Post Position 6

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photo by Horsephotos/NTRA

Career Earnings: $983,470

• Undefeated in his first four starts, Hard Spun lost for the first time in the Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn.

• After winning the Lanes End, Hard Spun set the pace and finished second in the Kentucky Derby.  He chased a fast pace in the Preakness and weakened to third in the stretch.  After the Preakness, jockey Mario Pino was replaced by Garrett Gomez.

• Hard Spun went through the 2005 Keeneland September yearling sale, but failed to reach his reserve and was brought back for $485,000.

• Sire Danzig passed away in 2006 at the age of 29.  One of his sons, Danzig Connection, won the 1986 Belmont Stakes.

• Dam Turkish Tryst won four of 15 starts and earned $84,362.  In addition to Hard Spun, she also produced Our Rite of Spring, an overnight stakes winner.

• Turkish Tryst is a half-sister to 1974 Belmont Stakes winner Little Current.

TRAINER - Larry Jones 

Jones, 50, is a native of Hopkinsville , Kentucky .  His wife Cindy is his assistant trainer.  The couple has four children and five grandchildren.  Jones first became involved in horses when he was a commercial farmer and would show his ranch horses on the side.  Aside from Hard Spun, his best horses have been Grade 1 winners Island Sand and Wildcat Bettie B.  After a tornado hit his longtime base of Ellis Park last year, Jones relocated to Delaware Park where he met Rick Porter, owned of Fox Hill Farm.

JOCKEY - Garrett Gomez

Riding titles: Oak Tree at Santa Anita 2005; Hollywood Park spring/summer 2005, autumn 1998

Rode 2,000th career winner at Del Mar on Aug. 10, 2002.

Enjoyed breakthrough year in 2005, his first full year of riding after a substance abuse problem caused him to miss 21 months of racing. Gomez won two races at the 2005 Breeders’ Cup at Belmont: the Mile with Artie Schiller and Juvenile with Stevie Wonderboy.

Led the nation in purse money earned in 2006 with $21,922,592. Was also runner-up to Edgar Prado for the Eclipse Award.

OWNER - Fox Hill Farm

Fox Hill Farms is the racing name of Richard Porter, a resident of Hobe Sound, Florida. An automobile dealer and lifetime racing fan

Maintains a modest racing operation with approximately 10 broodmares and occassional yearling purchases with the objective of racing at the allowance and stakes level primarily in New York. Also maintains a stable
of steeplechase horses to give flat racehorses a second career.

Fox Ridge Farm bred and owned Riskaverse, who won the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Kenneland as a 3 year old and went on to earn over $2 million. She later won the Flower Bowl Invitational in 2004 and 2005.
She has been an also ran in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (Gr. 1) three times: eighth in 2004 at Lone Star Park; sixth in 2003 at Santa Anita; and seventh in 2002 at Arlington Park. She was sold at auction in 2005 for $5 million.

Won last year's Breeders' Cup Distaff with Round Pond. His other top horses to race were multiple grade one filly Jostle and top 2004 2-year-old Rockport Harbor.