Mad About the Moon seeks Grade 1 score in Southwest Juvenile

Mad About the Moon, the runner-up in the All American Futurity, will attempt to nail down a Grade 1 win Sunday in the $200,000 Southwest Juvenile Championship at Zia Park in Hobbs, N.M. The 440-yard race for Quarter Horses is the final stakes of the meet that closes Tuesday.

Mad About the Moon is the horse to beat on the heels of his win in the Grade 2 New Mexico Cup Futurity at Zia on Oct. 26. Earlier this year, he finished a half-length behind Jm Miracle in the All American, a $2.6 million race run at Ruidoso Downs on Sept. 1.

Mad About the Moon, owned by David G. Valdez and trained by Gene Burden, will break from post 8. Sergio Becerra Jr. has the mount on the horse, who was raised in Deming, N.M., by his co-breeder, 37-year-old Sarah Donaldson-Rioux.

Other leading contenders include Montauk, a stakes winner and the runner-up in the New Mexico Cup Futurity; Separate Dynasty, the third-place finisher in the Grade 1 Dash For Cash Futurity at Lone Star Park; and You N Me, the third-place finisher in the Grade 2 Hobbs America Futurity at Zia.