The mare O Seeyalater will face the boys in the AQHA Racing Challenge Championships.

© Coady Photography Ltd.

By Andrea Caudill

ALBUQUERQUE, NM–OCTOBER 16, 2025–As is typical for each running of the AQHA Racing Challenge Championship (G1), the field set to contest Saturday's edition at The Downs at Albuquerque is a salty bunch.

This year among those who will face the starter are two reigning race champions and a recently crowned Supreme Race Horse, and the field of horses boasts more than $3 million in earnings.

Right in the mix is the 5-year-old mare O Seeyalater, who will proudly represent Canada in the Albuquerque race.

The brown daughter of First Timber earned her stall in the gate through a win in the AQHA Racing Century Mile Championship, where she defeated a tough field by a neck.

She is owned by Jeffery R.W. Rath of Foothills, Alberta, and is trained by her breeder, Wes Oulton.

It has been a long, productive partnership between the two horsemen. How long have they known each other?

"Oh, 25 or 35 years," Oulton said. "I had El Rey Burner, and Jeff wanted to breed a mare."

More recently, Rath has started swinging by the farm regularly to look over the Oultons’ colt crops and buy one or two.

When Rath looked at the months-old filly they’d dub O Seeyalater, Oulton told him that while her older sister wasn’t running so well, this one was the best they had on the farm that year.

"I’m pretty sure he’s glad he bought her!" Oulton said.

Rath has had good horses for decades, but O Seeyalater is among his best. She has to date won or placed in 15 of 25 starts and earned $132,941. This is not her first appearance in the Challenge Championships: in 2023, she was third in the Derby Challenge Championship (G3).

"She’s a good mare, an easy mare to look after, an easy mare to be around. She runs hard," Oulton said.

Her sire, First Timber, had a limited race career, but a long, prolific career as a sire. Standing at Oulton’s Rolling O- Ranches at Olds, Alberta, he has sired the earners of more than $2.3 million, including champion Eyesa Timber. His own sire Oak Tree Special, is a Special Effort-line stallion who sired the earners of more than $13 million, and his dam is one of the sport’s all-time leading mares First Prize Dash, the full sister of First Down Dash who has gotten the earners of more than $2.4 million.

O Seeyalater’s dam, Howdoyado, was bred by Jean Dillard and is a winning daughter of Pappasito.

Oulton will also race his own O Sawyer in the John Deere Juvenile Challenge (G2) after the colt won his regional stakes at Century Mile. He’s a full brother to O Lets Be First ($49,503). Both are by First Timber and out of the Separatist mare Lets Get Going.

"We’ve had quite a few out of this mare by First Timber, they can all run," Oulton said. "He’s a good colt."

Wes’ wife, Susen, and daughter, Teagan Goodsell, will enjoy the races in Albuquerque, and Wes’ son-in-law Kurt Hansen – who regularly rides a First Timber progeny in the course of his work running a cattle operation – will also be at the track to cheer their horses on.

"I enjoy it down there (in Albuquerque)," Oulton said. "My family enjoys racing."

It is easy to enjoy getting to cheer on generations of hard work, and the good horses raised and supported by the entire family.

Don't miss the AQHA Racing Challenge Championships on October 18 at The Downs at Albuquerque. AQHA News and information is a service of the American Quarter Horse Association. For more news and information, follow @AQHA Racing on X and on Instagram, "like" Q-Racing on Facebook, and visit www.aqha.com/racing.