Q-Racing Blog: Big Challenge Bonus

By Ty Wyant

There are many reasons to enroll your horse in the AQHA Bank of America Racing Challenge program. They range from increased racing opportunities across American Quarter Horse racetracks to boosting the marketability of a Challenge-enrolled horse.

Now there is another incentive. If a Challenge-enrolled 2-year-old went through either the 2021 Heritage Place September Yearling Sale or the November Mixed Sale, the horse could be eligible for a $15,000 bonus that will go to the highest official finisher in the $150,000-est. John Deere Juvenile Championship (G2) on October 22 at Horseshoe Indianapolis. This innovative bonus from Horseshoe Indianapolis is provided in cooperation with Heritage Place and AQHA.

This incentive should have you making sure your 2-year-old(s) are Challenge eligible and pointing at becoming eligible to race in the John Deere Juvenile Challenge Championship. For further information, call the Racing Challenge Hotline at (877) 222-7223.

Horseshoe Indianapolis Vice President and General Manager Eric Halstrom said that the Challenge Championships are a highlight of the track’s racing season. “To be able to bring this series and add an incentive, it will boost our local program and a chance for our horsemen to step onto the national scene,” Halstrom said.

One of the most attractive advantages to this bonus is that the horse does not need to win the race to take the bonus. It goes to the highest-placing horse in the John Deere Juvenile Challenge Championship that went through the Heritage Place sales.

This is a win-win-win-win situation. Horseshoe Indianapolis wins, Heritage Place wins, the Challenge program wins and, of course, the horse that takes the $15,000 gives its connections a win.

A recent example of a horse on the trail is Jess Good Wine, a Heritage Place Sale graduate who finished second in the John Deere Sam Houston Juvenile Challenge (G3).

That race’s winner, Apollitical Dynamite, did not sell at Heritage Place and therefore is not eligible for the bonus. But, if Jess Good Wine, a $35,000 Heritage Place purchase, makes it to the John Deere Juvenile Challenge Championship in October, and is the highest-placed finisher who sold at Heritage Place, he will take the $15,000.

Jess Good Wine may be still a maiden, but he is showing promise with a stakes placing already early in his career.

The gelding finished a lackluster fourth when he made his debut in the Sam Houston Futurity trials. He then moved forward with a close second in his John Deere Sam Houston Juvenile Challenge trial and posted the fifth-fastest qualifying mark. He backed that race up with the second in the John Deere Sam Houston Juvenile Challenge, earning graded stakes black type.

The son of Good Reason SA is now a maiden with a shot at a $15,000 bonus. This bonus is a one of those deals that is wise to take a shot at.

AQHA News and information is a service of the American Quarter Horse Association. For more news and information, follow @AQHA Racing on Twitter and on Instagram, "like" Q-Racing on Facebook, and visit www.aqha.com/racing.