![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/surprsinglyperfect.jpg__760x480_q85_crop_subsampling-2_upscale.jpg\")
Surprsinglyperfect winning last April at Turf Paradise under Kevin Krigger. Photo: Coady Media \/ Shawn Coady<\/p>\nSurprsinglyperfect winning last April at Turf Paradise under Kevin Krigger. Photo: Coady Media \/ Shawn Coady<\/p>\n
Veteran 11-year-old gelding, who won seven of 13 starts in 2025 for trainer Justin Evans, landed the annual National HBPA\u2019s award after contesting the 100th race of a long career<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
After reaching the 100th start of his career with his 13th race of 2025, the 11-year-old gelding Surprsinglyperfect has been named the National HBPA\u2019s National Claiming Horse of the Year.<\/p>\n
Based at trainer and co-owner Justin Evans\u2019s main bases of Turf Paradise in Phoenix and Emerald Downs in Auburn, Washington, Surprsinglyperfect finished 2025 with seven wins out of those 13 starts, along with three seconds and a third for career-high season earnings of $94,230.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Photo:](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/with-owner.jpg\")
The Kentucky-bred son of Perfect Soul has a lifetime record of 28-17-15 in those 100 races for earnings of $417,351. Three races back Surprsinglyperfect won an open $20,000 claiming race at Emerald Downs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is like winning the Eclipse Award for a blue-collar horse,\u201d Evans, who owns Surprsinglyperfect with Jeff Rakoczy\u2019s Rakoczy Racing, said by phone, adding of his notification call from National HBPA CEO Eric Hamelback.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I got off the phone, I literally had goose bumps. I was like, \u2018Who do I call first?\u2019 My partner Jeff, I didn\u2019t want to ruin the surprise for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I just texted him, \u2018Hey, you\u2019re going to be getting a call from Eric with the National HBPA. Make sure you get back in touch with him.\u2019 I wanted to call my wife, my sister, the groom \u2014 so many people tied to this horse. I really didn\u2019t know who to call first to share the info with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rakoczy added: \u201cI\u2019m really speechless, but I\u2019m honored to be associated with Surprsinglyperfect and Justin and his team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had heard of the award before, but I had no idea that Surprsinglyperfect would be considered for that type of recognition. I\u2019m not sure how to put everything into words.<\/p>\n
\u2018People just fall in love with this guy\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a fabulous horse. He\u2019s such a classy horse. He tries hard every race. I wish I felt as good as he looks physically for how many years he\u2019s been doing what he\u2019s doing. People just fall in love with this guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The\u00a0National Horsemen\u2019s Benevolent and Protective Association\u00a0presents the National Claiming Horse of the Year annually to shine the spotlight on horses that are exceptional at their level of competition, with claiming horses comprising the largest segment of racing across America.<\/p>\n
Surprsinglyperfect and his connections will be honored Wednesday March 4 at the National HBPA awards luncheon at the organization\u2019s annual conference at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas.<\/p>\n
\u201cSurprsinglyperfect is the persona of the claiming horse,\u201d said Todd Mostoller, executive director of the Pennsylvania HBPA and chair of the National HBPA’s awards committee. \u201cHe might have been bought cheaply on numerous occasions, but that only means he\u2019s an inexpensive horse, not a \u2018cheap\u2019 horse,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a great horse at his level, running 100 times and always looking forward to his next start. Clearly he\u2019s had excellent caretakers throughout his career.<\/p>\n
![\"Another](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/emerald-downs.jpg\")
\u201cWe applaud Justin, his team, Jeff and especially Surprsinglyperfect, who may not be perfect but who sure is awfully darn good. We\u2019re thrilled to honor him and his team with the National HBPA National Claiming Horse of the Year.”<\/p>\n
Deserving horses<\/p>\n
\ufeffThe National Claiming Horse of the Year is determined by the National HBPA’s awards committee members.\u00a0\u201cThis year the competition was particularly fierce, with a number of deserving horses,” Mostoller said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately we gave the nod to Surprsinglyperfect as a shout-out to his durability for so many years, not just being outstanding in 2025 but throughout his career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evans and Rakoczy claimed the then-10-year-old Surprsinglyperfect for $10,000 on March 21, 2024, at Turf Paradise. They\u2019ve been rewarded with 11 victories in 24 starts, plus another five seconds. Evans won another five races with the gelding in early 2022.<\/p>\n
