WASHINGTON RACING HALL OF FAME
Noosa Beach Washington champion for four years running by Emily Shields
Palmer Photography
Noosa Beach’s victory in the 2011 Mt. Rainier Stakes culminated his seven-race win streak – all in stakes – which began in the 2010 edition of the same race.
B
oth bullish and brilliant, Noosa Beach went from a gangly competitor notorious for throwing his riders to the darling of Pacific Northwest. He raced his way right into the Washington Racing Hall of Fame, bringing with him an impressive résumé of victories earned over his first four seasons during which he was honored as a Washington champion a record seven times. Along the way he helped his dam earn honors as broodmare of the year and brought endless joy to his human connections.
six weeks old, and though it did not seem financially wise at the time, there was a lot of sentiment and emotion attached to the filly, as she had been named for Doris’s sister, who had recently passed away. The Harwoods made every effort to save her as a broodmare, and Julia Rose rewarded their faith by producing three winners from her first four foals. In 2005, she was slated to be bred to the stallion Tiffany Ice at Pam and Neal Christopherson’s Bar C Racing Stable in Hermiston, Oregon, for the fourth time, but the stallion refused to breed her. At the same time, the Christophersons had recently acquired an unknown stallion named Harbor the Gold, and the Harwoods were quickly convinced to give him a try. Julia Rose was the very first mare that
Wayne Nagai
Palmer Photography
An Auspicious Claim Long before the oversized gelding was blazing over the track, breeder Jeff Harwood claimed a Cure the Blues filly named Cure My Blue’s out of a $2,500 contest at Yakima
Meadows. “Jeff had a dream that he was going to shake for her, and that she had won the race,” said wife Doris, “and I’ll be darned that that’s exactly what happened.” “A week later a bloodstock agent wanted to give us $25,000 for her,” Jeff recalled. “Doris told him that he would have to take me too.” The race would provide the final win of seven in her 24 starts. Cure My Blue’s had won the $10,000 Princess Breeders’ Cup Handicap as a four-year-old before being claimed by the Harwoods. Upon retirement to the broodmare ranks, she produced two Basket Weave fillies in succession, three-race winner Faithfully and Julia Rose. The latter was unable to race, having suffered a serious injury at just
Among his three other stakes tallies during his second horse of the year season in 2011 was a one-length victory in the Governor’s Handicap. 26
Going to the post for the 2011 Budweiser Handicap in which Noosa Beach would draw off to win by 3 1/2 lengths. Washington Thoroughbred
