Jesus Alfredo Soto died January 28 of a heart attack
Jesus Alfredo Soto, 58, who with wife Sandra owned champion Royal Quick Dash, died January 28 of a heart attack. Soto had triple bypass surgery about a year ago, and that surgery was followed by a kidney transplant.
Soto had been an attorney in Mexico before coming to the United States from Guasave, Sinaloa. He is survived by three sons: Alfredo Jr. in Sallisaw, with children Walter and Isabella; and in Mexico, Eliot, with daughter Renada; Ulisses and Sinhue.
Discounts for 2010 Stallion Services at Harts Farms
“With the tough economic conditions in the horse business we want to help mare owners this season,” farm owner Chad Hart said in a statement Tuesday.
Hart Farms is home to grade 1 winner and first crop sire Bigtime Favorite,multiple grade 1 sire Check Him Out, grade 2 winner Coronas Leaving You, #5 first crop sire of 2009 First N Kool and grade 1 stakes-placed First Prize Perry.
The farm will also offer no interest financing on their breedings.
For information on stallion fee discounts and financing or to book mares contact Chad Hart at 706-201-5648 or Hart Farms’s ranch manager Duane Griffith at 337-643-3255.
Stallion “Jody O Toole” died
ELGIN, TX—JANUARY 28, 2010—Multiple grade 1 sire Jody O Toole died yesterday at Southwest Stallion Station where he had stood for many years. He was 25.
Jody O Toole, who stood at Southwest Stallion Station, has sired earners in excess of $7.7 million.
Owned by the Estate of Bob Douglas, Jody O Toole sired earners of more than $7.7 million. From 18 crops to reach racing age he has sired 362 ROM, 300 winners (58%), 33 stakes winners (6%) and 28 stakes-placed (5%).
Frank “Scoop” Vessels III and the Quarter Horse Dynasty / Starting A Horse Farm
Frank “Scoop” Vessels III is unique in that he ranks simultaneously among the nation’s top leading breeders in both the Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse industries. The esteem in which both camps hold him is borne out by the fact that he is vice president of the American Quarter Horse Association and is also the vice president of the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association. Known best for the creation and management of the Vessels Stallion Farm near San Diego, he was a six-time winner of the Baja Peninsula off-road races and is one of the originators of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. His farm stands the top racing Quarter horse stallion in the country, First Down Dash, as well as the leading Thoroughbred sire in the West Coast, In Excess (ire). Scoop Vessels is one of the equine industry’s most exemplary entrepreneurs.
My name is actually Frank Vessels III. They call me “Scoop” because I used to hang around the horse stalls a lot when I was a kid and so my grandfather gave me the nickname Scoop. Unfortunately, it stuck. You have to be careful as you are growing up because sometimes things stick to you for a lifetime.
As a result, when he heard that there were a lot of good broodmares with speed available in Louisiana, he soon went there to get some. Most of them had Thoroughbred bloodlines from the old Army remount stations. I still remember when I was small that he was gone for quite a while on that trip. He ended up sending back two train-car loads of mares from Louisiana; three of which became foundation mares of our operation today. Anyway, Granddad now had all these mares and was planning to raise our own horses so that we’d never get beat again, which never happens.
In those days, Huntley Gordon was an old family friend who owned a lot of land in that area. He was the great-grandfather of Robbie Gordon, the NASCAR driver. My Granddad was a good friend of Huntley Gordon, who had heard of a stallion in Arizona named Clabber. He was supposed to be the all-around Quarter Horse. It was said you could do ranch work on him all morning, rope on him all afternoon, and then run him in races in the evening. At the time, he was the world’s champion quarter running horse. These two guys got into a convertible, drove to Tucson, and bought the horse – likely for a pretty sweet sum at that time. Robbie Gordon’s dad has a photograph in his office of these two men in that convertible pulling a one-horse trailer and smoking big cigars. They must have thought they had hung the moon.
So, now we had a world champion stallion coming back to breed all those mares from Louisiana. Looking back, I consider that point in time to mark the real beginning of Vessels Stallion Farm. In years to come, there were many great horses on that place. My Dad continued not only to promote the track but also to work in Sacramento to get the legislature to legalize pari-mutuel wagering on Quarter Horses. By the mid-1950s, we were running quite a bit and there was no longer a horse shortage. Owners and trainers had discovered that running in Southern California was nice in the winter. We had some great meets and there were some really fast runners in those early days. Whenever we had famous horses, we would pack the stands.
the rest , as they say is history! I hope you enjoyed the post and were able to learn something new from this short post. Maybe starting your own horse farm?
Los Alamitos cuts backs on their live racing schedules
Two California racetracks have announced cutbacks in their live racing schedules effective the week of Jan. 25.
