Seeing a Super Star...or Two

Sorry I'm a little late to get my blog up today, but we got home late last night from what turned out to be a pretty spectacular weekend. I'm definitely going to go off-SFR-topic this week and venture into the "fun and unexpected stuff happens" arena.

Super Senor - Photo credit Janis Smit

To explain how this all came about, let me first introduce our new Thoroughbred, Super Senor. That's Senor as in "Mr." in Spanish.

Now, that may sound like a playful name for a horse based in New Mexico, but it actually reflects this boy's pedigree.

He's a son of Kentucky Derby winner and champion sire Super Saver (where the "Super" part of his name comes from) out of a multiple stakes winning dam, who is the daughter of the great El Gran Senor (where the "Senor" part comes in).

So the name "Super Senor" actually reflects his lineage. (His full brother was named Super Accord, because their dam's name is One Accord.)

But we just call him Super, for short.

He's pictured in a photo our friend Janis took of him before a race at Sunland Park in February (just by chance!) before we owned or even knew about him. He won that race, by the way. :)

So, as I mentioned, Super is currently stabled at Sunland Park, which is a New Mexico track that is actually in a suburb of El Paso, Texas. And one weekend a year, there are two very big races held at Sunland; the Sunland Derby--a Kentucky Derby qualifying race--and the Sunland Oaks--a qualifying race for the Kentucky Oaks, which is like the Kentucky Derby for fillies held the day before the Kentucky Derby each May.

The Sunland Derby is a huge highlight for racing fans in New Mexico as this promo shows.

We'd always wanted to go see the race, but this seemed like the year to make the four-hour trip to Sunland for three very good reasons.

The first was we'd get to actually see and get photos of Super and discuss his progress and his prospects with our trainer. We claimed him sight unseen based on his pedigree and his race record. We own him in partnership with Vanessa Evans.

Secondly, one of my favorite up and coming Kentucky Derby contenders, Mucho Gusto, was entered in the Sunland Derby and he would be going head-to-head with our local superstar, Hustle Up, who has so far had a fabulous career in New Mexico, and just might be good enough to point toward the Kentucky Derby, if he could run well in the race. (I think he would be the first New Mexico bred ever to run in the Kentucky Derby, although New Mexico-based Mine That Bird did win the year Pioneerof the Nile ran).

But the third reason was probably the best. I heard the news a couple of weeks ago that super star Chasing Yesterday would be running in the Sunland Oaks, apparently after the recent fiasco that closed the track at Santa Anita. Who is Chasing Yesterday? Well, for one, she's the half-sister of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, being a daughter of the same dam, Littleprincessemma, by sire Tapit, rather than Pioneerof the Nile (who we just lost earlier this week. RIP).

But mostly, I've been following this girl's career since she stepped foot on a track last year, and cheering her on every race.

And she was coming to Sunland Park! I just hadda be there!

So, Bob Baffert is the trainer of both Mucho Gusto and Chasing Yesterday, as well as being the trainer of both recent triple crown winners, American Pharoah and Justify. Bob Baffert is a super star in his own right, and he was coming to Sunland Park with his horses.

Uh huh. We were so there! LOL

But New Mexico is a long way from Kentucky, the East Coast and California. So how do horses like Chasing Yesterday and Mucho Gusto get here? This is how...



Did you see them? (If you're not sure what they look like yet, there are photos below.)

So the horses had arrived and so had we: Sunland Park on Derby and Oaks Day!

In the early races, our trainer had a very good day on what they call the "undercard"--the other races that aren't the big feature races on Sunland Derby day. It was a highlight when Justin invited us into the winner's circle photo when one of his horses--Pendleton--won a race. (In fact, the two horses he had in the race ran 1st and 2nd). I can't share the photos with you just yet because we have to order them, but I can share the link if you want to take a peek. Pendleton Win Photo

As it got later in the afternoon, the Sunland Oaks finally came up as the ninth race on the card and I got to see my super star filly and take tons of photos. (Just wait, it gets better.)

Here are a few of those photos of Chasing Yesterday in the saddling paddock, during riders up and the post parade. She's an absolute beauty! I just love that lightning bolt blaze.

Chasing Yesterday in the Sunland Park Saddling paddock.

Photo of jockeys before the Sunland Oaks.

Among them Tyler Baze, Luis Contreras, Kent Desormeaux,

and Chasing Yesterday's jockey, Drayden Van Dyke. 

Chasing Yesterday with rider up, jockey Drayden Van Dyke.

Chasing Yesterday and Van Dyke headed to the track.

Chasing Yesterday in the Sunland Park Oaks post parade.

And how did the race go? It was a thriller! See for yourself.

Yes, she won even after that horrible start. She really is a super star. We were honored to be there to witness her amazing triumph.

The race between local star Hustle Up and one of Pre-Derby faves Mucho Gusto was Race 11. As you can see from some of these saddling paddock photos I took, the shadows were getting a bit long.

Mucho Gusto in the Sunland Park saddling paddock.

Local hero Hustle Up in the Sunland saddling paddock.

I was really hoping Mucho Gusto and Hustle Up would have a blazing stretch dual coming down to the wire. They did have their duel, but unfortunately, it was on the backstretch. By the time they got to the wire, they'd burned each other out with the lightning fast pace. Hustle Up faded badly to finish 7th though Mucho Gusto did hold on to take third after being passed by some "closers," so he captured at least some of the points for the Kentucky Derby, as well as a good share of the $800,000 purse. So it wasn't all bad. If you'd care to view it, here you go:

At the close of the Sunland Derby, we retrieved our vehicle from the parking lot and headed for the barns to see our new horse, Super. Not being familiar with the Sunland backside, we wandered a bit before we found our trainer's barn.

We got out of the car and walked inside--only to come face-to-face with Mr. Baffert himself!

As it turns out, Justin's father and Bob Baffert grew up in the same area of Arizona, so our trainer knows him well and for the last several years Mr. Baffert has stabled his horses in Justin's barn when he brings horses to Sunland for the Derby or Oaks races.

And not only was Bob Baffert in the barn, so was his son Bode (Kentucky Derby runner-up Bodemeister was named in his honor), as well as Mrs. Baffert...and--holy heck!--Chasing Yesterday!

Chasing Yesterday (with Jill Baffert out of frame)

They were all wonderful! I was my usual tongue-tied self, but I did manage to blurt out that we'd made the trip especially to see Chasing Yesterday run, and that I'd followed her career closely. (Yup. Here's us. Just having a little chat with Bob Baffert while we visit with Chasing Yesterday. Just another day at the barn. *gulp*)

(Special thanks to Vanessa Evans for snapping this  keepsake photo.)

An absolutely lovely filly, Chasing Yesterday

gets plenty of attention.

I was so stunned I totally forgot to go get a close-up look at Mucho Gusto who was also in our trainer's barn. But, at least, we did remember to get photos of us with Super Senor. Here we are:

So yeah. Quite the weekend! Not one we're likely to forget anytime soon.

Hope you all have a great week, too!