the Challenge Championship. This year, the 5-year-old has won a pair of Grade 1 races, the All American Gold Cup at Ruidoso Downs and the Remington Park Invitational. He also captured the Grade 3 Championship Challenge qualifier at Canterbury in July.
Danjer enters the Challenge Championship on Saturday off a runner-up finish to Valiant Tiberias in the Grade 1 Albuquerque Fall Championship over the local track Sept. 19. Valiant Tiberias led throughout for a 1 1/4-length win, while Danjer rallied from off the pace in the race he won in 2020.
Danjer will break from post 3 on Saturday, under regular rider Cody Smith. Dean Frey bred, co-owns, and trains the horse, who is 13 for 24 with earnings of $1.2 million.
Valiant Tiberias will break to Danjer’s immediate outside, starting from post 4. Earlier this year, he won the Grade 2 Championship Challenge qualifier at Remington and another qualifier during the Retama Park meet that was held at Sam Houston Race Park.
The Challenge Championship drew a full field of 10.
In other races, Lynnder 16 will be going for her fifth consecutive win when she starts from the rail in the Grade 1, $106,500 Distaff Challenge Championship. She won the race a year ago.
Lynnder 16 is unbeaten this year, boasting a 4-for-4 record. She won a June 9 allowance at Canterbury to launch her 5-year-old season, then accounted for Distaff qualifiers at Canterbury, Ruidoso, and Will Rogers Downs.
* Madewell, the AQHA champion distance horse of 2020, is defending his title in the Grade 1, $104,500 Distance Challenge Championship at 870 yards. He boasts a 6-for-10 record over the local track and enters Saturday’s race off back-to-back wins at Albuquerque. The chief threat Saturday could be Wascallywittlewabbit, who won the Grade 1 Remington Park Distance Championship in May.
* Bad Monkey, winner of last year’s Juvenile Challenge Championship, is back for the Grade 3, $154,750 Derby Challenge Championship. The 400-yard race also drew Jc Wild King, who was second in last year’s Juvenile Challenge Championship, and The Prize Ferrari, who is going for his sixth straight win. Bad Monkey is a winner of two of his last three starts, including the Derby Challenge qualifier in August at Ruidoso. He comes off a closing third in a trial race Sept. 18 at Lone Star Park.
* The chief players in the Grade 2, $130,000 Juvenile Challenge Championship appear to be De Laurentis and Kas Shes Ec, who ran a respective one-two in the Grade 3 Juvenile Challenge qualifier at Sam Houston; Apolinaria Prize, who qualified at Emerald Downs; and fellow stakes winners Here Comes Candy and Deutsch.