Utah Lions

Spectrum, The ( St. George , UT )
April 5, 2007
Author: BIFF LOWRY

Estimated printed pages: 3

For The Spectrum and Daily News

HURRICANE -- Want to have some fun this weekend?

Try the Lions Club-sponsored horse races at the fairgrounds in Purgatory Flats. You can catch a couple of local boys who have made good in a big way in their chosen professions.

The highly successful trainer/jockey team of Bret Vickery and Berkley Packer are loaded for the annual Dixie Futurity trial races scheduled for Saturday afternoon at the Washington County Regional Park race track.

The Vickery-Packer team won the rich Futurity last year with Gary and Jeralyn Messenger's Sold On Special and since then they haven't rested on their oars. Vickery was the leading trainer last summer at the Les Bois Park race meet in Boise and Packer was atop the rider standings at the conclusion of the season. Additionally, Vickery, who a few years ago won the biggest quarter horse race of them all -- the $1 million Ruidoso Futurity -- was awarded a diamond-studded belt buckle by the American Quarter Horse Racing Association as the leading trainer in the northwest region.

Saturday's trial races, which begin at 1 p.m. at the fairgrounds, will determine the starting field for the $30,000-plus Futurity, which will be raced Saturday, April 21. There will be nine Futurity trial races for two-year-olds plus four for the $10,000-plus Dixie Derby for three-year-olds.

Vickery will saddle two horses in each of the four Derby trial events, including last year's Dixie Futurity winner Sold On Special. Packer is named to ride all eight of the Vickery trainees, but obviously will be able to mount only one per race.

"We've got some nice candidates for the Derby ," Vickery stated, "including some who are coming off victories at Los Alamitos in Southern California in the past few weeks. Owner Gary Hoovestal has a pair of geldings, Gano and Dee 's Cocktail, who won their last starts at Los Al, and his filly Dunkin The Cash won last summer at Ruidoso."

Another member of the Vickery-trained Derby battalion is Chicken Creek Ranch's I Am Proud, a winner two weeks ago at Los Alamitos.

Veteran horseman Don Randall, a former trainer and now member of the Utah State Racing Commission -- who also happens to be a member of the sponsoring Lions Club -- was enthusiastic about the number of entries for both the Futurity and Derby Trials.

"This is the biggest entry for the races in the last several years," Randall stated, "and there are a lot of really well-bred colts and fillies. Several of them are sired by First Down Dash," he added.

First Down Dash is the premier sire in all of Quarter Horsedom. He stands at stud at the Vessels Ranch in San Diego County near Oceanside . His stud fee is advertised as private, but is rumored to be about $100,000. His offspring have earned in excess of $60 million in purses and those who raced just last year banked over $6.5 million.

Other local horsemen who will be in the thick of the fray Saturday are trainers Len Melton, Mark Skeen and Vince Montano, while Northern-Utah based Jay Pitcher will saddle 18 horses on the 13-race program, including a baker's dozen Futurity hopefuls.

Montano has a trio of choice juveniles for the Southern-California-based partnership of Spackman, Kelly & Dutch Masters III, including a promising colt named Checker. Danny Marshall rides the Melton-trained horses. Skeen will saddle a single Derby entry, the Minnesota invader Passin Thru Traffic, and seven Futurity hopefuls including Allred, Knight and Skeen's Wonderous. Cam Colledge, who has ridden two of the last three Futurity winners, will be aboard the Skeen-trained horses.

Pitcher, who won the Futurity in 2004 with Jacquay, has a big chance to qualify a bunch for the big race with Paul Wallace's Hell Won't Have Me leading the way. Jockey Jay Conklin will ride the Pitcher-trained chargers.

Section: B
Page: 4

Index Terms: Local Sports

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