One Fabulous Boy headlines the $265,000-est. AQHA Racing Challenge Championship (G1) on Saturday at the Downs at Albuquerque.

© Jack Coady Photography

By Andrea Caudill

ALBUQUERQUE, NM–OCTOBER 25, 2024–What are the odds of landing in a Grade 1 stakes with a homebred from a one-broodmare operation?

Such is the luck of Oklahoma resident Paul Wolfe, who will cheer on his homebred One Fabulous Boy in the $265,000-est. AQHA Racing Challenge Championship (G1) as the flagship of his breeding operation.

"It’s an extremely small one," Wolfe said. "It has been pretty fun. We don’t do things big at all, we try to keep things affordable so we can have fun. I have one mare, who I purchased at the Vessels/Schvaneveldt sale about 15 years ago."

That mare is Check Out Kaelie, who longtime trainer Ed Ross Hardy guided to become a graded stakes-placed runner for Paul and his wife, Diane, leading them to keep her as a broodmare. She has produced six starters, of which four have returned as winners.

One Fabulous Boy was foaled in 2019, and Wolfe said the son of One Fabulous Eagle had something from the start.

"When this one was born, he was just a little different than the other ones," Wolfe said. "I saw him being started, and Ed and I both knew he was just a little different than the others. Not that we’d ever guess how he’d end up."

From 19 career starts, One Fabulous Boy has won eight of them and earned $185,333. He first lit the stakes board in the 2023 Boyd Morris Memorial Stakes (G2), and earned his first win with a track record-setting time in the Prairie Meadows Championship Challenge (G2).

He would finish third in the AQHA Challenge Championship (G1) at Lone Star Park last year, and returned this year to capture his second Prairie Meadows Championship Challenge (G2) and has settled in at Albuquerque for another try at the Championship race.

He is set to face the likes of last year’s Challenge Championship winner, A Tres Of Eagle ($483,877). Also in the field is Canadian challenger Flight Club, who has won eight of his past 10 races, and Nothin Like You, who won the 2022 Adequan Derby Challenge Championship (G3). Taking on the boys is Pops First Lady, a 6-year-old mare who last year was third in the Distaff Challenge Championship (G1), but this year looks for the lion’s share of the night’s biggest prize. Also entered are graded stakes-placed runner Shakers No Secret ($308,986), Northwest representative Ima Sixy Man ($142,111) and the Restricted Grade 1-placed Defours ($129,874).

"There are a lot of nice horses in this race," said Wolfe. "To be able to come into this race again is quite a blessing, especially with a one-mare operation like we have."

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