KENDRICK STAKES (R)
By Michael Cusortelli
Higher Ed
Making the second start of his sophomore campaign, Higher Ed won the May 11, $73,313 Kendrick Stakes (R) for New Mexico-bred 3-year-old Thoroughbreds at SunRay Park.
Higher Ed covered 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:17.60, and his margin of victory was a clear 4 1/2 lengths from Marking Canyon. Christian Ramos rode the homebred son of Sporting Chance for owners J. Kirk and Judy Robison of El Paso, Texas, and trainer Todd Fincher.
Higher Ed was stretching out in distance off his second-place finish in a 5 1/2-furlong non-winners-of-three allowance race for state-breds at Sunland Park on March 15. The dark bay or brown gelding is the first official black-type stakes winner sired by Sporting Chance, a Kentucky-bred son of the Cee’s Tizzy stallion Tiznow. Raced in four states from 2017-18, Sporting Chance earned $409,790 from nine starts and won the 2017 Hopeful Stakes (G1) at Saratoga.
Sporting Chance has sired five winners and the earners of more than $270,000 from 19 starters. A half brother to stakes winner Quickfast N Ahurry, the stallion is owned by a partnership and stands for a $5,000 fee at Fred and Linda Alexander’s A & A Ranch at Anthony, New Mexico.
Higher Ed is also the first starter foaled by African Heat, a homebred multiple stakes winning daughter of the Gone West stallion Southwestern Heat. Racing in New Mexico from 2018-20, African Heat earned $153,629 from seven outs and won the 2018 Rio Grande Senorita Futurity (R) at Ruidoso Downs and 2019 La Senora Stakes (R) at Sunland Park.
Higher Ed’s second dam, the unraced Indygo Shiner mare Good Mama, was purchased by the Robisons for $3,000 at the 2013 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. Good Mama has produced two winners from as many starters.
Higher Ed’s third dam, the winning More Than Ready mare Apple Strudel, produced four winners from six starters, including Sixties Music, a multiple stakes placed half sister to Good Mama. Higher Ed traces back to his fifth dam, Smart Angle, a multiple graded stakes winning daughter of the Cohoes stallion Quadrangle. A 1977 Maryland-bred foal, Smart Angle foaled 13 winners from 14 starters, including multiple graded stakes winner Houston.
Higher Ed was winning for the third time in six races, and the $45,000 winner’s share of the purse from his first career stakes victory increased his earnings to $102,559. The gelding’s 2-year-old resume included a second-place finish, 3 1/4 lengths behind winner Community Leader, in the 5 1/2-furlong, $118,000 Rio Grande Senor Futurity (R) at Ruidoso Downs, and a third-place run, 1 1/4 lengths behind winner Community Leader, in the 5-furlong, $133,000 Mountain Top Futurity (R) at Ruidoso Downs.
Sidewinder Slick ran third and was followed by Holy Bullet, Milk It, Tee Breaker and Snow Boots.
Marking Canyon banked the $15,000 runner-up share of the purse for his owners, Leroy and Maureen Fincher. A homebred son of Marking, the chestnut gelding has won one of six races and has earned $133,500, and his season record includes a second-place finish, a neck behind winner Community Leader, in the March 29, $250,000 New Mexico Breeders’ Derby (R) at Sunland Park.
Sidewinder Slick is a homebred son of the Storm Cat stallion Stellar Rain racing for Robert M. Driggers and Ben Lee Ivey, and he was making his second career start in the Kendrick Stakes. The bay gelding has won one of two races, and the $7,500 third-place share of the purse increased his earnings to $27,900.