Page 138 - Speedhorse March 2019

bred her to Alamitos Bar and got Kaweah Bar, the goingest gelding that ever has been.
“One by one, Go Man Go’s foals made their point in ’60. I don’ think there’s a one that didn’t end up AAA. Go Man Go never had to beg for a number again, never again, and neither did his foals. I was up in Frank Vessels’ old office at Los Alamitos not long ago, and some
of the win pictures of Go Man Go’s first crop were still hanging on the wall. Some people were admiring the pictures, and I couldn’t help saying I had owned them when they were racing. It was one of the proudest moments of my life.”
Throughout the years that Vernon owned the JV Ranch in Purcell, 1959 through 1961, he was at the peak of his professional career
in road and dam building, lived in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and most of his participation in JV Ranch operations was on a commuter basis. When an opportunity to purchase a consider- able number of acres in Shawnee came along, Vernon decided to sell out in Purcell and begin a new operation in Shawnee.
“When A.B. found out, he told me he wanted his farm back, and I sold it to him. I had made plans to have a sale and sell most of the horses, but had second thoughts and took some individuals out of the lineup. I don’t know why I went ahead and sold Miss Meyers, but I did. A.B. bought her. Don’t know why I sold Mr. Meyers, but I did. Bob Moore picked him up.”
During the first years in Shawnee, Vernon stood such stallions as Ridge Butler, Uproar TB, Bar Tonto, Old Pueblo - a AAA home-bred, Pool Bar (Three Bars TB-Miss Olene), and Mr. Bruce, AAA (Three Bars TB-Barbara L). But
Vernon eventually knew that stallion manage- ment was not his main interest. What he enjoyed most was taking care of his mares and buying and selling good horses. He sold the stallions and has continued forward with his broodmares ever since. One can safely say that Vernon Pool had some notable distaffers with which to begin.
Tom’s Lady Gray, AA, foaled in 1941, by Joe Reed II out of Lady Reed, was already a leading producer when A.B. Green included her in the equine package he sold to Vernon in 1959. The mare subsequently earned recog- nition as an all-time leading producer. Her foals bred under Pool ownership: Chaundell, AAAT, stakes winner, multiple producer, and her full sister by Mr. Bruce, Miss Chaundell, AAA, multiple producer; Gray Butler, AA, by Ridge Butler, and Tomboy Jane, AAA, multiple producer, by Top Deck TB. Vernon’s voice always changes when he mentions the name of this grand old mare. Tom’s Lady Gray is buried “right here at home.”
Miss Olene, foaled in 1957 by Leo out of Barbara L, was AAAT and a stakes winner
in her racing days. Before Vernon sold this illustrious multiple stakes producer to Bobby French in 1967, he bred her to Three Bars twice and got Little Bar Olene, AAAT, AQHA Champion, and Pool Bar, AAA. Vernon then bred her to Ridge Butler and Bar Tonto and got, respectively, Topolene, AA, and Prissy Olene, AAA.
Oh My Oh, AAAT, multiple producer by Spotted Bull TB out of Miss Meyers, foaled in 1957, taught Vernon a lot about second thoughts in the world of selling.
“I sold her once to Bobby French and bought her back, then sold her to Joe McDermott and bought her back. It’s foregone you’re going to have good times and bad times in this business. One of the worst times for me was when I lost Oh My Oh a few years back. She broke her leg when she was playing on fro- zen ground. She’s buried here with Tom’s Lady Gray and the rest.”
Oh My Oh produced the 1968 All American Futurity winner, Three Oh’s by Three Chicks; Texas Longhorn si 91, by St. Bar; and a pair of AAA sisters and multiple producers by Mr. Bruce – Callmecutie and Oh Kathy Oh.
Two of Callmecuties’s foals are Callmemyoh si 104, a leading money earner by Go Man Go bred by Vernon, who later sold her to Dr. D.G. Strole; and Justanold Love, winner of the 1981 Juvenile at Los Alamitos. Justanold Love, by Dash For Cash, was bred by B.F. Phillips after his purchase of Callmecutie.
Callmecutie’s blood remains in the Pool band through her daughter Ohmycutie si 87 by Old Pueblo. Ohmycutie has a Master Hand yearling filly and is in foal to Easy Jet for an ’82 foal.
Callmecutie’s sister, Oh Kathy Oh, “outran Go Josie Go first time out in 1964, and ran third in the Rainbow Futurity, even though she was having ankle problems. We blistered her. They had a new technique then, where you blister them and wrap them. Well, they just ruined her, all the hide came off her ankles. I never raced her again. She still doesn’t have any hair on her ankles today.”
Vernon Pool owned the blue hen mare Miss Olene, who was bred and raced by A.B. Green. Miss Olene produced 2-time Champion Little Blue Sheep, and was inducted into the AQHA Hall of Fame in 2013.
134 SPEEDHORSE, March 2019
LOOKING BACK - AN EXCERPT FROM JANUARY 1982 ISSUE