At 2-1, SF Hot Pass wins Challenge Championship
SF Hot Pass, a 6-year-old Ivory James gelding owned by Shannon Fisher, held on at the wire to win Saturday’s 440yard, $266,250 Bank of America Challenge Championship at Albuquerque Downs.
The race was the main event of 10 in the first time the American Quarter Horse Association had brought the Challenge Championships to New Mexico since 1993. The races drew an on-track crowd reported by The Downs at 8,979. Total handle reached $447,821, of which $126,738 was wagered on-track.
Ridden by Francisco Calderon for trainer Leon Bard and sent to post as the 2-1 second choice, SF Hot Pass made his quarter-mile trip in 21.607 seconds. His margin of victory was a nose from 6-5 favorite
Eye N Capo, who was clocked in 21.615. The gelding banked the $122,475 winner’s share of the purse, and he scored a provisional berth in the Dec. 14, $600,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos Racecourse near Los Angeles.
In Saturday’s other Challenge Championship races (see results on D6):
ARC DISTAFF CHALLENGE CHAMPIONSHIP: Preyn Onthe Mountain scored an upset victory at odds of 11-1 in the 400-yard race for fillies and mares.
ADEQUAN DERBY CHALLENGE CHAMPIONSHIP: Valiant Tiberias dominated the rest of the 3-year-old competition.
JUVENILE CHALLENGE CHAMPIONSHIP: Jay Number 7, a homebred son of Im A Fancy Pyc owned by Dustin R. Cox, extended his win streak to three in the 350-yard race for 2-year-olds.
DISTANCE CHALLENGE CHAMPIONSHIP: Let There Be Sound overcame his outside post for his seventh win in 22 starts.