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the 2005 and 2006 California Horse of the Year was bred by Lonnie Arterburn and Eve and Kim Kuhlmann and is the third of 10 foals to date out of Li’l Ms. Leonard, a 22-yearold daughter of Nostalgia’s Star who was sold for $350,000 at Fasig-Tipton’s 2006 November Sale in Kentucky. She is also the dam of the 2010 grade II winner Enriched. Nashoba’s Key The winner of her first seven starts, Nashoba’s Key became Gold Rush’s most fleeting star when she won the $150,000 Fran’s Valentine Stakes on April 29, 2007, but was then euthanized at the top of her game on May 28 of the following year, when she kicked the wall of her outdoor pen and broke her left hind leg. She will forever be remembered for a brilliant 14-month racing career that included eight wins, three of them at the grade I level, a second and a bankroll of $1,252,090 from just 10 starts. Nashoba’s Key’s debut win came in maiden special weight company at Santa Anita on Jan. 13, 2007, and then she won a February allowance race at that same track prior to her triumph in the Fran’s Valentine. On June 3, Nashoba’s Key won the grade II, $186,100 Milady Breeders’ Cup Handicap and continued her winning streak at Hollywood with a victory in the grade I, $294,000 Vanity Invitational Handicap on July 7, before she returned 29 days later to win the grade II, $294,000 Clement L. Hirsch Handicap at Del Mar. She completed her 2007 California Horse of the Year campaign with a score in Santa Anita’s grade I, $400,000 Yellow Ribbon Stakes on Sept. 29, and a fourth-placed finish in October’s Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf (grade I) at Monmouth Park in New Jersey. In what would prove to be her final two lifetime starts, both at Santa Anita, Nashoba’s Key parlayed a runner-up finish in January’s $500,000 Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf Stakes into a victory in the grade I, $300,000 Santa Margarita Invitational Handicap on March 9, 2008. Foaled at Harris Farms on March 26, 2003, the Warren Williamson homebred daughter of Silver Hawk was the first
of nine foals to date out of 18-year-old Nashoba (Ire), a three-time winner by Caerleon. Greg’s Gold Two races after Nashoba’s Key won at Gold Rush, Greg’s Gold took the $150,000 Tiznow Stakes to become a dual stakes winner with his previous victory in the grade I, $300,000 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar on July 31, 2005. A winner at three, four, five and six, the gray gelding’s final career start was a winning one in the 2008 edition of the Potrero Grande Handicap (grade II) at Santa Anita in April of 2008. After winning a maiden special weight event at Hollywood in his fourth lifetime start on Nov. 3, 2004, Greg’s Gold won an allowance race at the same track just 25 days later. He then parlayed a June 2005 allowance victory at Hollywood into his Bing Crosby triumph, which was followed by a break of nearly seven months when he came back a winner in an allowance contest at Santa Anita before his Tiznow triumph. His other wins as a six-year-old were in August’s Pat O’Brien Handicap (grade II) at Del Mar and Hollywood’s $107,800 On Trust Handicap in December. Bill Boswell’s homebred son of Lake George made 25 starts for nine wins, 10 seconds, two thirds and $1,067,923 in earnings. The first of seven foals out of the winning Fit to Fight mare Lake Windermere, Greg’s Gold is enjoying his retirement at Harris Farms where he was foaled on Feb. 19, 2001. Amazombie Amazombie may have waited for his five-year-old debut to make his first appearance in a stakes race, but then he never left that company on the way to becoming a multiple grade I winner and the 2011 Eclipse Champion Male Sprinter. That campaign of his, which also included the California Champion Sprinter title, featured five blacktype wins: the $200,000 Sunshine Millions Sprint Stakes on Jan. 29, 2011, April’s Potrero Grande Stakes (grade II) and the grade I, $250,000 Ancient Title Stakes on Oct. 8, all at Santa Anita; Hollywood’s $125,000 Tiznow Stakes on April 23; and the grade I, $1,363,500 Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Churchill Downs in Kentucky on Nov. 5. In his final start at three, Amazombie’s fifth attempt
Nashoba’s Key—$150,000 Fran’s Valentine Stakes—April 29, 2007
Greg’s Gold—$150,000 Tiznow Stakes—April 29, 2007
California Gold Rush Cont’d.
©Benoit photos
S T O R Y
22 CALIFORNIA THOROUGHBRED • APRIL 2014
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