SHELBYVILLE, Ind. (Sept. 14, 2019) – Cinnamon Beach and Samuel Mendez rallied hard all the way to the wire to pull in an upset in the $45,700 Leader of the Class Sale Futurity Saturday, Sept. 14, 2019 at Indiana Grand. The race was established for weanlings and yearlings that have sold at the Speed Sale the past two years, respectively. The race is a perfect Segway into the ninth annual Indiana Quarter Horse Speed Sale set to begin at Noon Sunday, Sept. 15 at the Marion County Fairgrounds.
Starting from post six in the seven-horse field, Cinnamon Beach broke alertly and ended up drifting down several paths before settling in to run during the 330-yard dash. He held his ground on the front end and as Jess Z Bob and Juan Marquez began to close in at the wire from the outside, he was game and dug in for the win in a time of :17.274, just a nose ahead of Jess Z Bob. Loveherlikethat an Jose Beltran finished third.
Owned by Donna and Noel Alexander’s DNA Quarter Horses, Cinnamon Beach paid $13.40, $8.00 and $5.60 across the board. It was his fourth career start and his first trip to the winner’s circle in his brief career for trainer Randy Smith.
Mendez was making his third start aboard Cinnamon Beach coming into the Leader of the Class Sale Futurity. The Escondido Beach son, who was unraced at two, just missed a win two starts back, but Mendez had confidence in the gelding stepping up into stakes action for the first time in his brief career.
“He (Samuel Mendez) loves this horse and he so deserves this win,” said Debbie Smith, Randy Smith’s wife. “He was so confident in him. This is the biggest win of his career. He works so hard at our barn and it doesn’t matter what we need, he jumps in to take care of it. We are so happy for him to get this win tonight.”
Mendez is a native of Mexico and began his riding career in 2014 at Los Alamitos. He came to Indiana last year to ride and made the trip back from California again this season and now works for Smith.
Comments