For the Reporter

According to Bill Hoburg, Bh Lisas Boy still hasn’t run his best race.

Considering the Idaho-bred set a track record for 440 yards in the trials two weeks ago, it’s a scary thought for the competition in Sunday’s $60,000 Bank of America Emerald Downs Championship Challenge.

At 440 yards, the Championship Challenge is the biggest race of the meet for Quarter Horses and the featured event on Sunday’s 10-race card.

In the first division of the Aug. 23 trials, Bh Lisas Boy was timed in :21.492, defeating Chicks Special Angel by a half-length.

Chicks Special Angel, 16-for-26 lifetime and winner of last year’s Championship Challenge was timed in :21.583, making the 7-year-old mare the second fastest qualifier, while Flyin Lion, winner of the second trial in :21.712 is third fastest.

Bh Lisas Boy is 7-2-0 in 11 career starts with earnings of $43,584, and already has stakes wins at Sun Downs, Portland Meadows and Arapahoe Park. A 3-year-old gelding by Mighty Invictus, Bh Lisas Boy is owned and trained by Hoburg, a 62-year-old native of Kennewick, who says his horse is figuring things out.

“I got him broke and I wasn’t really impressed with him,” Hoburg said. “The first couple times I worked him, he was really slow. The first time I put him in a race, he broke last and he just screamed to the middle of the pack.

“Then, he re-broke again and won. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I guess this horse is fast.’ Coming off the pace is kind of his M.O. I’ve never seen this horse win gate-to-wire yet, and he could be really good if he breaks and goes on with it.”

Bh Lisas Boy would be the first 3-year-old to win the Championship Challenge. In fact, the “youngest” winners are Devon Dat Cash (2011) and Chicks Special Angel (2014), who were both 6-year-olds when they won the race. The other winners are 7-year-old A Royal Dervish in 2012 and 8-year-old Vodka With Ice in 2013.

Javier Matias, the rider on Bh Lisas Boy, is 7-for-13 in Quarter Horse races this season at Emerald Downs and unbeaten in four starts on Bh Lisas Boy.

“Javier has ridden him four times and won all four,” Hoburg said. “He’s a quiet, patient rider and follows directions really well.”

Bh Lisas Boy drew the No. 6 post, which is a lowly 1-for-27 at the meet.

Chicks Special Angel drew the No. 1 post-position, which is 0-for-4 in the first four runnings of the Championship Challenge, and 3-for-28 in Quarter Horse races this season at Emerald Downs.

Cascade Dynamite and Larryville drew the best posts – at least statistically. Cascade Dynamite breaks from the No. 7 post, which is 7-for-23 at the meet; Larryville gets the No. 8, a tidy 5-for-17 this season.

Bank of America Odds & Ends:

Of the 10 entrants, all but Larryville and Time for Jesse Lee have wins at Emerald Downs.

Alota Action finished third to Chicks Special Angel and Ambush Alley in last year’s race.

Snowbound Superchick, second to Vodka With Ice in 2013, missed last year’s race in favor of the Elko/AQHA Quarter Horse Challenge.

Alejandro Luna, rider on Time for Jesse Lee, has 40 career stakes wins at Los Alamitos including three wins in the Ed Burke Million Futurity (Grade 1).

The winner Sunday qualifies for the $350,000 Bank of America Challenge Championship at Lone Star Park on Saturday, Nov. 7.

The field for Sunday’s fifth running of the $60,000 Bank of America Emerald Downs Quarter Horse Championship Challenge, Race 9, 6:09 p.m.: Chicks Special Angel, Eddie Aceves, 124 pounds; Snowbound Superchick, Luis Gonzalez, 124; Time for Jesse Lee, Alejandro Luna, 124; Alota Action, Martin Arriaga, 124; Patty Okey, Osvaldo Gonzalez, 124; Bh Lisas Boy, Javier Matias, 121; Cascade Dynamite, Ruben Camacho, 124; Larryville, Antonio Alberto, 124; Flyin Lion, Leonel Camacho-Flores, 124; Bellingham, Jose Zunino, 124.

August 23 Trials: 1-Bh Lisas Boy, 21.492; 2-Chicks Special Angel, 21.583; 3-Flyin Lion, 21.712; 4-Alota Action, 21.762; 5-Cascade Dynamite, 21.764; 6-Bellingham, 21.852; 7-Time for Jesse Lee, 21.862; 8-Snowbound Superchick, 21.937; 9-Patty Okey, 22.191; 10-Larryville, 22.239.

Roughingthepasser returns Saturday

Last week Marshall Allen earned Trainer of the Week honors after posting a 2-for-2 record including a resounding score by multiple-stakes winner Del Rio Harbor in Sunday’s feature race.

This week Allen takes his momentum into Saturday’s feature race with his homebred Roughingthepasser, who’ll face six other fillies and mares for a $25,000 tag at 6½ furlongs. Unlike Del Rio Harbor, however, whose form has hardly wavered during his three-year racing career, Roughingthepasser has posted much less enviable running lines.

A Washington-bred mare by Defensive Play, Roughingthepasser might have the fewest starts among active 7-year-olds in all of racing. While her racing career spans six years, Roughingthepasser has only made three starts and has yet to make two starts in the same season.

“She’s had to battle a serious illness and some foot issues,” Allen said. “It was never easy getting her to the racetrack. I’ve always known that she had a lot of talent, though. She was meant to be an allowance-type filly.”

Two years after her debut, Roughingthepasser proved her conditioner right, when she unveiled her speed, racing gate-to-wire for a 3½-length victory over a talented group of $20,000 maidens.

“She’s the type of filly that could black letter her workouts without company,” Allen said. “We always knew there was some speed there. I was just happy she had a chance to show it.”

Unfortunately, Roughingthepasser’s glory was short lived. Following the big win, came another trip to the sidelines. One year later, Roughingthepasser made her third career start, finishing fifth, only to be sidelined yet again. After all of the misfortune, Allen was ready to end her racing career. However, after several failed attempts to find the right home, Allen brought his favorite mare back at the racetrack.

“It’s funny,” Allen said. “I tried to find plenty of other things for her to do besides race, but nothing else worked out. So I started training her again this season and she really has been training great. She might still be racehorse after all.”

The field for Saturday’s feature race: Collateral, Joe Steiner, 117 pounds; Roughingthepasser, Jose Zunino. 123; Del Mar Dixie, Juan Gutierrez, 123; Quibble, Gallyn Mitchell, 117; Belladiva, Javier Matias, 123; Bella Colomba, Julien Couton, 117; Today Is the Day, Rocco Bowen, 123.

Finish lines

Weekly Honors #20-Jockey – Natasha Coddington; Trainer- Marshall Allen; Owner – Triumph Stables LLC; Groom- Jofre Burmudez (Allen); WTBOA Washington-bred – Big Bad Brown (Rick & Debbie Pabst); Exercise Rider – Juan Villa. … Stryker Phd breezed four furlongs in a bullet :48 Monday, and will enter the $60,000 Muckleshoot Tribal Classic for Washington-bred 3-year-olds and up on Sunday, Sept. 13. … Entries for all six Washington Cup races will be drawn Thursday, Sept. 10 in the Quarter Chute Café.