The cross of leading stallion KVN Corona and top broodmare Budder Think Twice has produced a Robert Adair Kindergarten Futurity finalist in each of the last three years for owner Keith Nellesen.
Think Again Kevin started the family tradition in 2023 by posting a strong third place finish in the 300-yard race. His full brother, My Budd, took the family name one step higher with a runner-up effort in the 2024 running of the Kindergarten.
Graduation time came in the 2025 Kindergarten renewal for the family of KVN Corona and Budder Think Twice, as the aptly named filly Beuteeful posted a sensational 1 ½ length victory in the Grade 2, $275,800 final on Sunday night at Los Alamitos. Ridden by Rodrigo Sigala Vallejo for trainer Kristen Watanabe, Beuteeful led from start to finish on the way to covering the 300 yards in :15.301 from post number one.
Like Think Again Kevin and My Budd before her, Beuteeful was bred by McColee Land & Livestock LLC, a breeding company owned by Nellesen and Lance Robinson. McColee bred the outstanding KVN Corona, who Nellesen campaigned to championship titles and three major stakes victories at Los Alamitos during the 2017 and ’18 seasons. Nellesen has gone on to campaign many of KVN Corona’s sons and daughters with Beuteeful quickly establishing herself as one of his most talented fillies.
Now a perfect three for three in her career, the Utah-bred gray filly was a daylight winner in her racing debut on March 29, as she posted the meet’s fastest 220-yard time of :11.903 despite breaking in and bumping. Beuteeful had a rougher go in her Kindergarten trial on April 19, once again breaking in and then bumping solidly before regaining her stride on the way to winning the race by ¾ lengths while posting the second fastest qualifying time to the finale.
“We all knew that she had a tendency to break in and get herself in trouble,” Nellesen said. “Being in the one-hole (in the Kindergarten), I think everyone was focused on making sure she didn’t break in. I figured Rodrigo would make sure she didn’t break in again. She kind of broke out a little bit. He was able to get her straight. We were confident that if she could get out of the gate without a lot of trouble that would be fast enough to win it. She is a very determined filly. She’ll run through them and if there’s a little hole she’ll run over them.”
Even after bumping here, Beuteeful left flying and in no time at all she was well ahead of the Jose Flores-trained Fireworks Over Paris and EG High Desert Farms’ Sentella Olimpia.
“That last race when she got in all that trouble, you rarely see a horse take that much,” Nellesen said. “But she’s a determined horse. We’re really excited about her. It looks like she can get 350, 400 yards. They were high on her early on and they used to work her with (Kindergarten finalist) Trident IOT. They started splitting them up because she was beating up on his confidence a little bit. She’s a very mature, very forward horse and paid into everything you can pay her into. She’s paid in the Ruidoso races. We’ll see how she comes out. She’s a graded stakes winning (filly) now out of a great mare of ours and by our sire.”
Bred by Double Bar S Ranch, Budder Think Twice was campaigned by Nellesen in 2015 before retiring her at the end of her juvenile campaign. During her lone racing year, she ran second in the Governor’s Futurity and fifth in the Grde 1 Ed Burke Million Futurity. A decade later and Budder Think Twice is among the top broodmares in McColee’s band.
“The McColee name stands for my kids, Mckenzie, Cole and Preslee,” Nellesen said. “Me and Lance and his son, Clint, we raise (all the horses) all out there at the ranch. I bought the land next to Lance’s and we raise them there. I did Thoroughbreds with Lance back in the day. Then he told me about embryo transfers and said, ‘let’s go buy a mare.’ That mare is Little Surfer, the dam of Uncle D. Then he said, ‘If you’re going to have one, you might as well have two.’ He bought Executive Looks, who is the dam of KVN Corona. We were going to start out with just one mare and now we have 80 babies a year.”
Sent off as the slight favorite in this race, Beuteeful earned $115,836 for her Kindergarten victory.
Racing for Jose Flores, Layne Sprouse and Mark and Marta Winslow, Fireworks Over Paris ran a tremendous race at 8-1 odds to finish second. Purchased for $15,000 at the Heritage Place September Yearling Sale, the gelding by Ryder Rite bred by Cavenaugh Quarter Horses earned $46,886 for his effort with Cruz Mendez aboard.
Piloted by Ricardo Ramirez for trainer Jesus Nunez, Sentella Olimpia broke among the leaders, drifted in and finished gamely to earn third place money of $33,096. Sired by A Mere Felix, Sentella Olimpia was bred by her owner EG High Desert.
Bobby and Catherine Simmons’ Wake Up Lil Suze lugged out early before running fourth. She was followed by Beyond Repair, Trident IOT, Elmer Romero, Touch Base and Relentless Trick Db.
