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Skyline Lover is Prompt Favorite in Key West Challenge Stakes Hialeah, Fl. Feb. 5, 2012 - Dan I. Frazier's Skyline Lover was a prompt 3-10 choice in the $21,500 Key West Challenge Overnight Stakes at Hialeah Park on Sunday. Ridden by Shanley Jackson for trainer Matt Frazier, Skyline Lover covered 1,000 yards in :52.224 and posted a 102 speed index. The brown 6-year-old gelding's margin of victory was 2 ½ lengths from Absolve. Skyline Lover was bred in Texas by Dr. James G. Burgess. The gelding's sire, Feature Mr Jess, won the 2000 Rainbow Futurity (G1) and '01 Rainbow Derby (G1) at Ruidoso Downs. A 1998 foal, the son of Mr Jess Perry has sired dozens of stakes winners, including AQHA champions Heartswideopen, Jess You And I, Stylish Jess BR, Brenda Beautiful, and Feature Mr Bojangles. Skyline Lover is one of two starters foaled by Loves That Gold, a winning daughter of the First Down Dash stallion Royal Quick Dash who was a finalist in the 2003 AQHA California Derby Challenge at Los Alamitos. In his start prior to the Key West Challenge, Skyline Lover was placed eighth as the 1-2 favorite in the 660-yard, $27,000 Moonstone Stakes at Hialeah on January 22. The gelding has won 14 of 32 races, including nine stakes, and the winner's share of the Key West Challenge Stakes purse increased his bankroll to $274,113. Skyline Lover is the all-time leading stakes winner at Hialeah with seven. His stakes resume also includes a half-length victory in last year's 550-yard, $50,000 SLM Big Daddy Stakes at Remington Park. Royal Initiative finished third, nearly 14 lengths behind Skyline Lover. Restricted to horses enrolled in the American Quarter Horse Association's Bank of America Challenge program, the Key West Challenge drew a field of seven when entries were taken last week, but there were four program scratches which reduced the starting lineup to just three. | ||
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Photography / story by Michael Cusortelli for SureBet