Challenge


Pirate Coves Hero Returns For Another Run at Bank Of America Challenge Championship
Pirate Coves Hero is set to race in the Bank of America Challenge Championship.

© Andrea Caudill / AQHA Racing
Pirate Coves Hero Returns For Another Run at Bank Of America Challenge Championship

By Andrea Caudill

Q RACING—OCTOBER 21, 2020—Pirate Coves Hero’s sorrel coat gleams with good health. He has plenty of hay to eat while resting in his stall, but at the moment his attention is drawn irresistibly to the sounds of morning works drifting in from the nearby Downs at Albuquerque racing surface. He stands at attention, listening.

But the easygoing gelding’s attention could be quickly gained by the sound of a candy wrapper, his trainer Jesus Olivas says with a smile.

“He likes candy,” Olivas says. “He’ll hear the wrapper and be looking around for where it’s coming from.”

Pirate Coves Hero also likes racing, and to date has raced 21 times, with eight wins and earnings of $104,181. On Saturday he is set to line up for the $250,000 Bank of America Challenge Championships (G1) for the second consecutive year.

The sorrel gelding races for Julio Francisco Villar Torres of Phoenix, who acquired the horse before his 2019 campaign started.

Pirate Coves Hero was bred by Reliance Ranches LLC, and is by Valiant Hero and out of the Feature Mr Jess mare American Feature, making him a full brother to 2019 Adequan® Derby Challenge Championship (G3) winner Valiant Tiberias, an earner of $464,173.

Last year, Pirate Coves Hero won the Bank of America Turf Paradise Championship Challenge, Wayne Brasher Memorial Stakes, and was fourth in the Bank of America Challenge Championship (G1).

After that effort, he had two wins in Arizona, contested the Vessels Maturity (G1) trials at Los Alamitos, and then qualified for this race in the reschedule Bank of America Rillito Championship Challenge, held at Ruidoso Downs in July.

This is only the second year of training for Olivas, a native of Mexico, who has always had a passion for horses. He had rope horses while he was working at a landscaping company in Arizona, but was drawn to the racetrack and began working there before eventually striking out as a trainer.

His training charge is ready to roll on Saturday, the trainer says.

“When he gets tougher fields, he runs a little harder,” Olivas says. “He likes the pressure.”

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