Karl Krieg's 3-year-old homebred Makors Finale captured the Horse of the Year title for 2012 at the Washington Champions Annual Awards banquet held the night of Feb. 16 at Emerald Downs.
More than 200 horsemen and racing fans attended the event.
Krieg, along with his wife, Darlyne, were the big winners of the night. Not only did Markors Finale win the top award of the evening as well as being named champion 3-year-old male, the four-time stakes winner’s older half brother Absolutely Cool earned handicap male honors, and their dam, Coup de Foudre, was named broodmare of the year.
In addition, the Kriegs were the leading owners of Washington-breds by money earned in 2012.
Makors Finale, by Makors Mark out of the Basket Weave mare Coup de Foudre, won the Emerald Derby, the Coca-Cola Handicap, the Auburn Handicap, and the Chinook Pass Stakes in 2012. He was second in both the Turf Paradise Derby and the Tempe Handicap. He was trained by Tom Wenzel and Valorie Lund.
Lund also conditions the 5-year-old Absolutely Cool (Absolute Harmony), winner of the the Caballos Del Sol Handicap at Turf Paradise.
Elttaes Stables’ Music of My Soul, a full brother to two-time Washington Horse of the Year Noosa Beach, was named champion 2-year-old colt. Trained by Doris Harwood, the son of Harbor the Gold out of the Basket Weave mare Julia Rose won the Gottstein Futurity and the Dennis Dodge Stakes.
Juvenile filly honors were earned by Dan Kenny’s well-traveled Finding More (Trickey Trevor), who won three of four starts for trainers Kellyn Gorder and Lorne Richards including the Letellier Memorial Stakes.
Quizzical (Cindago), whose dam Mahaska was state champion 3-year-old filly in 1990, duplicated her mother’s honor 22 years later.
Jody Peetz and trainer Chris Stenslie’s speedy Hollywood Harbor (Harbor the Gold), who had been Washington’s top juvenile male in 2009, earned his second state championship as the premier sprinter.
Older filly and mare honors went to E Z Kitty (He's Tops), who won her first stakes of the year at Emerald Downs for Nancy and Homer Gibson’s Tige Too Racing Stable. She finished her year as a stakes winner at Turf Paradise for trainer Mike Chambers, John Xitco, and Dan Agnew.
Last year's top sire and breeder both repeated in 2012. Gibson Thoroughbred Farm’s Parker's Storm Cat earned the top sire award with more than $1.5 million in progeny earnings. Rick and Debbie Pabst and their Buckley nursery, Blue Ribbon Farm, maintained the breeder’s title with just shy of $400,000, led by juvenile filly champion Finding More.
Plater honors were earned by Chukchi Sunrise for the second time, and Kooki Saluki, who races for KOMO newscaster Dan Lewis’s MOH Stable Inc.
The Mark Kaufman Media Awards were given to radio hosts Jeff Aaron (KRKO Radio 38) and the recently retired Mike Gastineau.
Horsemen Lindy Aliment, Tom Wenzel, and Don and Wanda Munger received Special Racetrack Achievement Awards. The Washington HBPA Willing Hearts award was given to successful former jockey and now trainer Roy Lumm.
Also acknowledged for their varied and long-term contributions to the industry were Claudia Atwell Canouse, who received the S.J. Agnew Lifetime Special Achievement Award; and Bob and Barbara Meeking, who received the third annual WTOBA/WHBPA Special Recognition Award.