Redneck Humor comes full circle

Redneck Humor started his year in February at Sunland Park and he’s returned Saturday to try to win his seventh stakes of 2017 in the $65,000 KLAQ Handicap.

“He’s back where it all started,” trainer Justin Evans said.

Redneck Humor is the 125-pound highweight for the five-furlong race, which drew 10 3-year-olds and up. The KLAQ is the first stakes of the Sunland meet, which was to open Friday. Redneck Humor is 6 for 7 this year and reeled off six straight wins – all in stakes – from February to September.

“You don’t get horses that put together years like he has,” Evans said. “He’s been a model of consistency, any track you send him to, any distance you want to run him, from about five furlongs to six and a half. He shows up every time.”

The $85,000 Jess Burner Memorial Handicap for Quarter Horses also will be run Saturday at Sunland.

KLAQ HANDICAP (RACE 9) KEY CONTENDERS

Redneck Humor, by Da Stoops (Last 3 Beyers: 85-84-83)

◗ The winner of the Budweiser Handicap in February at Sunland, he enters the KLAQ off his lone defeat of the year, a second-place finish in the $75,000 Zia Park Sprint on Nov. 22. He broke from the rail and finished two lengths back.

“I knew the other day we were up against it,” Evans said. “He doesn’t really like it down inside. They put pressure on him. He wanted out. He was shuffled back to last and came again. To be second, that was huge.”

◗ The luck of the draw was on Redneck Humor’s side this time around, as he will break from post 9 under Miguel Perez.

“He drew where he wants to be, out there on the outside,” said Evans, who trains Redneck Humor for Vanessa Evans, Earl Neugebauer, and K.W. Sharp.

Mt Veeder, by Ghostzapper (Last 3 Beyers: 90-78-67)

◗ He defeated Redneck Humor in the Zia Sprint. The win was Mt Veeder’s sixth in his last seven starts, with two of those victories coming against Quarter Horses.

“We were trying to route Mt Veeder – he’s bred for it – and he never would take to it,” Evans said. “Once we cut him back in distance and started sprinting, he just turned into a different animal.”

Concord Fast, by Concord Point (Last 3 Beyers: 90-81-73)

◗ Evans trainee is coming off a Zia allowance win in which he covered six furlongs in 1:08.32.