Seize the Win tries to conquer another track in Adequan Derby Challenge Championship
Racing at different venues does not seem to hinder Seize the Win. In the last year, he has won stakes at Indiana Grand and Hialeah in the United States and Ajax Downs in Ontario.
Seize the Win will start at Lone Star Park for the first time on Saturday in the $202,000 Adequan Derby Challenge Championship for Quarter Horses at 400 yards. The colt can win for the fifth time this year in his eighth start.
The Derby Challenge is one of five six-figure stakes on the Bank of America Challenge Championship program at Lone Star Park, an event that brings together stakes winners from throughout North America. The $350,000 Challenge Championship is the evening’s leading race.
Seize the Win, trained by Matt Frazier for Glenn Graff, won the Indiana Stallion Derby at Indiana Grand on Sept. 12 for his third consecutive win. The highlight of his year was a victory in the $417,575 Hialeah Derby last January. In the Derby Challenge, Seize the Win faces Ajs High, who has won 8 of 12 starts, including the Altoona Derby at Prairie Meadows on Oct. 10, and Ynot Walk, the winner of the Los Alamitos Winter Derby last February.
The $151,500 John Deere Juvenile Challenge Championship for 2-year-olds at 350 yards drew a competitive field. Undivided Atemption, who starts from the outside in post 11, qualified by winning a regional race at Sam Houston Race Park in May.
Undivided Atemption later won a division of the All American Futurity trials at Ruidoso Downs but did not qualify for the lucrative final. More recently, Undivided Atemption was a troubled fifth in a division of the Dash for Cash Futurity trials at Lone Star on Sept. 26 after being bumped midway through the race.
Js Abel Dasher, fifth in the Dash for Cash Futurity on Oct. 10, and Pappas in the House, the winner of two futurities at Les Bois Park in Idaho, are capable of winning.
The richest race for fillies and mares on the program is the $126,500 Merial Distaff Challenge Championship at 400 yards. The race lacks a nationally prominent runner in the field of 11.
Sudden Separation, a 4-year-old filly trained by Larry Sharp, has won four stakes at Fair Meadows and Prairie Meadows since mid-June.
The evening’s first six-figure stakes is the $150,000 Zoetis Distance Challenge Championship at 870 yards.
Jess Twice Cash may have the home-track advantage. A 5-year-old, Jess Twice Cash has won consecutive races at Lone Star during the track’s fall Quarter Horse meeting and has the speed to be prominent from the start for jockey Ivan Carnero.