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CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS QUALIFIER PROFILE: SPIT CURL DIVA
Thomas Lepic and Jill Mixer’s Lepic-Morgan's Spit Curl Diva has 'done it all' this year while competing at the highest level.
Jack Coady / Coady PhotographyBy Richard Chamberlain
THE AMERICAN QUARTER HORSE JOURNAL—DECEMBER 7, 2010—Spit Curl Diva goes into the Champion of Champions with a formidable resume: This year, the 4-year-old mare by Spit Curl Jess is the sport’s No. 1 leader in stakes wins, with six; No. 1 in graded stakes wins, with five; No. 1 in stakes wins at different tracks, with five; No. 1 in earnings for aged mares, at $242,383; tied for first in track records, with four; and tied for first in overall wins, with eight from nine starts.
Spit Curl Diva has done all that this year while competing at the highest levels, against such horses as world champion Freaky and major winners Separate Bet, Blues Man Too, Time For A Cigar, Jess A Runner, Illegal Memories, XO Kate, Jess A Runner and Jess You And I.
The well-traveled mare this year has raced and won at Remington Park in Oklahoma, Arapahoe Park in Colorado, Prairie Meadows in Iowa, Lone Star Park in Texas and Fair Grounds in Louisiana. She comes into the Champion of Champions off four consecutive wins, most recently in the November 19 Merial Distaff Challenge Championship (G1) at Fair Grounds.
Trained by Jody Brown and ridden by Brown’s husband, David, Spit Curl Diva qualified to the Champion of Champions (G1) with her score in the October 2 Refrigerator Handicap (G1) at Lone Star Park. In that race, she scored by a nose over former world champion Stolis Winner, the sport’s all-time leading earner, and a very talented field including such luminaries at King Brimmerton ($278,698), Grade 1 winner Charal Kid ($280,780), All American Futurity (G1) qualifier Swingin Daddyo ($705,778) and 2010 Champion of Champions qualifier Jess You And I ($1,590,471).
In her career, Spit Curl Diva has started 29 races, with 16 wins, including nine in stakes; eight seconds, including six in stakes; and two thirds, including one stakes. She has earned $695,938.
Spit Curl Diva is one of two stakes winners by her sire, the winner of the 2004 Heritage Place Futurity (G1). She is one of two starters, both winners, out of the winning Some Dasher mare Some Kinda Diva.
Spit Curl Diva is one of two winners from three starters bred by Jana and Larry Dalrymple’s Little Deer Creek Quarter Horses of Thomas, Oklahoma. The mare is owned by Thomas Lepic and Jill Mixer’s Lepic-Morgan Partnership of Iowa City, Iowa.
Los Alamitos Race Course is proud to host the 39th running of the Grade 1 $750,000 Champion of Champions at 440 yards on Saturday, December 11.
The Champion of Champions is the richest event for older horses in the nation, and it has traditionally impacted several American Quarter Horse championship divisions over the years. All in all, 25 of the 38 winners have been crowned racing world champions. Legendary American Quarter Horses, including Charger Bar, Dash For Cash and Refrigerator, have won the Champion of Champions since its inception in 1972.
Fans can watch live racing at Los Alamitos and most other American Quarter Horse tracks throughout the year by subscribing to Q-Racing Video. Q-Racing Video will be offered free of charge the weekend of December 10, so fans can watch the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity (G1) and Champion of Champions live from Los Alamitos Race Course in California, plus sample Q-Racing Video’s other features like live chat with professional handicappers. Subscribers have unlimited live access to almost every Quarter Horse simulcasting signal in the United States, plus unlimited access to archived race video.
For more information, visit www.qracingvideo.com.