'Freaky' wins Champion of Champions quarterhorse race
By
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By JIM MOORE
Mention horse racing and people usually think of the elegant thoroughbreds
that grace Churchill Downs. But that could be a jump to a wrong conclusion.
Quarterhorses – most often associated with barrel racing, pole-bending,
team penning, cutting and reining - are more than happy to play the race game
too, albeit usually over shorter distances.
In fact, the 38th running of the Quarterhorse “Champion of Champions”
race was held at Southern California’s Los Almitos race park this past
weekend.
The “Champion of Champions” race is the classic quarter-mile (that
provides the name for this great breed) and the champion this year was a
white-faced, sorrel four-year-old gelding named “Freaky” winning it by a
half-length and in 21.06 seconds – only 11/100ths off the track record. That
compares to running the length of a basketball court in one and a half
seconds…. and then repeating that feat twenty times.
“Freaky”, owned by affable Armando Aguirre of Surprise, Arizona,
qualified for the “Champion of Champions” race by setting three records in
four Grade 1 stakes wins at Los Almitos this year and won the race under
22-year-old jockey, Francisco Rubio, himself a “maiden” in the Champion of
Champions. The win brought the team a $375,000 payday, which works out to
$17,857.14 per second (before buying hay and celebratory Pepsi), and all but
guarantees “Freaky” will be named as the World Champion when the American
Quarter Horse Association makes their 2009 Champions announcements in
January.[[In-content Ad]]
Mention horse racing and people usually think of the elegant thoroughbreds
that grace Churchill Downs. But that could be a jump to a wrong conclusion.
Quarterhorses – most often associated with barrel racing, pole-bending,
team penning, cutting and reining - are more than happy to play the race game
too, albeit usually over shorter distances.
In fact, the 38th running of the Quarterhorse “Champion of Champions”
race was held at Southern California’s Los Almitos race park this past
weekend.
The “Champion of Champions” race is the classic quarter-mile (that
provides the name for this great breed) and the champion this year was a
white-faced, sorrel four-year-old gelding named “Freaky” winning it by a
half-length and in 21.06 seconds – only 11/100ths off the track record. That
compares to running the length of a basketball court in one and a half
seconds…. and then repeating that feat twenty times.
“Freaky”, owned by affable Armando Aguirre of Surprise, Arizona,
qualified for the “Champion of Champions” race by setting three records in
four Grade 1 stakes wins at Los Almitos this year and won the race under
22-year-old jockey, Francisco Rubio, himself a “maiden” in the Champion of
Champions. The win brought the team a $375,000 payday, which works out to
$17,857.14 per second (before buying hay and celebratory Pepsi), and all but
guarantees “Freaky” will be named as the World Champion when the American
Quarter Horse Association makes their 2009 Champions announcements in
January.[[In-content Ad]]