Jessies First Down will try to make history in Championship

There’s a lot of history on the line for Jessies First Down before the calendar turns in January. He has one more start this year, and with a victory could become just the third Quarter Horse to win three world champion titles, according to statistics from the American Quarter Horse Association. Shue Fly accomplished the feat in 1941-43 and Go Man Go in 1955-57.

But before the AQHA votes at the end of December, there are a lot of moving parts. Jessies First Down, who has won the last two world champion titles, is scheduled to run in the Grade 1, $350,000 Championship on Dec. 30 at Sunland Park. Hotstepper, a 3-year-old who is ranked second to Jessies First Down in a poll put out by the AQHA, is under consideration for that race, trainer Sleepy Gilbreath said Tuesday.

Hotstepper, winner of the Texas Classic Derby last weekend at Lone Star Park and the All American Derby earlier this year at Ruidoso, also has the option of the Grade 1, $600,000 Champion of Champions on Dec. 15 at Los Alamitos, Gilbreath said. The other major stakes for Quarter Horses before the year ends is the Grade 1 Challenge Championship on Saturday night at Los Alamitos.

Jessies First Down has not made a wrong move all year, winning a trio of Grade 1 races in his three starts – the Leo and Remington Park Invitational, both in Oklahoma City, and the Fall Championship at The Downs at Albuquerque. The horse, who races for breeder Ted Abrams, has wintered at Lone Star.

“Right now, he’s doing perfect,” trainer Jimmy Padgett said. “He’s run three times, won three times this year, three Grade 1’s, and we’re going after the fourth one, the Championship at Sunland.”

From there, plans for 2019 have yet to be determined for Jessies First Down, a gelding who is 7.

“We’ll just run at Sunland, and then depending on how he is and if he wins or loses,” we’ll make decisions, Padgett said. “Nobody wants him to go out on a defeat.”

Padgett said Jessies First Down is to ship to a farm in Texas with the meet now closed at Lone Star, then will head to Sunland the first part of December to prepare for the Championship.

◗ The draw for the Challenge Championships was to be held Wednesday at host site Los Alamitos.

◗ Evangeline Downs on Friday night puts on 14 trials for the $1 million Louisiana Millions. The finale is Dec. 15.

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