KETEL WON WINS SECOND-STRAIGHT ZIA PARK CHAMPIONSHIP ON SUNDAY AFTERNOON
HOBBS, NM—DECEMBER 7, 2008—Ketel Won, the 3-2 favorite racing for R.D. Hubbard, could be on the same path that led to two championship titles last year after winning the Grade 1, $184,845 Zia Park Quarter Horse Championship on Sunday afternoon.
The Paul Jones-trained Ketel Won raced the 440 yards in :21.756 to win by a neck over Sailon Daylon. It was another neck back to third-place finish Mr Perry Dash in the tight finish.
“He didn’t break that well,” said winning rider Ramon Sanchez, who flew from Southern California to ride the five-year-old stallion. “He got the lead about halfway and then finished very well.”
A year ago, Ketel Won raced to his first Grade 1 win when he finished the Zia Park Quarter Horse Championship leading by one-half length. He then won the Grade 1, $400,000 The Championship at Sunland Park by a neck. Those two Grade 1 wins secured the 2007 champion aged stallion award by a unanimous vote and he was the overwhelming 22-2 choice as champion aged horse.
“We’ll take him to Sunland next,” said trainer Paul Jones, the six-time defending national training champion. “It’s the same as last year.”
Ketel Won will then stand his first season at stud in 2009 at JEH Stallion Station in Hondo, New Mexico.
A strapping son of Stoli, Ketel Won made his 2008 debut in the Grade 3 All American Gold Cup on August 30 and rolled to a one-and-a-half-length victory. He was then fourth in the Grade 1, $100,000 Refrigerator Handicap at Lone Star Park and second in the Grade 2, $50,000 Lovington Handicap at Zia Park. He was the odds-on favorite in each of those races.
“That last race [Lovington Handicap] really helped him for this race,” said Lisa Saumell, who manages the Jones’ operation in New Mexico. “I think this race will really help him for The Championship at Sunland. I’m really proud of him.”
The Zia Park Quarter Horse Championship win continues a sensational fall run for Hubbard, who will be inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in March. Quarter horses owned or co-owned by him, or owned by his wife Joan Dale, have won the Grade 1 All American Derby (Noconi), Grade 1 Southwest Juvenile Championship (Brenda Beautiful), Grade 2 Hobbs America Derby (Noconi), Grade 2 Hobbs America Futurity (Brenda Beautiful), Grade 3 All American Gold Cup (Ketel Won) and the Grade 3 Brigand Handicap (Tricky Dust) since Labor Day weekend. Jones trains each of those horses.
All of those horses are leading championship contenders and the Hubbard co-owned My Dashing Lady, dam of Noconi and Brenda Beautiful, is the top prospect for broodmare of the year.
