Mr Jess Jenkins returns in Southwest Juvenile Invitational Championship

Mr Jess Jenkins will make his first start since winning the $3 million All American Futurity on Labor Day in Sunday’s $150,000 Southwest Juvenile Invitational Championship at Zia Park. The race is one of five stakes for Quarter Horses on the program, and those races are worth a collective $595,000.

Mr Jess Jenkins was a neck winner of the All American at Ruidoso Downs. The race is the richest offering for Quarter Horses, and the magnitude of the win was not lost on trainer Marcos Carrizales, a 23-year-old from a racing family.

“It was an amazing day,” he said. “I still think about it and I’m like, ‘Wow! We won that race!’ There’s a lot of trainers that have been trying to for the longest time. Thank God we accomplished it.”

Carrizales got his training license in 2018.

He said Mr Jess Jenkins was freshened following the All American and has worked for Sunday’s race at both his training center base in Hobbs, N.M., and at nearby Zia.

“We decided to put him in this race,” Carrizales said. “We’re just going with what the horse tells us. He’s been training good. I think he’s ready to go.”

Future plans for Mr Jess Jenkins, a top contender for 2-year-old champion from the American Quarter Horse Association, are to be determined.

“We’ll see after this race,” Carrizales said. “We’ll see how he comes out after Sunday and we’ll go from there. More than likely, we’ll be going to Oklahoma, and Remington, to start off his [3-year-old] campaign there.”

Mr Jess Jenkins is an Oklahoma-bred who races for Jose A. Guzman and Rito Sosa. James A. Flores has the mount from post 7.

Other top races on the card include the $200,000 Zia Park Championships at 440 yards. The race has drawn Grade 1 winners Political Attraction and Eagle Coast.