BH Lisas Boy (inside) has a long history with the Challenge, and his breeder.

© Scott Martinez

AMERICAN QUARTER HORSE ASSOCIATION—NOVEMBER 13, 2018—BH Lisas Boy's story starts almost 50 years ago, when his breeder, owner and trainer Bill C. Hoburg of Kennewick, Washington, watched Star's Apollo win a futurity.

The mare was bred and owned by Robert "Bob" Pulse of Yakima, Washington. In 2001, he got the chance to purchase a yearling granddaughter of the mare from Pulse named Apollo Snowbound.

The daughter of Snowbound (TB) was out of Stars Lady Bug, the product of Star's Apollo and the good sire Shawne Bug.

Apollo Snowbound went on to race for Hoburg alongside another Pulse-bred filly, Snowbound Queen. The two fillies didn't quite set the racetrack on fire, but usually brought home a check, and almost always finished close to each other.

"They weren't fast enough to make us a lot of money, but made just enough to keep us trying," Hoburg remembered.

But then he tried Snowbound Queen around the turn, and found her niche.

The mare won the 2003 Northwest Distance Challenge (G3) and contested the Distance Challenge Championship (G1), and set a track record at Boise that was just a heartbeat off the world record.

"So I thought 'Oh my God, if this mare's that fast, what do I have?' So one morning, I tried her around the turn and she slab fractured right at the wire. I thought, 'OK, guess I have a recipient mare.'"

He was looking to sell her for $500 when her full sister Stars Snowbound won the West/Southwest Challenge Championship (G2) and went on to finish sixth in the Challenge Championship (G1).

"So I thought, 'Well, maybe ol' Bill better keep her and breed her,' " Hoburg said. "So that's what I did."

Her first foal, dropped in 2007, was Yin Your Eyes, who won the 2011 Distance Challenge Championship (G1) and earned $147,818 before retiring to a life of relative leisure as Hoburg's pony horse. BH Country Chrome, her 2011 foal, is a stakes-placed earner of $54,095.

BH Lisas Boy was foaled in 2012, a son of Mighty Invictus.

"I tried to sell this horse a half dozen times over the years, too," Hoburg said. "Fortunately, no one ever took me up on it."

BH Lisas Boy won his first out in 2014, and then won the Far West Futurity (R).

He made his first Challenge Championship appearance in 2015 at Lone Star Park in the Adequan Derby Challenge Championship (G1). He made his second in the 2016 Bank of America Challenge Championship (G1), where he lost a bitter duel with AJs High for the win by a nose.

This year's Challenge Championship is his third appearance, and this time, as the early favorite. He is one of three horses in the Championship this year making their third start in the event.

This year he won the Brad McKinzie Winter Championship (G1), was second in the Moonist Handicap and Vessels Maturity (G1), then won the Bank of America Los Alamitos Challenge (G3). He had a toss-out race in the Robert L. Boniface Los Alamitos Invitational Championship (G1) and enters this race with a record of 19 wins in 34 starts and earnings of $585,162.

"He's doing great," Hoburg said. "Couldn't be happier with him."

Hoburg described the horse as friendly and affectionate to those who know him, and said the entire mare family of horses is very smart.

He also gives some credit for the horse's longevity and soundness to the use of regular Adequan® treatment.

"I think that's helped keep his joints healthy and the horse healthy," he said. "I think it helps fix the problem rather than put a bandaid on what's wrong in the moment."

On Saturday night, the strapping sorrel gelding will represent Hoburg for the eighth time this year, and represents a lifetime of hard work.

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