Qualified by running second in the Z. Wayne Griffin Directors Trials

Blazin Fire's story begins with her dam, Blazin Sin back in the late 1980s. Blazin Sin was Lisa McMahon's first "good horse" - a talented runner that was undefeated at Blue Ribbon Downs in Sallisaw, Oklahoma in 1987. "At the time Blue Ribbon Downs was one of the best places to race and Blazin Sin did well there," McMahon said. She chipped both knees and an ankle and after we operated on her she came to Los Alamitos. She qualified fifth to the (1988) Grade 1 Vessels Maturity but then finished last to Florentine in the final. That was my only experience in a Grade 1 race at Los Alamitos." In the breeding shed, however, Blazin Sin has been everything McMahon could hope for and more. She produced a horse by the name of Blazin High, who won $260,000 in major stakes races while becoming an AQHA Superior Racehorse. She also had Blazin Man, who was a multiple stakes winner, the Texas high point aged stallion in 2002 and also a Superior Racehorse. After surviving a bout with Colitis-X, Blazin Sin was diagnosed with another deadly disease: cancer. "It spread fast," McMahon said. "The insurance company cleared her to be put down but then the cancer went into remission. She had this baby next to her so we decided to wait, as long as she was feeling okay. A week or so later I got a call telling me that she was in season and she was ready to be bred. They asked me if I wanted to breed her. I said okay. We got an embryo out of her by This Snow Is Royal and that was Blazin Fire." After another bout with cancer, Blazin Sin had to be put down two weeks after the embryo transfer. Blazin Fire has made sure that Blazin Sin's legacy lives on as she's put together the racing season of her life. She began the year by winning an allowance and then the John Deere California Distaff Challenge before running second to Apollitical Time in the Los Alamitos Invitational Challenge. She followed that effort by winning the Las Damas Handicap and before another solid runner-up effort to Apollitical Time in the Z. Wayne Griffin.

Since 2001, trainer Paul Jones has saddled 15 horses in the Champion of Champions. He will add three more to that number in 2006, as he trains Blazin Fire, Strawkins and Wave Carver. The four-time AQHA Champion trainer won three straight Champion of Champions from 2002-2004 thanks to Whosleavingwho (2002), The Down Side (2003) and Cash For Kas (2004). Jones is enjoying another super year in 2006. He is the nation's leading trainer in wins with 222 and money earned with over $5.3 million. He won his second straight All American Futurity earlier this year when he saddled No Secrets Here to victory at Ruidoso Downs. As of press time, Jones could still go over the $6 million mark in earmings depending on how No Secrets Here, The Crawfish and Trisk performed in the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity. In 2005, Jones enjoyed a record setting season. For the fifth straight year, he set a new track record for most Quarter Horse wins in a single year. His 273 Quarter Horse wins secured his eighth straight local training title. He is well on track to make it nine straight titles at Los Alamitos. He also set a new national Quarter Horse record for most wins in a year. In 2001, Paul became only the third trainer to win 1,000 Quarter Horse races at Los Alamitos courtesy of Daves Best Man. Paul is one of five trainers at Los Alamitos with over 1,000 wins. He is currently second in wins and stakes wins behind Hall of Famer Blane Schvaneveldt.

Lisa McMahon likes to refer herself as a "horse freak". "I've been that way since I was two," she said. "When I was in high school I met this couple that had moved from California to Tennessee. They had Quarter Horses that had raced at Los Alamitos and they were boarding their horses at the same place I had my riding mare. I had heard about Los Alamitos but thanks to them I got to hear all these great stories from people that had been there. This was back in 1975." Fifteen years ago, McMahon married her husband, Dan, and the couple has a 14-year-old son named Bobby and a 10-year-old daughter named Jessie. "Dan has been so supportive of my love for horses through all these years. Until about five years ago we lived in a farm and our bedroom was in a barn next to a foaling stall." The years passed and McMahon's love for racing and admiration for Los Alamitos remained as strong as ever. Over the years, McMahon has also become one of the best-known, well-liked and most respected "small breeders" in the sport. "I really try to meet people. We have our great Quarter Horse racing group on Yahoo! They are very supportive and important to me because they help you get through the ups and downs of the racing business. They've been great to me and I hope I've been great to them. We have about 26-27 members and it includes some very powerful people in the group. You share ideas, talk about different topics such as breeding and pedigrees and we all stay on top of what's happening with our horses." On a professional level, McMahon's advertising agency does ads for print, TV, radio and direct mailing in the Mid-South. She's also made the commitment to become more involved in the breeding business after joining the syndicate group of Masters Call, the $485,000 sale-topping yearling at the 2006 Los Alamitos Equine Sale and full brother to sensational freshman stallion Check Him Out. McMahon now plans to breed to either Masters Call or Check Him Out the following mares; Blazin Fire, her aforementioned older sister, Two Hot To Snow, and Blazin First Down, a mare by First Down Dash out of Blazin Fire that McMahon sold years ago before buying her back for $6,200 at this year's Heritage Place Sale. "I'm so excited about that," she said. "I recently sent a friend of mine, who is a Thoroughbred pedigree expert, the pedigrees of my three mares and the pedigree of Check Him Out. He said 'Lisa, all your mares should be bred to Check Him Out or Masters Call until they die.' That was nice to hear because he has planned the breeding of several Kentucky Derby winners."