t for the City of Vision: Someone with close ties to Rio Rancho had a horse entered in the Kentucky Derby.

That someone is Pierre Amestoy, the developer of the huge Los Diamantes community in Unit 10, in southwest Rio Rancho.

UPDATE: Sadly for the horse and its owners, trainer Tim Yakteen removed the horse from the field after it showed an elevated temperature Thursday at Churchill Downs.

Yakteen told bloodhorse.com Practical Move, the son of Practical Joke,  was otherwise fine Thursday morning, but the decision to scratch him from Saturday’s race was done out of precaution. 

“It’s a no-brainer,” Yakteen said of the co-fourth choice on the morning line at 10-1. 

“I’m very disappointed,” Pierre Amestoy said. “But he’ll be back.”

As for what lies ahead for Practical Move, Yakteen said the hope is he’ll respond to antibiotics. Once Practical Move is healthy, Yakteen said he will come up with a game plan.

Just as envisioning a large residential and commercial development on that huge plot of land in the Unser Gateway was a practical move for Amestoy, his horse with the name Practical Move had been entered in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday.

The annual “Run for the Roses” is at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, and is dubbed “the fastest two minutes in sports.

On April 8, Practical Move won the Santa Anita Stakes in Arcadia, California, with Ramon Vazquez aboard. The horse, taking a three-win streak into Saturday’s race, is trained by Tim Yakteen.

Thus far in 2023, Practical Move has been in six races, winning two and finishing third in two others; it’s won seven of 29 races entered since 2020. All told, through mid-April, the horse had won more than $714,000 for Amestoy, his wife Leslie and Roger and Jean Beasley.

It turns out, this isn’t something Amestoy, a 1972 graduate of Valley High School and a West Side resident, is doing on a whim.

“My wife was a horse trainer when I met her,” Amestoy said. “We owned quarter horse champions, and for a time had a horse farm — ‘Lobo Farm’ — in Kentucky.

“Last year, we went to Florida and bought a colt (Practical Move) at a 2-year-old in training sale,” he said. “These sales are special sales, (and we did) a lot of research. … We got to see him work out. We looked at hundreds of horses.”

The Amestoys left Sunday for Louisville, excitedly looking forward to the draw for post positions. They’ll wear Practical Move’s “colors,” red and silver, for some added luck.

According to americasbestracing.com, “Practical Move earned his first win in his third career start in a 2-year-old maiden race at Santa Anita on Oct. 10, 2022, taking a one-mile dirt race via disqualification when moved from second to first after being interfered with in mid-stretch by Fort Bragg, who crossed the finish line in front. From there, Practical Move was sent up versus stakes competition for the first time in the Grade 3 $100,000 Bob Hope Stakes on Nov. 20 at Del Mar, where he finished third in a five-horse field.”