He has raced every year since he was two at Woodbine, running only three times as a juvenile and at three but never less than 12 times during any of the past five seasons. He has been claimed five times, four times for $6,250.<\/p>\n
Evans has been intertwined with Surprsinglyperfect through much of his career. In fact, he purchased him for $9,000 at Fasig-Tipton Kentucky\u2019s 2017 Mixed February Sale for a trainer friend in New Mexico, who ultimately lost the gelding via the claim box.<\/p>\n
![\"Surprsinglyperfect](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/pre-race.jpg\")
Five years later, Evans claimed Surprsinglyperfect for $6,250, winning five races in five starts before selling him privately. After the horse changed hands twice more and resurfaced at Turf Paradise in a $15,000-$10,000 claiming race, Evans gave Rakoczy a call.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018You might think I\u2019m crazy. I know $10,000 is a lot for a 10-year-old, but I love this horse. We just crushed it when I had him before,\u2019\u201d Evans said. \u201cHe said, \u2018Yeah! Get him.\u2019<\/p>\n
Larger-than-life presence<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s nothing flashy but he\u2019s an almost larger-than-life presence, just a big beautiful bay with a really pretty head and always holds his weight,\u201d the trainer went on.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe makes me want to be a racehorse trainer, and he loves being a racehorse. Around the barn, the stall, my eight-year-old daughter Addison feeds him cookies. She\u2019s brushing his belly, what she can reach. She\u2019s underneath the webbing with him doing stuff; (he) never turns a hair.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said he\u2019s like Superman in a phone booth. As soon as you throw the tack on him to go to the track in the morning, he\u2019s a different horse. He loves training, pulls the (rider\u2019s) guts out, comes home, gets his bath and turns right back into a kid\u2019s pony.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy (13-year-old) son Austin plays a deal with him all the time. If you play the Call to the Post on your phone, he could be in the back of the stall eating his hay, and he\u2019ll run up to the front of the stall \u2014 just points his ears and stares off looking for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Retirement celebration<\/p>\n
With Surprsinlyperfect officially 12 years old on New Year\u2019s Day, Evans plans to run the gelding one more time in Turf Paradise’s fifth race Tuesday with a retirement celebration immediately thereafter \u2014 hopefully in the winner\u2019s circle.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to get him at a level where he can win in his next race and have the track announce it will be his last race,\u201d said the 42-year-old Evans, a leading trainer in Arizona, New Mexico and Washington who has won more than 2,700 races since his start in 1999.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had a blanket made for him with his name, career starts, his earnings. We kind of want to make it a big deal for him, hopefully throw that blanket on him in the winner\u2019s circle and walk him out of there.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe owes me nothing, and I owe him a lot,\u201d he continued. \u201cMy respect for the horse is to put him in a spot where nobody will claim him but it\u2019s not over his head. I want to give him a chance to go out a winner, because he deserves it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got a forever home. He\u2019s going to be my kids’ new barn pony,” continued Evans, whose second son with wife (and barn manager) Vanessa is Addison’s twin, Anderson. “That\u2019s his next career. He\u2019ll live in the same stall every track we go to \u2013 he\u2019s always been in the first stall. His role will just change.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s the type of horse who would like the life where you just turn him out. I think he\u2019s going to transition really well.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a tough horse to gallop in the mornings. He\u2019s strong; he likes to do his job, he pulls on you and stuff. I think cutting back on his feed, leveling him out a little bit, I think he\u2019ll make the switch really well. Our guy at the barn who always gallops him, he said, \u2018I want to be the first one to ride him in a stock saddle.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
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