World Champion Jessies First Down goes for fifth straight

Jessies First Down, the 2016 World Champion Quarter Horse, will be a heavy favorite to win his fifth consecutive start – and the seventh stakes of his career – in Saturday’s $103,320 Bank of America Texas Challenge Championship at Sam Houston Race Park.

Jessies First Down set the fastest qualifying time of 21.42 seconds in the first of two divisions of 440-yard qualifying trials on March 31, the first start of the year for the 6-year-old gelding.

In 2016, Jessies First Down won 8 of 11 starts and earned $430,042 in a season highlighted by three consecutive major stakes wins in the fall – the Refrigerator Handicap at Lone Star Park, the Zia Park Championship, and the Championship at Sunland Park.

Owned by Ted Abrams Jr. and trained by Judd Kearl, Jessies First Down is unbeaten in four starts since a second in the All American Gold Cup at Ruidoso Downs last September.

The winner of the Texas Challenge Championship receives a berth in the $350,000 Bank of America Challenge Championship at Prairie Meadows on Oct. 14.

Rodrigo Vallejo will ride Jessies First Down in the Texas Challenge, and they will break from post 3 in a field of 10.

Dutcher and Tic Dale, first and second in the second time trial, could be a threat to Jessies First Down. Dutcher was second in the Vessels Maturity at Los Alamitos last July.

Remington: $932K Futurity

The richest Quarter Horse race of April is Saturday’s $932,500 Remington Park Futurity for Oklahoma-breds, the top race on a 12-race program with four stakes.

The Remington Park Futurity, run at 330 yards, is led by Eos a Political Win and Le Vencedora, the fastest qualifiers from two evenings of time trials on April 7-8. Eos a Political Win, owned by Mike Castanon’s Elite Oilfield Services, is the 5-2 morning-line favorite in a field of 10 after winning a time trial in 16.94 seconds on April 7.

The race is not without controversy. La Vencedora and Political Attraction were trained for the time trials by Gerry McLean, who was suspended by the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission last week after one of his runners on March 25 tested positive for the anti-inflammatory tolfenamic acid. Those horses are now listed as trained by John Weghorst.

La Vencedora was timed in 17.01 seconds on April 8, setting the fastest time of the night. Political Attraction was second in a division of the trials on April 7 to The Only Knockout, who was timed in 16.98 seconds.

Weghorst is starting two former McLean-trained runners in Saturday’s $305,400 Remington Park Derby for Oklahoma-breds at 400 yards – fastest qualifier Dicecapades and Political Bliss. Dicecapades and Apollitical Scout, who won a division of the trials on April 9, are among six fillies in the field.

In other Remington stakes, Chainman, the winner of the Hobbs America Futurity at Zia Park last October, will have his first start of the year in the $50,000 Bob Moore Memorial Stakes at 300 yards.

Ima China Rush, who won the $525,050 Oklahoma Futurity on March 25, is a standout in the $61,800 Laico Bird Stakes for Oklahoma-breds at 330 yards.