Jrc Callas First seeks redemption in The Championship at Sunland Park

Last year, Jrc Callas First came into The Championship at Sunland Park on a seven-race win streak. He ended up fourth, although the loss didn’t stop him from becoming the 2014 World Champion Running Quarter Horse.

This year, Jrc Callas First enters The Championship at Sunland Park on a four-race win streak. With the World Champion title probably out of reach following Heza Dasha Fire’s Champion of Champions win, Jrc Callas First and owners Brian and Dana Stroud will have to be satisfied with a victory in the Grade 1, $350,000 race on Sunday.

The Championship at Sunland Park (race 9) is one of three Quarter Horse stakes on Sunday’s card at Sunland Park. The others are the $250,000 Sunland Park Winter Juvenile Championship (race 8) and the $85,000 Lou Wooten and Sydney Valentini Stakes (race 7).

Jrc Callas First, 5, ran his best race of the year in his last start, a one-length victory in the Zia Park Championship over Mad About the Moon, with Dashin for a Prize another half-length back in third. Both face Jrc Callas First in The Championship, which, at 400 yards, is 40 yards shorter than the Zia Park Championship.

Jrc Callas First, trained by Brian Stroud and ridden by Damian Martinez, breaks from post 7 in a field of 10 3-year-olds and up.

Another horse on a roll may give Jrc Callas First his stiffest competition in The Championship. Zoomin Effortlessly extended his winning streak to five in the Grade 1 Refrigerator Handicap at Lone Star Park in October. Zoomin Effortlessly breaks from post 3, in between Dashin for a Prize (post 4) and Mad About the Moon (post 2).

◗ Bv Midnite Express is the 5-2 morning-line favorite for the Sunland Park Winter Juvenile Championship. Bv Midnite Express has won 4 of 7 races this year, including the Grade 1 Heritage Place Futurity at Remington Park and the All American Juvenile at Ruidoso. Other contenders in the 400-yard race include Burns Folly (4-1), who won an allowance race at Zia Park in his last start, and Game Changes (5-1), who dead-heated for the win in the Hobbs America Futurity, a neck in front of third-place Burns Folly.

◗ Bl Corona and Astica, one-two in the New Mexico Fillies and Mares Championship last month at Zia Park, clash again in the Lou Wooten and Sydney Valentini Stakes for New Mexico-bred fillies and mares.