UP TO PARTY STAYS UNDEFEATED, WINS THE PCQHRA BREEDERS FUTURITY
Dunn Ranch’s Up To Party is still undefeated after five career starts following a neck victory over her nemesis, Buckway Ranch LLC’s Ultimate Battle, in the Grade 2 PCQHRA Breeders Futurity on Sunday night at Los Alamitos.
Now a winner of five races in as many starts, the Ed Allred and Tom Seibly-bred runner also became the first filly in history to win the PCQHRA Breeders Futurity and the Ed Burke Million Futurity. The rare double had only been accomplished three other times in the 44-year history of the race. AQHA champion colts Hawkish and KVN Corona and PCQHRA champion gelding Political Rivalry preceded Up To Party as winner of this futurity double.
Up To Party had previously beaten Ultimate Battle in the Grade 1 Ed Burke Million Futurity on June 16. Both then came back to win their respective trials for their trainer, Monty Arrossa, setting up quite rematch in the PCQHRA Breeders Futurity final. When the gates open for the 350-yard Breeders Futurity, Up to Party took off cleanly and took the lead soon after the start. Ultimate Battle bumped sideways at the start, but then came flying in the final 100 yards to make things very close at the wire. The 1-2 finish was not all for Arrossa. The trainer ended up saddling the top six finishers in this futurity, as Dunn Ranch’s Party Time Tom, a full brother to Up To Party finished third, with the Arrossa-trial winners Bottle It Up, Midnight Mood, and Fear N Fridays crossing the wire fourth, fifth, and sixth, respectively.
In the end it was party time for Up To Party, as daughter by Kiddy Up out of Golden State Million Futurity winner The Partys On Fire. Ridden by Armando Cervantes, Up To Party covered the 350 yards in :19.554 while earning $115,500 for the win. A $12,000 purchase at the Los Alamitos Equine Sale, Up To Party has now earned $534,500 this season, a figure that makes her the nation’s fourth leading money earner of 2024 and the leading money earning filly of any age this season. Only the geldings Hezgothelook Z ($2,358,300), the three-time Grade1 futurity winner; Dashing Tres ($882,785), the All American Derby and Rainbow Derby winner; and Joose Boxx ($561,728, the Grade 1 TQHA Sale Futurity and Grade 2 Oklahoma Futurity, are currently ahead of her on the earnings leaderboard.
“She’s just a consistent horse,” owner Matt Dunn said of Up To Party. “She’s smart. She does everything right. She really doesn’t make mistakes. If you watch the races, she doesn’t make mistakes. We’re thankful to have her. We’re lucky to have her, really. To buy her for $12,000 that was a steal I thought at the time, but a lot more of a steal that I ever would have dreamed or imagine.”
Dunn Ranch also owns the gelding Party Time Tom, a $33,000 purchase at the Los Alamitos Equine Sale, who earned exactly $33,000 for his third-place finish in this race.
“To be honest, I bought the filly and after I bought the filly, I thought about (Party Time Tom) and I didn’t want to miss on these. I liked them both. They’re two different horses, even to look at, they’re different. He’s bigger, longer and I think he’s going to be a little better for the distance once he gets it together. They’re good horses from good families. I like Kiddy Up. I bred to Kiddy Up this year. I bred a mare to Kiddy Up before we even knew what we had. It’s a great cross, a great program, a great breeder, obviously with (Ed Allred). This is like a dream.
“They’re different horses,” Dunn added. “She’s consistent. Tom, he’s just a little immature still. He’s still developing. I think he’ll still get better. He got a little bit green right there. I always give thanks to my team. Everybody from top to bottom. I want to thank Renovo (Equine Allograft). They’ve done a good job. They’re a partner of ours. The Renovo product has been great.”
Next for the Dunn Ranch-pair could be the trials to the Golden State Million Futurity on the evening after the first day of the Los Alamitos Equine Sale on Saturday, October 5. There are no guarantees Up To Party or Party Time Tom will be in action in these trials. That’ll be decided in the next few days.
“We’ll make a decision after talking with Monty,” he said. “We have a lot of other ones after those trials. We’ll do the right thing for the horses. It’s not just about the money and we’re not just going to run them (over and over). We’ll see how they pull up and how tire they are, and then we’ll make a decision together.”
Arrossa swept the six trials to the PCQHRA Breeders Futurity with each of his six qualifiers winning their respective trials. He then followed it up with seeing his six qualifiers corralling the top six spots in this race, an extremely rare accomplishments in the history of Los Alamitos. Arrossa agreed.
“This is a once in a lifetime,” he said. “It’ll probably never happen again. I was trying to watch the entire field just to see who got away and if there was trouble. I could tell there was a little bit of bumping toward the middle to the outside. I saw that the filly got away real clean. It looked like some of the other horses were kind of bumping around. I could see Ultimate Battle was coming on, Party Time To was coming on. It is tough to see all of them in there. I didn’t realize they were the top six. We kind of brought our A team in here. These are all stakes horses. Fear N Fridays, I think he’s the only horse who has made three futurities. We brought some of our best babies for this futurity and they ran well tonight.”
Ridden by James Flores, Ultimate Battle, a Favorite Cartel colt, earned $46,750 for his solid effort. The Ed Burke runner-up has earned $218,122 in his five-race career. Levins Racing LLC’s Bottle It Up earned $19,250 for his fourth place finish, while Travis and Wendy Sexton’s Midnight Mood earned $16,500 for running fifth. AGMW Racing’s Fear N Fridays added $13,750 in earnings for his sixth place finish.
Cavenaugh Quarter Horses LLC’s D Fawn finished seventh and was followed by Reliance Ranch’s Snow Bound, Alipo Burgos and Jorge Quintero’s Malynche, and Steve Burns, Mark and Marta Winslow, and Jose Flores’ Bull Market.
The upcoming Los Alamitos Equine Sale on October 5-6 will feature a Favorite Cartel filly out of The Partys On Fire bred by Allred and Seibly.
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