Isn’t He Clever has recency edge in Ruidoso Downs Thoroughbred Championship
Isn’t He Clever will have a recency edge on Ol Winedrinker Who when the two New Mexico stalwarts meet Monday in the $100,000 Ruidoso Downs Thoroughbred Championship Handicap. The 1 1/16-mile race is among the undercard stakes supporting the $3 million All American Futurity for Quarter Horses.
Ol Winedrinker Who will be defending his title in the Ruidoso Thoroughbred Championship and is the 123-pound highweight for what will be his first race since taking the $150,000 Downs at Albuquerque Handicap on June 13.
Isn’t He Clever, at 122 pounds, was second by a neck in an Aug. 9 allowance at SunRay Park. The race was his first since running second in the Downs at Albuquerque, and he was an odds-on favorite in the allowance at SunRay.
“It had been a couple months since he’d run, and he probably needed a race,” said trainer Henry Dominguez.
The Ruidoso Thoroughbred Championship also drew Bourbon Sense, the winner of the $100,000 Arapahoe Park Classic last month in Colorado, and Donoharm, a multiple stakes winner invading from Prairie Meadows.
KEY CONTENDERS
Isn’t He Clever (Last 3 Beyers: 84-80-90)
◗ He was entered in the $75,000 San Juan County Commissioners Handicap at 1 1/8 miles last Tuesday at SunRay, and while the entire card was canceled, Dominguez said before that race that he and owners J. Kirk and Judy Robison were leaning toward awaiting this spot.
“I think he prefers the mile and a sixteenth,” Dominguez said at the time. “Ruidoso, he likes that track. He knows it well and trains on it.”
◗ Enrique Gomez has the mount from post 2.
Ol Winedrinker Who (Last 3 Beyers: 88-87-81)
◗ He won this race last year off a layoff, as the Sept. 1 race was his first since taking the San Juan County Commissioners on June 22.
◗ Isaias Enriquez has the mount from post 5.
Bourbon Sense (Last 3 Beyers: 82-49-79)
◗ He will break from the rail one start after wiring the field in the Arapahoe Park Classic. Bourbon Sense has been flattered since, with runner-up Steelman Run returning to win a stakes-quality allowance last Wednesday at Remington Park.