Higher Ed is Sporting Chance's First Winner

A & A Ranch's freshman sire Sporting Chance  had a strong presence June 9 at Ruidoso Downs where seven of his runners made their racing debuts in one of four, five-furlong races making up the Mountain Top Thoroughbred Futurity Trials.

The trials produced the sire's first winner when his gelded son Higher Ed  won race 5 gate-to-wire as the 8-5 favorite for trainer Todd Fincher. Higher Ed is a homebred for J. Kirk and Judy Robison, who bred him in New Mexico out of their homebred multiple stakes winner African Heat  (by Southwestern Heat).

For the day, Sporting Chance's runners compiled a collective 1-2-3 record and $9,600 in earnings. The runners who ran second were Tax Free Texas, a Robison homebred filly that they co-bred with Downstream Racing; and, Sporty Pants, a filly bred by A & A Ranch's Fred Alexander and raced by Jana Trotter. The third-place finishers were Pocket Watch, a Pierre and Leslie Amestoy homebred filly, and Juana Rumble, a homebred gelding for Reliance Ranches.

The top three finishers of the trials qualify for the $150,000 Mountain Top Thoroughbred Futurity that will be held June 25 at Ruidoso.

Sporting Chance, a son of Tiznow , won the 2017 Hopeful Stakes (G1) at 2 for owners Robert Baker and William Mack. He went on at 3 to finish third in the Southwest Stakes (G3) and retired with a 2-1-1 record from nine starts and earned $409,790.

The stallion stands for $5,000.