By Andrea Caudill
Q-RACING JOURNAL—JULY 14, 2014—This weekend, an appropriately-named Game outdueled Hemps Jumpn Lajolla to take the $645,645 Lee Berwick Memorial Futurity (RG1) by a head at Delta Downs.

The $12,000 LQHBA Yearling Sale purchase has done well for owner Joseph Boyd Landreneau, who has seen his gelding bring home $485,224 in six starts. For that matter, so has the $7,200 LQHBA Yearling Sale purchase Hemps Jumpn Lajolla, who has himself earned $263,572 for owner Miguel Rodriguez.

But first, let’s give a nod to William Nolan’s Fearless Fire, who on Saturday won the $31,062 Wyoming Downs AQHA Maiden Challenge by a nose while earning a speedy 110 speed index. It was her second win in nine career starts, but what is interesting is that she is a full sister to juvenile star Heza Dasha Fire, whom we profiled a few weeks ago. S-Quarter K LLC is the breeder of both horses.

The Lee Berwick is the richest Quarter Horse race ever held at Delta Downs and is named after the track’s founder,. The track’s closing-day card was filled with great stakes races, and the big race was certainly a good one. The top two finishers had each defeated each other previously; Game won the $265,285 Louisiana Breeders’ Laddie Futurity (RG2) while Hemps Jumpn Lajolla was 10th, and Hemps Jumpn Lajolla was the winner of the $281,514 Mardi Gras Futurity (RG2) while Game was 7th.

Incidentally, the $286,280 LQHBA Lassie Futurity (RG2) winner, Embrujo Star, was third in the Lee Berwick. A $5,000 LQHBA Fall Mixed Sale purchase, Embrujo Star has earned $222,424 for owner Hubert Vestal.

Game is by Game Patriot out of the Hotdoggin mare Hot Charge. He was bred in Louisiana by Joe F. Gutierrez Jr. of Zapata, Texas.

Game Patriot is a 17-year-old son of Chicks Beduino out of the First Down Dash mare Fire And Nice, and is owned by Robert Touchet of Brownsville, Texas. The stallion earned $225,096 during his 15-start racing career, and his wins included the Retama Park Futurity (G1). The sire of 11 crops to race, he has gotten the earners of more than $22.5 million, placing him at No. 11 on the list of all-time sires by money earned. This includes 468 winners from 709 starters (66 percent) and 43 stakes winners. Standing at Robicheaux Ranch at Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, Game Patriot is sire of the likes of Restricted Grade 1 winner and sire Jet Black Patriot ($876,921), Game Show Special ($383,323), AB Hope For Cash ($364,842), BBs First Beduino ($348,613), Gametime ($344,601), Jes A Game ($323,978), Worlds On High ($273,413), Little Bit Trashy ($267,960) and Toast To Patriot ($240,748).

Game is the first foal out of Hot Charge, a 2007 daughter of Hotdoggin out of the Beduinos Charger mare Texelkas Charger. She was bred by Julie Pilgrim of Powell, Wyoming, and is also owned by Touchet. The mare won or placed in eight of 13 starts and earned $15,076. She earned a career-best 103 speed index at Sam Houston Race Park when she was a 3-year-old. Hot Charge has produced a yearling full sister to Game named Hot Wheel.

The mare’s sire, Hotdoggin, was a son of Reckless Dash out of the champion Runaway Winner mare Deceptively. Hotdoggin was a Grade 1 finalist. From seven crops to race, he has sired 50 winners from 106 starters and the earners of more than $1.2 million, including Restricted Grade 1 winner Dirt Track Date ($219,238). He died in 2012.

Hot Charge is out of the winning Beduinos Charger mare Texelkas Charger. From only four foals, Texelkas Charger also produced Texelkas Shocker, the dam of stakes winner Texelkas Chic (by Jumpn Chick, $39,940).

Her dam was Texelkas, a daughter of Best Native (TB) and an eight-times-stakes placed and Grade 1 competitor. She earned $88,043 in her career and set a 440-yard track record at Albuquerque.

She, too, had only four foals. Her daughter Sleek Charge is the dam of stakes winner Sarah Charger (by Beduinos Charger, $19,367), and also coming from this family is Restricted Grade 2-placed Icy Patriot ($23,874) and stakes-placed Call Me Kong ($14,338).

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