Justafamilytradition keeps Governor's Stake title in family

SHELBYVILLE, Ind. (Oct. 26, 2019) – After finishing third in his trial and fifth overall on the qualifying list, Justafamilytradition was overlooked in the 23rd running of the $135,000 Governor’s Stake during the final all-Quarter Horse racing night of 2019 at Indiana Grand. However, history repeated as the freshman colt followed tradition and joined his older brother, Seize the Win, as a titlist in the stakes race, which is one of Indiana’s oldest Quarter Horse stakes.

A son of PYC Paint Your Wagon, Justafamilytradition was joined by jockey Shanley Jackson from post two of the 10-horse final. The colt broke well and was in contention for the lead early with one of the race favorites, WRs Apolliticalivory and Berkley Packer, just to their outside. The two horses traveled together through the sloppy racing conditions with winds hitting them in the face at speeds up to 21 miles per hour. In a trend that was seen all night long, it was a tight photo at the finish with Justafamilytradition getting the final nod by a short nose over WRs Apolliticalivory. My Pillow and Giovani Vazquez-Gomez hustled up to finish a neck back in third. The time of the 350-yard dash was :18.010 seconds.

“First of all, I want to thank God and the connections of this horse for this opportunity,” said Jackson, who has a long-standing partnership with trainer Matt Frazier. “Mr. Matt is a great trainer and all I can say is just ‘Wow.’ This is just a good horse. The horse did what he came here to do.”

It was the third win in six starts for Justafamilytradition, who is owned by Glenn Graft. The Texas bred colt, who was purchase as a yearling for $55,000 from the Ruidoso Select Sale last year, was stepping up into stakes competition for the first time and performed with authority to push his career earnings in excess of $90,000. Overlooked by the betting public, Justafamilytradition paid $19.80, $9.60, $5.00 across the board for his win in the Governor’s Stake.

“This horse is very talented and has been maturing nicely,” said Frazier. “He is a full brother to Seize the Win and he’s taking a similar path that he did, coming along slowly. We didn’t use everything in the trials, but we didn’t want to. And, we sure got a nice head bob at the wire, and we’ll take it.”

Seize the Win was victorious in the 2014 Governor’s Stake and established the stakes record of :17.582 seconds. Jackson was also aboard the colt for the same partnership of Graff and Frazier. Seize the Win retired at the end of the 2017 racing season with more than $370,000 in purse earnings and seven wins, four of which were stakes victories from Florida to Canada and stops in between. His first foals will be on the track in 2020.

“We will take a nice long break with him (Justafamilytradition) and hope to come back with a little more mature horse next spring,” added Frazier. “Hopefully, we will be ready to roll then.”