Kiss My Hocks enters Rainbow Futurity trial with lots at stake

Kiss My Hocks has a lot riding on the 10th race Thursday at Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico. He enters the trial for the Grade 1, $900,000 Rainbow Futurity as the nation’s top-ranked 2-year-old Quarter Horse. He’s also putting his perfect 4-for-4 career record on the line and is attempting to remain alive for a $4 million bonus.

Kiss My Hocks is the lone horse eligible for the bonus by virtue of his win in last month’s Grade 1, $700,000 Ruidoso Futurity. The incentive is set aside for the horse who can sweep Ruidoso’s most important races for 2-year-olds, the others being the Rainbow, a 400-yard race July 20, and the $2.6 million All American Futurity on Sept. 1.

But the immediate task facing Kiss My Hocks is to qualify for the Rainbow. He’s one of 214 horses entered in 24 trials for the race. The trials will be held Thursday and Friday, and the horses with the five fastest times on each program will advance to the finale.

Kiss My Hocks exploded onto the scene in March, when he set a Sam Houston track record for 330 yards in his career debut. He proceeded to win the Grade 2, $563,950 Sam Houston Futurity in April, set the fastest qualifying time for the Ruidoso Futurity in May, then took the Grade 1 finale in his most recent start June 8.

“This horse just impresses me a little more each time he runs,” Toby Keeton, who trains Kiss My Hocks for Conda Maze and Tyler Graham, said recently. “He’s just getting a little better and a little better.”

Kiss My Hocks will break from post 6 in a field of nine in his 400-yard trial Thursday. Cody Jensen has the mount on the horse, who has been the favorite in all four of his starts. Kiss My Hocks is a son of Tempting Dash.

Kiss My Hocks leads a poll put out by the American Quarter Horse Association ranking the top juvenile Quarter Horses. Boi George, ranked eighth in the poll on the strength of his win in the West Texas Futurity at Sunland Park, runs in the second race Thursday.