AUORA, CO—MAY 24, 2013— Last year Ultimate Wave used the Adequan Arapahoe Derby Challenge to qualify for and subsequently win the 400-yard, $200,000 Grade 1 Adequan Derby Challenge Championship at Prairie Meadows in Iowa.

On Saturday 16 3-year-olds will compete in two trials to the Adequan Arapahoe Derby Challenge in order to qualify for the June 8 finals that will earn the winner a berth to Quarter Horse racing’s championship night.

In the first trial, Fabulous Ocean returns to Arapahoe Park after capturing the richest Quarter Horse race of the meet last year, the 400-yard, Grade 3 $130,000 Mile High Futurity. Russell Vicchrilli will be aboard for trainer Hipolito Michel-Valverde. He will face another top 2-year-old from last year’s meet in Carters Playmate, who won a trial to the 350-yard, $90,000 Rocky Mountain Futurity before finishing second in the finals as the even-money favorite.

Two shippers head the second trial. Eye Dash On comes from Los Alamitos Race Course off a troubled second-place finish in an allowance race on April 27. Southern California-based jockey Cesar DeAlba is scheduled to ride the John Hammes-trainee. Kr Working Man finished second in the 350-yard, Restricted Grade 3 $60,000 Alberta Bred Futurity and third in the 350-yard, Restricted Grade 3 $65,000 Canada Cup Futurity at Rocky Mountain Turf Club in Lethbridge, Canada, as a 2-year-old last year. They take on Built Tuff Enough, the winner of the 2012 Rocky Mountain Futurity, and Takin On the Fire, who was second in the Mile High Futurity.

A Drop Dead Diva Takes On Boys In Inaugural

Front-running filly A Drop Dead Diva will try to beat a group of male horses when a field of 11 lines up in the 6-furlong, $40,000 Inaugural Stakes for 3-year-old Thoroughbreds on Sunday at Arapahoe Park in Aurora, Colorado.

Trainer Kevin Eikleberry claimed A Drop Dead Diva for $30,000 in her March 1 debut at Santa Anita in Southern California that she won by 8 1/2 lengths. She has since finished second and third in starter allowance races at Santa Anita and second as a heavy 1-10 favorite in an allowance race at Turf Paradise in Arizona in her most recent start on May 4. She picks up jockey Russell Vicchrilli, the leading Thoroughbred jockey at Arapahoe Park for the past four seasons, for her Colorado debut.

Eikleberry also entered Listen You Fool, who will be ridden by Dennis Collins. Listen You Fool is coming off a fourth-place finish in which he closed from last entering the stretch in the 6-furlong, $35,000 Sandra Hall Grand Canyon Handicap at Turf Paradise. The Gary Cross-trained Clone shortens up from 1 mile to 6 furlongs following a second-place finish in the $35,000 SunRay Park and Casino Handicap in New Mexico on May 4. Kelly Bridges will ride Clone for the first time. All of Clone’s previous six races have been in New Mexico.

Full Fields Kick Off Season

Saturday’s opening day card drew 83 entrants for nine races, an average of more than nine horses per race. No race had less than seven entrants, and four races drew 10 or more. This season features new stables at Arapahoe Park from Nebraska and Arizona.