Racing


Regard The Rose Posts Top Mark, MJ Farms' Breeds Half-the-Field in $206,000 Shue Fly
Regard The Rose (#4), under jockey Manuel Gutierrez, drives to victory and the fastest qualifying time for the $206,815 Shue Fly Stakes(RG3) Friday afternoon at Sunland Park Racetrack & Casino.

© Coady Photography
Regard The Rose Posts Top Mark, MJ Farms' Breeds Half-the-Field in $206,000 Shue Fly

SUNLAND PARK, NM—DECEMBER 22, 2017—Regard The Rose rolled a 2-¾ length win in the third of four trials Friday afternoon at Sunland Park Racetrack & Casino to post the fastest qualifying time for the $206,815 Shue Fly Stakes(RG3). New Mexico breeder MJ Farms bred five of 10 final qualifiers.

The 10 fastest New-Mexico-breds will return after the first of the year as just turned new 3-year-olds to contest the 400-yard final on January 14 at Sunland Park. The winner will earn a first-place payday worth $97,203.

Regard The Rose, a daughter of multiple stake sire Chicks Regard raced over the 400 yard Sunland Park surface in :19.148 seconds, a 99-speed index with a 17-mph tail wind, to get the top qualifying mark. Winner of the Arapahoe Park Futurity last summer the filly picked up her fifth career win in six starts under jockey Manuel Gutierrez.

Trainer Juan Ortega saddled the 2-year-old filly for owner Mason S. King. Bred from the Coronas Blackdiamond mare Not Sable Shes Rose, Regard The Rose kicked off her race career at Remington Park last April when she won for a $20,000 tag. After that the filly traveled to Colorado where she won two races (including the aforementioned Arapahoe Futurity).

She suffered her only loss with a second-place effort in the New Mexico Classic Futurity trials but returned a couple of weeks later to win an Allowance at Zia Park. Regard The Rose has earned $61,130 in 2017.

Multiple stakes finalist Frangellica defeated Everybodys Talkin in the final trial to get the second fastest time and is one of the five qualifiers bred by MJ Farms.

A daughter of the #2 leading second-crop sire Big Daddy Cartel, she races for owners' Paul Blanchard and Javier Chavez. Saddled by Jose Ignacio DeHerrera and ridden by Martin Felix, Frangellica completed the 400-yard course in :19.269 seconds, a 96-speed index with a 14-mph tailwind.

Out of the MJ Farms mare Tangle Vines, by Dash Ta Fame, Frangellica has compiled an (8) 3-1-1 record this season and banked $49,495. She was fourth in the New Mexico Breeders' Futurity(RG3) at SunRay Park and a finalist in the New Mexico State Fair Futurity in September.

Two-time stakes winner Daddys Blushing was a three-quarter length winner in the opening trial to get the fourth fastest time of :19.311 seconds, a 95-speed index with a 19-mph tailwind.

Ridden by Francisco Calderon, for trainer Jackie Riddle, the son of Big Daddy Cartel bumped at the break before edging away from the field to win. Gary Hartstack owns the winner of the Mountain Top Futurity(RG3) and the Sam Houston Juvenile Invitational.

The son of Big Daddy Cartel is bred by MJ Farms from the Blushing Bug mare Sandy June Bug. Daddys Blushing has won five of six starts and earned nearly $190,000 this year.

A homebred, also racing for MJ Farms, Daddys Copy won the second trial to get the 7th fastest time of :19.543 seconds. Santiago Martinez rode the Big Daddy Cartel filly out of Fast Copy Miss by Heza Fast Man.

Wesley T. Giles conditions the lightly raced filly who was a finalist in the New Mexico Classic Cup Futurity at Zia Park. With a (6) 2-2-0 record Daddys Copy has earned $24,847.

Big Daddy Cartel sired four finalists (three trial winners). Leading sires First Moonflash and Jesse James Jr got two qualifiers each.

Trainer Justin Joiner was the only trainer to saddle two finalists, 6th fastest First N Forever and 8th fastest Jesse Klee.

For a complete list of Shue Fly(RG3) qualifiers, times, sires, dams, owners, breeders, trainers and jockeys CLICK HERE

Live racing resumes on Saturday and Sunday (Christmas Eve). Post time each day is 12:30 p.m. (MDT).