Sanders didn’t have to wait with earnings of $1,952,848 long to have her first winner’s from 31 starts. circle photo taken. Her first “Any trainer who wins with career victory came in the eveher first two starters would be ning’s second race, a $10,000 ecstatic, but she won with a non-winners-of-two claimer, Thoroughbred and a Quarter with Just Ours, a 5-year-old Horse, and I don’t think any Thoroughbred daughter of trainer—male or female—has Half Ours ridden by Sasha ever done that before,” said Risenhoover for owner Erby her father. “This is the kind of Thompson Jr. thing good stories are made A few hours later, she won of.” with her first Quarter Horse Sanders was just eight starter, as Jacob and Tara when Winalota Cash won Thompson’s Tempestinateathe All American Futurity, pot, a 4-year-old mare by Quarter Horse racing’s richest Furyofthewind, won a 250and most prestigious race for yard sprint against $5,000 2-year-olds, but she has vivid non-winners-of-three claimmemories of the experience. ing company under jockey “This might sound funny, Tony Bennett. but I still remember the way Coady Photography Sanders, 27, described the he smelled, the way he felt,” Sanders enjoys her first career feeling she had that night as Sanders said about the horse victory with jockey Sasha Risenhoover surreal. who also won the Grade 1 and the Thoroughbred Just Ours at Fair Meadows. “I must have cried about Texas Classic Futurity at 50 times before the night was over, and it started when the Trinity Meadows. “We spent so much time on the road with gray mare [Just Ours] won her race,” she recalled. “She drew him. It seemed like every waking moment revolved around off down the backstretch, and she ended up winning by 6 1/2 that horse. lengths. I knew she was a winner when she hit the quarter-pole “Horses like him are so few and far between because they on the turn. She won so easily she would’ve had to have fallen make it seem so easy,” she added. “I also remember how rogue down not to win. he was as a colt—when they were breaking him, he kicked the “I absolutely bawled after that race, even when I met Sasha gallop boy’s leg and broke his femur bone, but once they got on the track to bring her back to the winner’s circle,” Sanders him past that it was easy. Every time we sent him to the track, added. “Sasha was bawling, and I was bawling. My dad never we honestly believed he was going to win.” trained Thoroughbreds regularly. He might have had a few The younger Sanders’ racing barn is based at the that someone sent to him when he was in New Mexico years Sallisaw Training Center, formerly known as Blue Ribago, but he never focused on them.” bon Downs, in eastern Oklahoma. She and her assistant, In fact, Gregg Sanders’ best successes have come with Quar- Samantha Williams, currently have 28 horses in training, ter Horses, most notably two-time champion Winalota Cash. of which eight are Thoroughbreds and the rest are Quarter A modestly bred son of Light on Cash who he trained for Horses, Paints and Appaloosas. Her father is still an active Andra Meridyth, Winalota Cash won the $1.68 million All Quarter Horse trainer. American Futurity (G1) in 1995 and completed his FuturityIn addition to the Thompsons, Sanders’ primary clients Derby double with a win in the 1996 All American Derby are Jo Rice and Nelson Dickerson. A resident of Pryor, (G1) at Ruidoso Downs. The gelding is one of only five horses Oklahoma, Rice is a longtime Quarter Horse owner and to win both races, and he retired after his 4-year-old season breeder whose starters include Heritage Place Futurity (G1)
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AMERICAN Racehorse • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014