![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/features\/pix\/2009\/First_Klas_Fred.jpg\")
A fierce 30-mile per hour headwind that blew the New Mexico flag off the Ruidoso Downs infield flagpole on Sunday, June 7, didn’t deter First Klas Fred in the $500,000 G1 Ruidoso Futurity.<\/p>\nA fierce 30-mile per hour headwind that blew the New Mexico flag off the Ruidoso Downs infield flagpole on Sunday, June 7, didn’t deter First Klas Fred in the $500,000 G1 Ruidoso Futurity.<\/p>\n
The gelded son of deceased first-crop sire Fredricksburg covered 350 yards in :17.885 to beat runner-up Shake Em Money Pop by half a length; Sir Seth finished third, another 1 1\/2 lengths back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m shocked,\u201d said owner Denis Schoenhofer, after First Klas Fred’s $250,000 victory at 13-1 odds. \u201cThis is a massive win.”<\/p>\n
First Klas Fred broke his maiden in his Ruidoso Futurity trial, when he won by one-half length with the second-fastest qualifying time of :17638. His previous three starts were at Sunland Park, where his best finish was a qualifying second place in his West Texas Futurity trial. He then finished fifth in the finals behind Varsity Girl and Shake Em Money Pop.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s sort of been like a kid with ADD,” said trainer Mike Joiner, who won the 2004 Ruidoso Futurity with All About Ease. “It has just taken him a while to figure racing out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Ruidoso Futurity favorite GBH Steppin Johnny, who finished eighth, and fastest-qualifier Running Brook Gal (sixth) bobbled at the start of the 350-yard race.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe broke like a bullet,\u201d said First Klas Fred’s rider, Esgar Ramirez. \u201cAt Sunland, I told Mike that he was going to be a good one and he\u2019s gotten better all the time. The longer [distance] the better for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Swingin Daddyo, who stumbled midway through the Futurity, finished fourth. He was followed, respectively, by Effortless Jessie, Running Brook Gal, Jessy Jane, GBH Steppin Johnny and Jess So Sixy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A fierce 30-mile per hour headwind that blew the New Mexico flag off the Ruidoso…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-racing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1361"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1366,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1361\/revisions\/1366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}