by Kimberly French, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Kimberly French

Louisville, KY — From Oct. 10 to Oct. 18, heading into the night of the Indiana Sire Stakes Championships, Matt Rheinheimer and Jackie Porter were darn lucky they didn’t have to seek professional help.

“Everyone kept asking me if I had heard from Matt and if she was okay,” said Porter, who has owned horses for more than two decades. “I kept telling them I didn’t want to hear from him. On the morning of the race I almost thought I would have to have someone drive me to Hoosier Park. And then when I got there Matt was so concerned about her. He would be working on his other horses and always go check on her. She was like, ‘Why do you keep putting your hand in here? Really? You are bothering me.’”

The she Porter is referring to is his 2-year-old Indiana champion Churita. The daughter of Airzoom Lindy and the Yankee Paco mare Stonebridge Volare compiled a record of 10-8-1-1, earned $263,225 and established her lifetime mark of 1:56s in her 11-1/4 length romp in the $220,000 Indiana Sire Stakes Championship for her age, gait and gender on Oct. 18 at Hoosier Park. That facility’s leading driver for the 2014 meet and her regular pilot, Trace Tetrick, held the lines.

Linscott Photography

Churita closed out her 2014 campaign with a lifetime best 1:56 in the $220,000 Indiana Sire Stakes Championship.

Churita was not even on Rheinheimer or Porter’s list when they selected yearlings. Porter became addicted to racing through a co-worker that brought him to the track and then was introduced to the barns shortly thereafter through a colleague of his brother’s. He started hauling water buckets, mucking stalls and walking horses. It was official. He had the bug.

“I’ve never had anything like her,” he said. “I always had cheap claimers and fair horses. I love the fairs. You can take the kids right up to see the horses and the atmosphere is great. I’ve always had horses for fun and that kind of experience, but I guess you could say lightning struck with this filly.

“The other horses we were looking at went for over $20,000 and I couldn’t spend that much. Even if I did, then it would put pressure on Matt, who has been training for me for five or six years, to make them a good horse and sometimes they just aren’t. I’m not in the business for that.

“She is the first horse I’ve ever had in a sire stakes race like that. And that was not the plan for her because right after we bought her, Matt came back to me and said, ‘I have bad news. She is not eligible for the fairs.’ So there really was luck involved when it came to her. We weren’t planning on the Indiana sire stakes for her.”

After the other horses Rheinheimer and Porter had their eye on went to other purchasers, Paul Webb from Ivy Lane Farm notified Rheinheimer regarding Churita’s availability.

“She had only been at the farm for three weeks,” he said. “She was a short, fat, little thing but had plenty of room to grow. I knew if she had some grain and some tender loving care, she could be brought along. I never thought she would do this at two though. I was thinking she could be competitive in overnights when she was three.”

Churita was not impressive training down and always had to jog with other horses because she would stop at the half. She just wanted to go back to the barn and her comfort zone, so Rheinheimer debated about turning her out, biding his time for a sophomore campaign. He figured he would toss her in a qualifier and she would tell him.

“She broke,” he said. “And that’s when I found out she popped a splint. I took care of that and when she was like that in the second qualifier, well, that’s when I hunted Trace down.”

With Tetrick at the lines, the only time this lass has not posed for a photograph was a second placed third finish for breaking in the stretch in an Indiana Sire Stakes final on July 23.

As Churita’s season progressed, so did she. The filly only became stronger and more businesslike with each mile. The girl was transitioning to a woman.

“She just transformed from an easygoing horse into a professional,” Rheinheimer said. “Once she started picking up how to race and she started liking it, she started to get sassy after her last couple starts.

“She has always been very nice to be around. In her last start she ran the girls out of the paddock because she was in the test barn too long. She knew what she had to do but she was ready to go back to her stall. She was aggravated.”

And then there was the growth spurt.

“I only was able to see her race three or four times,” Porter said. “There was one point I had not seen her for five weeks and when I went back to visit, I wasn’t sure it was her. The only way I recognized her was she was next to Matt’s other horse, so it had to be her. I couldn’t believe she was the same horse.”

Currently, Churita is enjoying an extended vacation and will return to training around the first of the New Year.

“We haven’t really talked about what will happen next year,” Rheinheimer said. “We are still enjoying and letting it sink in what she did in this one. We talked about staking her outside of Indiana. Everyone always wants to race in other places, but Indiana is a good place to be.

“We’ll see how she comes back, but I’ll tell you I was just as nervous her first start as I was her last. I have had a lot of horses that showed promise and had year after year of being let down. You think something is good and then it doesn’t turn out that way.

“She was just an ordinary horse. I never thought she would do this. So I was walking on pins and needles all year thinking something was going to go wrong. When it doesn’t you sit back and breathe a sigh of relief. I’ve chased a lot of horses, but it’s not any easier on the other end when everyone is chasing you.”