Shotgun Kowboy, Quinonez seek Lone Star upset

Shotgun Kowboy and jockey Luis Quinonez have been stalwarts in the Mid-South region, which includes Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, and on Sunday they will attempt to pull a mild upset in the Grade 3, $200,000 Lone Star Park Handicap.

“It’s a tough race, but he’s that caliber of horse, too,” Quinonez said.

Shotgun Kowboy, a Grade 3 winner, went over $1 million in career earnings on Feb. 3 when he won an allowance at Oaklawn. The 6-year-old won by five lengths in a race run over the same 1 1/16-mile distance of the Lone Star.

“It was one of the best races he’s ever run,” said Quinonez, 51. “That day, he looked like he could beat anybody. He stepped up. He was going fast and he kept on going fast down the lane. Every time I watch the race I get goose bumps, the way he ran.”

Shotgun Kowboy and Quinonez teamed to win a second allowance at the Oaklawn meet on March 23. Not long afterward, Quinonez was injured in a starting-gate accident prior to the start of the second race April 7 at Oaklawn.

“That horse flipped in the gate, and hit me in the head and pushed me down underneath and was on top of me,” Quinonez recalled Friday.

The rider suffered a compression fracture of the t-4 vertebra.

“The compression was 35 percent,” Quinonez said. “It’s quite a bit. They say if it’s more than 40 percent, you’ve got to do surgery. I was all right. They X-rayed it, kept an eye on it, and I just didn’t do anything for a month. I went back and they X-rayed it, and they said it looked good and I started doing therapy.”

Quinonez returned to the saddle on May 4 at Lone Star, with his first race back an optional $30,000 claiming route.

“Hallelujah Hit, that was my first mount back and I won on him,” Quinonez said. “That was the first horse I got on in a month!”

Hallelujah Hit is trained by C.R. Trout, who also bred, owns, and trains Shotgun Kowboy. Both horses are Oklahoma-breds. Last weekend Trout was honored as the state’s leading owner by the Thoroughbred Racing Association of Oklahoma.

As for Quinonez, he will continue to base at Lone Star through the close of the meet in July, then will head to his home track of Remington Park.

Quinonez is a winner of 3,177 races from 25,255 mounts through Thursday, according to statistics from Daily Racing Form. Quinonez’s mounts have earned more than $70 million since he began riding in 1989.