Filly Carris Cartel best in John Deere Texas Juvenile Challenge

Jockey Santos Carrizales knew he had just one option before Saturday’s $70,000 John Deere Texas Juvenile Challenge.

As he slid Carris Cartel into Sam Houston Race Park’s starting gate, he knew it was win or else.

“My wife, Nancy, owns the horse with me,” Carrizales said. “If I lost this race, I would be sleeping on the couch.”

He not only won Saturday’s feature race at 10-1 odds, but he whisked past a trio of 3-1 favorites to do it.

The rider took advantage of a Red Sea parting event.

The horse inside him veered left as the starting gate opened. The horse outside Carrizales and Carris Cartel angled right.

That wide opening put the 2-year-old filly on a clear path to the finish, and she easily got there first.

One of only two fillies in the 10-horse field, the winner “stayed relaxed the whole way,” Carrizales said.

“When we break these babies in (at their San Antonio-area ranch), we’re very gentle with them,” he said. “I think that helps them be a little more relaxed during races.”

Though Jess another beat in led early, he could do no better than third. He Win It grabbed second place, though neither could withstand Carris Cartel’s charge.

The winner will ship to Ruidoso Downs next month with the intent to qualify for Labor Day’s AllAmerican Futurity.

In the secondary feature, the $55,000 Adequan Texas Derby, Gustafame didn’t get the clear path that helped Carris Cartel.

Gustafame didn’t need it. The heavy favorite’s win, as jockey Rodrigo Vallejo put it, was “easy.”

Added Vallejo: “With 100 yards to go, you could tell the other horses weren’t going to touch him. There was no pressure on us. I thought, ‘This is too easy.’ ”

Judd Kearl, again the quarter-horse season’s leading trainer, said Gustafame recovered well from 2016 surgery.

“We gave him the winter off, and it made a difference,” Kearl said.

Owners Jim and Louise Padgett came from Utah to watch their horse qualify for the Derby, then win it.

“We thought we had a special horse when we had him in a pasture, and he was outrunning older horses,” Jim Padgett said.

“He’s a little horse,” Louise Padgett said. “But that’s OK. He doesn’t know he’s little.”

A Salty Corona and Tac My Time trailed Gustafame.

Sam Houston’s quarterhorse season ends with a noon Monday program.