FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                       
      FEBRUARY 20, 2009

CONTACT LOS ALAMITOS PUBLICITY
714-820-2690

A TEMPTING DASH EARNS TOP REWARD IN WINTER DERBY

LOS ALAMITOS RACE COURSE, CYPRESS, CA... The signs were
there for all to see dating back to a 220-yard workout last
October 25: A Tempting Dash was on the verge of a busting
into superstardom. On that early morning drill, the son of
First Down Dash posted the fastest drill ever recorded by a
2-year-old when stopping the clock in a time of :11.70.
Shortly after, A Tempting Dash broke his maiden with a superb
qualifying effort to the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity
before running a respectable fifth in the $2,038,000 final. 

Fresh off that effort, he recovered from a stumble at the
start to post the fastest qualifying time to the Los Alamitos
Winter Derby three weeks ago, setting him up perfectly to his
breakthrough performance in the $200,000 final on Friday at
the Orange County track.  Starting from post one, Ron and
Denise VanAmburgh and Jeremy and Naia Giambi's A Tempting
Dash flew out the gate and battled BF Regal Rage and
Fantastic Corona Jr for the early lead before taking command
past the gap on the way to a head victory over Fantastic
Corona Jr. 

Ridden by Alejandro Luna for trainer Jaime Gomez, A Tempting
Dash's Grade 1 victory also featured a near stakes record
clocking of :19.44, only 1/100ths of a second shy of A Mere
Chocolate's winning time last year, while earning $84,000 for
his connections. Muller Racing bred A Tempting Dash, now a
winner of three of eight starts and $209,495.

The signs were there since October of what was in store for
A Tempting Dash, however, the vision of what was to come for
the sophomore gelding had first presented itself in the form
of a dream to Denise VanAmburgh some 18 months ago. She just
didn't know it at the time.

Denise recalled having a dream in which their first big
runner, Not A First Moon, won a stakes race. Shortly after,
Not A Full Moon delivered by winning the 2007 El Primero Del
Ano Derby.  A couple of months later, Denise had another
dream, this time prior to Not A Full Moon's matchup against
FDD Dynasty in the Governor's Cup Derby finale in July of
'07.

"I distinctly remembered that in my dream our horse started
from post one and won a derby in a photo finish," she said.
"But it wasn't Not A Full Moon because he was starting away
from the rail and we actually ended up running second (by a
neck) to FDD Dynasty." 

In the early hours on Friday, just after 2 a.m., Denise
VanAmburgh woke up and everything immediately seemed clear.
"I told Ron, 'remember that dream that I had? It was A
Tempting Dash.' I told him," she said.

Ron knew exactly what she was talking about. " 'I know, I
was thinking about that too,' " he told her. " 'I just didn't
want to say anything.' " 

Just like in her dream, A Tempting Dash was on the winning
side of the photo after breaking from post one. 

"This derby win is just as exciting as our first one with
Not A Full Moon," she said.

"Standing in the winner's circle after a claiming race is
exciting," Ron VanAmburgh added. "It's the same euphoria, but
this one pays a little better." 

The only one missing from the VanAmburgh and Giambi party
was Jeremy, who stayed home because of a bad case of the flu.
Jeremy, a member of the 1995 NCAA championship winning team
at California State Fullerton and a major league baseball
player for several years, did enjoy every second of A
Tempting Dash's victory on TVG. 

"I'm feeling better now," said Giambi in a phone interview.
"(Gelding) the horse was the greatest decision we could have
made. We hated to do that with a horse like A Tempting Dash,
but we felt that he was a racehorse first and then a
stallion. He ran a perfect race. He was able to get out
towards the middle of the track and closer to the outside
horses and he held them off." 

With Giambi fending off the flu, Naia rooted on A Tempting
Dash to victory with the help of her good friend Stacy
Fuller, the designated team cheerleader of the
VanAmburgh/Giambi stable of horses.  

"We just flew in to watch the race," Naia said. "We saw the
horse at the barn at around 5:30 p.m. and he looked great. He
let me rub his nose and I think he was telling me that was
going to win the race," she said with a smile.

Next for A Tempting Dash is the El Primero Del Ano Derby, at
least that's the plan right now. The big goal for the year is
to see the horse compete in the Los Alamitos Super Derby
trials in the fall, earning hopefully another opportunity to
compete in the meet's biggest race for his division. 

"We would love to face Tres Passes again," said Ron
VanAmburgh, referring to the PCQHRA Horse of the Year and
winner of the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity over A
Tempting Dash. "We know that no one was going to beat Tres
Passes on the night of the Two Million but our horse threw
his shoe early in that race and got a pretty good cut. We
just want to run against him one more time. Not A Full Moon
ran seconds and thirds against Blues Girl Too and FDD Dynasty
but I was ecstatic each time because he ran as well as he
possibly could run. I don't mind losing to the best horses in
the world as long our horse runs a good race. Tres Passes,
that's who we want to face this year." 

Owned by John Andreini, Vince Genco and Gianni Samaja,
Fantastic Corona Jr earned $34,000 for his runner-up effort
in the Winter Derby. The colt by Corona Cartel enjoyed his
best trip in a major race - avoiding the troubled start that
plagued him in the Ed Burke Million and Los Alamitos Two
Million futurities last year. Ridden by Ramon Sanchez for
trainer Paul Jones, Fantastic Corona Jr has now made $347,460
in his career.

EG High Desert Farms' Jimmy Delivers, second to Hard Hitting
in last year's Governor's Cup Futurity, made a huge run in
the final half of this race to finish in third place. The
Corona Czech gelding broke a slow seventh from post fourth
before passing several foes in the final 110 yards. Carlos
Bautista piloted Jimmy Delivers for trainer Mario Loza. He
made $24,000 for running third. BF Regal Rage, Hawkish Got
Rhythm, Cartels First Card, Suger Mama, Significant Corona,
Downrodeo and Hes Regal wrapped up the field. 

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