Cypress, CA - Jan. 15, 2012 - Champion of Champions (G1) winner Good
Reason SA was named the 2011 Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing
Association Horse of the Year while Abigail Kawananakoa was honored
with the prestigious Frank Vessels Sr. Memorial Award in
appreciation of her outstanding contributions to the sport of
Quarter Horse Racing during the PCQHRA Awards Banquet held on
Thursday evening in the Finish Line Room at Los Alamitos Race
Course.
Owned by Gianni Samaja and trained by Paul Jones, Good Reason SA
received Quarter Horse racing’s top honor in California after a
campaign in which he won the Los Alamitos Winter Championship (G2)
in February and the Champion of Champions in December and competed
in a slew of outstanding Grade 1 events the rest of the season. Good
Reason SA was also honored as the top aged stallion.
Kawananakoa, who was the winning owner of the inaugural running of
the Los Alamitos Million Futurity (G1) with Evening Snow in 1995 and
has campaigned major horses like A Classic Dash, Time For Royal Cash
and Divide The Cash to name a few, was introduced by Los Alamitos
Race Course owner Ed Allred.
“She has been involved in American Quarter Horse racing from the
word go,” said Allred during his intro. “She’s active at the horse
sale, breeds outstanding horses and has stallions standing in
California. She is involved in every facet of the industry. She has
two executive memberships in the Vessels Club and we better be ready
when she comes to the track. She wants things to be done right. She
is the Princess of Quarter Horse racing and we treat her as a
princess and we respect her as one.”
 (Top
Owner and Breeder Ed Allred and Abigail Kawananakoa)
Kawananakoa described her Vessels honor as the “zenith” of her
life in horse racing.
“It is a pleasure to accept this award and what it means to me,”
Kawananakoa added. “Quarter Horse racing has been part of my life
and I can’t remember ever being disappointed by it even when it was
a year between wins. There’s always a good camaraderie between those
involved in racing.
“I remember when I visited Vessels Stallion Farm once and I was
waiting for Millie Vessels when I saw this great white stallion. I
was staring at him because he was so beautiful. He started coming
towards me and just kept on coming. All of the sudden I started
thinking, ‘He’s coming straight at me!’ Just before he got to me he
put on the brakes. Millie then came out and I just asked her ‘Who is
that?’ That was Beduino.
“(PCQHRA President) Bud Alessio called me earlier this week to ask
if I was coming to this awards banquet,” Kawananakoa added. “I asked
him if I was getting an award and he said ‘maybe’. I told him,
‘Okay, I am going to go, but if I don’t get an award I’m going to be
upset with you.’ You’ve made this night the zenith of my life in
horse racing.”
Allred was named owner and breeder of the year, while a special
recognition awards for owner went to Double Bar S Ranch LLC and a
special recognition award for breeder went to Burns Ranch. Paul
Jones was the trainer of the year and trainer special recognition
went to Juan Aleman. Rodrigo Aceves was the jockey of the year while
Eduardo Nicasio received the jockey special recognition award. The
Val Tonks Memorial Award for top up-and-coming jockey went to both
Cruz Mendez and Antonio Alberto. Thoroughbred honors went to owner
Mike Flory, trainer Charles Treece and jockey Ramon Guce. Other top
awards went to the Walk Thru Fire Syndicate’s Walk Thru Fire as top
stallion and Childers Ranch’s Last Shall Be First as top broodmare.
Wade Siegel was the recipient of the Sam Thompson Memorial Award for
his great leadership for the Los Alamitos racing community. Siegel
is on the PCQHRA board and serves on the boards for both the Quarter
Horse Benevolent Foundation and the Los Alamitos division of the
Race Track Chaplaincy of America.
Divisional racing honors went to Igotyourtac as top 2-year-old colt;
I Like The Odds as top 2-year-old gelding; Separate Fire as top
2-year-old filly; One Sweet Jess as top 3-year-old colt; El Aguila
Real as top 3-year-old gelding; Miss Racy Jess as top 3-year-old
filly; Good Reason SA as top aged stallion; Jess You And I as top
aged gelding; Fovee as top aged mare; Pathological Liar at top
distance horse; Senor Toby as most improved; and Dudek Custus as
iron horse.
AQHA |
