RUIDOSO DOWNS, NM—AUGUST 7, 2018— The undefeated two-time futurity winner Hustle Up (TB) leads an afternoon with two sets of trials and Rocking J Running Horses' Rock About It heads the $20,000 Brigand Stakes on Saturday afternoon at Ruidoso Downs.

First post time is 1 p.m. with free parking and free general admission.

The 550-yard Brigand brings out Rockin J Running Horses’ Rock About It. He shines at this distance with wins in his two starts running the full length of the straightaway.

The Rock Solid Jess-sired gelding won the $50,000 SLM Big Daddy Stakes and then at $26,000 condition allowance race at 550 yards. Both of those wins were at Remington Park.

In the May 20 allowance, he broke the Remington Park track record for 550 yards by completing the task in :26.258 seconds, earning a 112 speed index.

Last year, Rock About It was second in the $49,000 Adequan Ruidoso Derby Challenge and third in the $213,000 Dash For Cash Derby to Paint My Pilot, winner of the Mr Jet Moore Handicap last Saturday at Ruidoso Downs.

The Brigand is the ninth race and Jaime Parga Leos rides Rock About It with the eighth post position.

Rio Grande Senor and Senorita Futurity Trials

The trials are the five-and-one-half furlong heats to the $110,094 Rio Grande Senor Futurity, which features Hustle Up, and the trials for the $135,378 Rio Grande Senorita Futurity. The Senor Futurity is for colts and geldings while the Senorita Futurity is for fillies. The New Mexico Horse Breeders’ Association has added $30,000 to each purse. Each set of trials are for New Mexico-breds.

The Senorita Futurity finals is on September 2 and the Senor Futurity trials are set for September 3.

Owned by Dale Taylor Racing, B.J. McQueen and Suzanne Kirby, Hustle Up is the premier New Mexico-bred two-year-old with his perfect record from four starts. No rival has gotten with one-and-one-quarter lengths of Hustle Up at the finish line.

The Todd Fincher-trained Hustle Up dominated is rivals in the $162,905 Copper Top Futurity at Sunland Park by seven-and-one-half lengths and then came to Ruidoso Downs to win the $123,000 Mountain Top Futurity by one-and-one-quarter lengths. He also won his trial to each race by daylight margins and has been the odd-on favorite in each of his four starts.

“He’s doing great; he’s ready to go,” Fincher, who is also co-breeder, said. “He went too fast in one work, so we slowed him down in works since that work.”

Hustle Up starts from the fifth post position in the third race with Tracy Hebert, the only jockey who has been on Hustle Up, aboard.

The gelding is the first winner and first stakes winner for his sire Abstraction, a son of Pulpit.

The Fred Danley-owned, -trained and -bred Hanky Panky Kim was third behind Hustle Up in the Mountain Top Futurity and returns in the trials to the Senorita Futurity. She finished two-and-one-quarter lengths behind Hustle Up

Hanky Panky Kim, a daughter of Infinite Resource, won her maiden in her debut by six-and-one-half lengths at Sunland Park. She was then second to Hustle Up, beaten by seven lengths, in their Mountain Top Futurity trial.

Justin Shepherd picks up the mount on Hanky Panky Kim with the seventh post position in the 10th race.

R.D. Hubbard and Paul Blanchard’s Stealing Home, a $3,200 Ruidoso New Mexico-bred Yearling Sale bargain, was second to Hustle Up in the Copper Top Futurity and then went to SunRay Park and won the C.O. “Ken” Kendrick Futurity. Trainer Casey Lambert will have Elvin Gonzalez on the Southwestern Heat daughter with the fifth post position in the fifth race.

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