Fans lined the rail and poured through the grandstands as they watched Mr LC Mr Bigtime win the CACCM.

© Hipodromo de la Punta

The Hipodromo de la Punta, located in the San Luis province in the central part of the country, offered hosted a test event involving a Quarter Horse sale and races to gauge response from owners, breeders, trainers and fans.

"It was a success beyond our imagination, and it even surprised the racetrack organizer," said Argentina Quarter Horse Association President Ignacio "Nacho" de Mendiguren.

The Quarter Horses arrived on October 4, and included 22 horses set for auction, and two sets of stakes horses set to run in the Generation 2016 Presentation Stakes and Criadores Argentinos de Caballos Cuarto de Milla Stakes.

Key stakeholders met with racetrack authorities on October 5 to discuss current and future plans to host more Quarter Horse events at the racetrack.

"Breeders and owners showed up en masse to be part of this project, committing themselves to fair play, animal welfare, a nomination program and a huge compromise from all parties involved, among other things," said de Mendiguren.

Following the meeting was a sale preview and a welcome dinner for the breeders and owners.

The full festivities kicked off on October 6, with the auction hosting a record attendance of more than three times the normal attendee numbers for traditional Thoroughbred auctions.

"That's when it started to sink in, not only for us, but for the organizers, that the event was going to be bigger than expected," said de Mendiguren.

The first horse sold, a Stoli-bred 2-year-old, broke the group's highest auction price by 7%.

"The second horse out shocked us into disbelief," said de Mendiguren.

A colt from breeder La Clorindita and out of the first crop of foals by First Red Sevens, a son of First Down Dash, broke the Quarter Horse auction record by 46%, and the racetrack's all-breed record by 22%.

The 22 horses sold are nominated to race in four sets of races in 2020 at the La Punta Racetrack.

Once the sale completed, it was time for the races. Fans poured in, matching the racetrack's all-time attendance records of up to approximately 8,000 people. They were on hand to see the Quarter Horse races, which were the final two races on the day's card.

The Generation 2016 Presentation Stakes was won by a Bigtime Favorite filly named Ultra Favorite, who won by 2 lengths in a clean demonstration of what good breeding and training can do, de Mendiguren reported.

Another progeny of Bigtime Favorite, Mr LC Mr Bigtime, won the Criadores Argentinos de Caballos Cuarto de Milla Stakes by a length.

"There was a lot of hugging, euphoric people celebrating!" said de Mendiguren. "All in all, we are still being cautious but the ground seems solid to start building on it."

AQHA representatives, including Chief Racing Officer Janet Van Bebber, have made several trips to South America, as interest in American Quarter Horses grows in the region, and they all report a growing enthusiasm for the breed and for Quarter Horse racing.

"I am very excited about the interest in regulated Quarter Horse racing in Argentina" said VanBebber. "We sincerely appreciate Ignacio de Mendiguren and his membership for the success of this exhibition of Quarter Horses races, which demonstrated an abundant interest in growing the sport in their country. Expanding the frontier of Quarter Horse racing is exciting for all of us, as it supports incentive to breeders, and will help us record more complete pedigree information. These benefits will be implemented once we work with them in meeting the requirements for their races to be officially recognized by our Association, thereby enabling us to record the race results in the AQHA database."

AQHA News and information is a service of the American Quarter Horse Association. For more news and information, follow @AQHA Racing on Twitter, "like" Q-Racing on Facebook, and visit aqha.com/racing.