Los Alamitos, which offers Quarter Horse, Thoroughbred, and Arabian racing, said in a release it is dropping Thursday night racing “temporarily” through April, when 2-year-old racing begins. Racing will be held on a Friday-Saturday schedule for at least the next two months.
horse racing “has fallen victim to a national trend” evident around the country.
“With the cancellation of Thursdays by Los Alamitos, our current (purse) overpayment, and the concern of fewer available racehorses which lowers our per race average field size, we regrettably had to reduce the weekly schedule earlier than anticipated,” Cal Expo director of racing Dave Elliott said in a statement. “We remain hopeful that our field size average and hence the interest and handle in our program will turn around during these difficult economic times.”
read more: bloodhorse.com
GQHA looks to the Florida Quarter Horse Racing
Legislation introduced into the Georgia House of Representatives Tuesday could lead to the legalization of horse racing and pari-mutuel betting.
A constitutional amendment submitted by Rep. Harry Geisinger would let Georgians vote this fall on whether to allow the horseracing industry into the state, a move the Roswell Republican said would generate thousands of jobs.
“In these difficult times, we must seek out opportunities to create sustainable jobs and raise state and local government revenues,” Geisinger said. “By following the examples of Florida and Louisiana, we can expand.
During a hearing the committee held last fall, the president of the Florida Quarter Horse Racing Association testified that each horse on a racetrack creates seven jobs, from grooms and jockeys to hotel and restaurant workers.
“The racetrack itself is the very tip of the iceberg as far as economic development,” Stephen Fisch told the panel.
While horse racing and pari-mutuel betting is legal in 38 states, previous attempts to bring legalized wagering to Georgia – including a casino at Underground Atlanta – have met with opposition from religious conservatives, including Gov. Sonny Perdue.
“Walk Thru Fire” syndicated for $10 million
Previously owned by a partnership that included trainer Jaime Gomez, Walk Thru Fire has been one of the most talked about stallions in Quarter Horse racing, thanks to a first crop featuring Kindergarten Futurity winner Gold Nugget Rd and Ed Burke Million winner Higher Fire. Prior to the purchase and syndicated for $10 million.
while Walk Thru Fire, who was syndicated for $10 million a couple of years ago, won the Three Bars Award for Outstanding Stallion.
“My good friend Spencer Childers had never bought a share on a stallion in his life,” Allred added. “When he was 95-years-old he paid the money to be in this syndicate. I could have bought Walk Thru Fire, once for a couple of $100,000 dollars. Mike Abraham and I eventually ended up paying $8 million for him, but we are glad that we did.”
The “fast horse gene” is the “myostatin gene”
Science colleagues found that horses with the myostatin gene combination designated as C/C are better suited to fast, short races; those with the C/T variation tend to compete better over middle distances; and T/T animals have more stamina. C/C and C/T were more successful 2-year-old racehorses, earning an average of 5.5 times more prize money than T/T horses, the authors said.
For bettors, the genetic information isn’t likely to yield any advantage anytime soon.
“This information is for owners only,” Hill said. “If anyone wants to reveal the genetic type of their horse, then that’s at their discretion.”
Speed Gene In Horses
Although this is pointed at thoroughbred owners it is only a matter of time Quarter Horse owners are going to be next to have the power of finding the mass-regulating myostatin gene and minimize unpredictability when breeding your Mare.
A speed gene in horses is enabling thoroughbred owners to sort would-be sprinters from plodders from just a teaspoonful of the galloper’s blood.
Scientists at University College Dublin matched the genetic code of 179 race winners with performance on the track to identify variants of the muscle mass-regulating myostatin gene that predict a horse’s optimum racing distance.
The research, published Jan. 20 in the Public Library of Science Journal PLoS ONE, is the first known characterization of a gene contributing to a specific athletic trait in thoroughbreds, the authors said. Commercialization of the test may alter the course of a multibillion-dollar horse industry whose breeding practices have remained little changed for centuries.
“Breeders currently rely on combining successful bloodlines together, hoping that the resulting foal will contain that winning combination of genes,” said Emmeline Hill, 36, a geneticist at the university and the study’s lead author. “Whether those winning genes have or have not been inherited could only be surmised by observing the racing and breeding success of a horse over an extended period of years.”
The research was funded by Science Foundation Ireland, according to the study.
$1,400 Test at http://www.equinome.com
SIRE OF 2009 WORLD CHAMPION FREAKY
SIRE OF 2009 WORLD CHAMPION FREAKY is Quarter Horse Stallion “Tr Dasher ”
FREAKY SI 107, g. Chickasecret by Raise a Secret (9 wins to 4, $646,300California Hi-Point Aged GeldingAQHA Racing Champion Aged GeldingAQHA Racing Champion Aged HorseWorld Champion Racing American QH 1st-Champion of Champions S.,-G1 1st-Vessels Maturity,-G1 1st-Robert L. Boniface Los Alamitos Invitational Championship S.,-G1 1st-Spencer Childers California Breeders’ Championship S.,-G1, etc.)