Vals Fortune goes for $500,000 bonus

Vals Fortune, who set a track record at Louisiana Downs last Sunday winning his seventh consecutive race in the $216,500 Louisiana Quarter Horse Breeders Association Sales Futurity, will earn a $500,000 bonus if he can capture the LQHBA Futurity at the track Oct. 19.

Trials for that race are Oct. 1.

Vals Fortune has now won the first two legs of the bonus series, with his other score coming in the Mardi Gras Futurity at Fair Grounds in March.

The Louisiana Quarter Horse Breeders Association is offering the bonus, which has been available for four years. It has never been won, but the organization has an insurance policy covering that scenario. The owner of a horse who wins the bonus would earn $350,000. The person who owned the mare when the winning horse was foaled would receive $100,000. Whoever owned the winning horse's stallion when he was bred would get $50,000.

Vals Fortune is owned by Teddy Abrams Jr. Heath Taylor trains the horse, who covered 350 yards in 17.31 seconds last Sunday under Gilbert Ortiz.