SINGLES CRUISE OFF TO WINTER DERBY FINALE
Singles Cruise was foaled in California on January 27, 2016.
Last Saturday she celebrated her birthday a little early – with a victory in a Winter Derby Trials race at Las Alamitos Race Track in Cypress, California.
As a result, Singles Cruise’s birthday present to owners Jan
ice and Barry Sather of Beaverlodge is an appearance in the Winter Derby Final at Los Alamitos on February 9.
Singles Cruise, with jockey Saul Ramirez Jr. aboard, was up against seven other horses in Saturday’s 400-yarder for three-year-olds winning in a photo finish (photo left) in 19.984 – less than a second off the track record of 19.067 set by Chivalry Sr in 2011.
Heading into the race she was one of the long shots at 33-1 odds. I Like My Chances, who was 43-1, finished second at 19.992 and Ladys A Cartel, 8-1 odds, third in 19.997.
Singles Cruise was tied for fifth/sixth (with Terrific First Down) following four trial races on the weekend while I Like My Chances was eighth and Ladys A Cartel nine of 10 horses who advanced to the $198,700 final on February 9.
The top qualifier for the Winter Derby Final was Powerful Favorite, who ran a 19.789 in its trial.
The Winter Derby features top quarter horses from across North America.
“It’s so tough to qualify for these big ones,” Janice Sather said of the Grade II Winter Derby Final. “Barry and I were hollering so hard I thought we both might have heart attacks.”
Singles Cruise paid $68.80 to win, $28 to place and $9 to show.
The three-year-old had five wins and a third after nine races in 2018 racing for the first time in 2019 at Los Alamitos on the weekend.
At the Alberta Quarter Horse Racing Association awards celebration at the end of the 2018 season she was named Champion Two Year Old and Grand Champion Running Horse.
Singles Cruise won three out of four races in Grande Prairie at The Horses At Evergreen Park including the Evergreen Park Juvenile Challenge on August 19; the Jerry Stojan Memorial Stakes on July 27; and the Jerry Stojan Memorial Futurity Trial on July 8. On August 4 she was third in the EP Juvenile Challenge Trial.
Racing at Evergreen Park returns this summer on July 6 and continues weekends until August 25.
