Merridoc Hawk
4-Year-Old Mare
(Hawkinson – Artesias Merridoc by Merridoc)

Qualified by winning the Mildred Vessels Memorial Handicap

Lifetime Record: 16-8-2-3, $175,070          2010 Record: 7-4-1-1, $142,327

The aged mare division will be well represented in the 2010 running of the Champion of Champions. Three highly distinguished distaffers will take part in this year’s 440-yard classic with one being a star from the Midwest in Spit Curl Diva, another a star from the East in Feature Jess Rockin, and the third a star from the Western Sky in Merridoc Hawk. No horse has won more stakes races at Los Alamitos since the start of the meeting on December 27, 2009 than this California-bred mare. The 4-year-old daughter of Hawkinson has accumulated five stakes victories with the biggest one being the Grade 1 $150,000 Mildred Vessels Memorial Handicap. It was that effort that earned her this Champion of Champions berth. Merridoc Hawk began the year with a victory in the Flare For Toby Handicap. She followed it up with wins in the Florentine Handicap, Kaweah Bar Handicap and Matron Stakes Handicap on California Breeders Champions Night. In the Millie Vessels she defeated the AQHA Champion Aged Mare Stylish Jess Br plus Governor’s Cup Derby winner Pink Boots RM, and Bank of America California Championship winner My Lady First. At odds of 8-1 in the Millie Vessels, Merridoc Hawk left the gate in order and then held off the late charge of Pink Boots RM to win in a time of :19.385. This was the event’s third fastest ever, trailing only Terrific Energy’s 2009 stakes mark of :19.28 and Blues Girl Too’s winning time of :19.30 in 2007.

"We liked her as a baby, but she suffered a pretty good cut that prevented us from doing much with her during her freshman year," said owner Enrique Gonzalez of EG High Desert Farms. "A very good veterinarian told me that the cut would probably end her racing career. It was a very large gash and he figured that she would probably suffer from tendon damage. I took her home with the hope of adding her to our broodmare band. We gave her more than six months off and she started to recover. The wound healed and she started to look and act a lot better. She had never made any money or done anything to make her standout as a broodmare, so we decided that as long as she was feeling okay that we would train her to see how she would do. She’s been an amazing mare and a great story for our farm ever since.”

Merridoc Hawk has a nice-sized scar where she suffered the cut and she has no hair on that spot. Whenever Gonzalez looks at that scar, the owner is reminded of the many twists and turns that the game of Quarter Horse racing can bring.

“I really thought that 2010 was going to be a good year for our farm, but it did not start out that way. We made a lot of changes to our racing operation. We worked with a couple of different trainers and we didn’t win like I was hoping to do. Then this mare comes out of nowhere and starts winning for us. She’s made this better season for the barn. Merridoc Hawk has so much heart. She doesn’t lose ground. When I see her run I feel that she runs to the best of her abilities every time. She doesn’t leave anything behind. She's one of the biggest surprises that I've had in the racing game. I'm very proud of what this mare has accomplished this year and it gives me great satisfaction because she is one of my homebreds."

Merridoc Hawk also became the first mare to win the Kaweah Bar since A Mere First won the second of two divisions in 1998. "Merridoc Hawk fights every race,” Enrique Gonzalez added. "The name of the game is to breed a horse that is quick out of the gate or powerful at the end of a race. If you are able to breed horses with those qualities, that is a great feeling. When I look at Merridoc Hawk, she's a mare with a lot of run at the end," he continued. "That's what I like about Hawkinson. When his babies run they finish great at 350, 400, 440 yards. Hawkinson gives his good babies that ability."

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Since 2003, Enrique Gonzalez’s EG High Desert Farms has been a prolific figure in Quarter Horse racing at Los Alamitos Race Course. Over that span, Gonzalez has started 1,507 Quarter Horses at the Katella track resulting in 272 trips to the winner’s circle for a tremendous win ratio of 18% and over $4.4 million in earnings. From January 1, 2003 through December 6, 2010 at Los Alamitos, only Ed Allred has started more Quarter Horses and won more races as owner than Gonzalez.

Enrique was the leading Quarter Horse owner in at the Cypress oval with 50 victories in 2006, and the runner-up to Allred in that category in 2009 and 2008. He is second in the standings this year with 24 wins from 190 starters.

Enrique’s stock of runners has also featured outstanding stakes winners led, of course, by the 2001 AQHA champion stallion Hawkinson and the 2003 AQHA champion 2-year-old colt Hawkish. His horses have also been honored by the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association in several occasions with titles coming his way in 2008 for his top older mare Clydette Mia, in 2001 for his top aged stallion Hawkinson, and in 2004 and 2003 for his top colt Hawkish, who was also honored as the 2003 PCQHRA Horse of the Year. Gonzalez was named the 2003 PCQHRA Owner of the Year – a title he also earned nationally from the AQHA. In 2006 he was awarded the PCQHRA Owner Special Recognition Award.

Gonzalez grew up making charcoal out of wood in the 1950s in a small town near Guadalajara, Mexico. When he had enough pieces, he would travel to a small town nearby to sell his goods. At the age of 17, Gonzalez successfully applied for a laborer job that provided him, as a Mexican citizen, a temporary green card to come to the United States and work in the agricultural state system of the 1960s. Four years later, Gonzalez was granted citizenship status and by then he was juggling several jobs. He eventually saved about $2,000.

“I bought a cantina with this money,” he said. “It was my first purchase and the year was 1974. I was tired of working on Sundays and on holidays. I had a family and I couldn’t spend much time with them. The cantina did well for me. I eventually sold it and bought a little club named Puerto Vallarta in North Hollywood. I kept Puerto Vallarta for eight years until I bought a grocery store. We opened up a few more stores. My brothers joined the business and we found our niche (the chain caters to the growing Latino community).”

Gonzalez owns ranch property in Temecula of about 40 acres in size. Surrounded by other horse ranches, orange groves, vineyards and wine cellars, EG High Desert Farms in Temecula now houses all of Gonzalez’s stallions, from Red Hot Rhythm, Corona Czech, Hawkinson and Hawkish to EG Special Ways and Bail Mary Out. The place features a training track in which horses that drill approximately 200 yards. Over the years, people like Mario Loza and Sid Huntley, have overseen Gonzalez’s horse operation.

“The Temecula ranch remains a place that I hope to grow. It’s a good place to raise a horse. Business is tough, but we are still working hard to remain strong. Fortunately, our stores have done well considering everything. My children are all very much involved in the Vallarta Markets and they are really the ones running the operation now.”