Page 140 - Speedhorse March 2019

LOOKING BACK - AN EXCERPT FROM JANUARY 1982 ISSUE
Vernon Pool owned Oh My Oh and bred her to Three Chicks to get 2-time Champion sire Three Oh’s, winner of the 1968 All American Futurity.
“Jerry Fisher was my first trainer. When he went to work for Vessels, I had Dave ‘Cotton” Newby, then went with Blane Schvaneveldt. So Blane got Pfeffernuse last year. She got a 95 speed index first time out, won her first go-round in the All American Futurity trials real easy, was second the sec- ond time around, but didn’t qualify. She had fever that day. Blane didn’t want to run her, but I told him to do it. He fussed, told me it was the first time he’d ever run a sick horse. Sure enough, she just didn’t want to run, and I never should’ve asked her to. Blane still fusses about it. She’s with him now, and we have plans to put her in some big races this year. I get the feeling that we’re going
f o r w a r d o n t h e s i l e n t u n d e r s t a n d i n g t h a t Blane will choose her outs this time. He is an exceptional trainer and person.
A n o t h e r g o o d t h i n g i s t h a t i t ’s J e r r y F i s h e r who breaks most of Blane’s colts. This means a lot to me.”
A f e w o t h e r m a r e s i n t h e P o o l b a n d a r e Lickety Split si 92 by St. Bar out of Shining N o t e , f u l l s i s t e r t o G o l d e n N o t e , 19 61 Champion Two Year Old Filly. Lickety Split h a s a n E a s y Je t y e a r l i n g a n d i s i n f o a l t o R a i s e Yo u r G l a s s f o r a n ’ 8 2 f o a l .
Celebrity Girl, a 1972 foal by Decka
C e n t e r o u t o f I m a D i a l B a i l e y s i 101 t r a c k record holder at Eureka Downs (330-:16.98), i s i n f o a l t o M o o n L a r k f o r a n ’ 8 2 f o a l .
One of the youngest in the band is four- year-old Brace, winner of the 1981 La Primera Del Ano Derby. Brace, by Timeto Thinkrich out of Phoebe’s Moon Bug by Lady Bug’s Moon, will be bred to Easy Jet this year.
After 24 years in the industry Vernon Pool, who is 62 but looks young enough to be his own son, has no intention of stopping now.
“I sold my highway construction busi- ness a long time ago and went full time with horses. I might add that I bought Jesse out along the way. It seemed like the honorable thing to do, since he never did care too much about horses anyway.
“It didn’t take long to learn that to make money in this business you’ve got to breed to popular stallion, it’s what the people want. But if I’m breeding with the idea of keeping the foal, the only rule I have is to breed the mare to the stallion I think is best for her.
“I think syndication is a good thing and own a share in Easy Jet, three in Special Effort and would have one in Dash For Cash, only his syn- dication was closed before I found out about it.
“My only objection to syndication, or any breeding program, is when too many mares are bred to a stallion in one season. We’re overdoing that part of it real bad. When you breed two or three hundred mares to a stal- lion, it just floods the market. It’s ridiculous.
“I’d like to see a rule passed where you couldn’t breed more than 80 to 100 mares to a stallion in a season. We’d have better colts, and it’d be easier to get your price for them. We ought to take a lesson from the Thoroughbred people. The Quarter Horse industry’s only
in its infancy. If we don’t kill ourselves by overbreeding, we can catch up with the Thoroughbred people, and the day’ll come when we’ll see a yearling go for a million.
“Considering the interest rates today, plus the cost of everything else, there’s no such things as a $5,000 colt anymore, I don’t care if they give you the breeding, and you’ve got a $2,000 mare, you can’t raise a colt the right way for $5,000.
o o o t t t h h h r r r o o ou u u g g g h h h a a a s s s a a a l l le e e
buying him when he was still a weanling. My price was $12,500; theirs was $12,000 flat. Nobody would budge, so it was No Sale. Then Bobby French came along, bought a package from me, including Three Oh’s, and later sold the colt to Dr. Strole.
“Chuck Siewart and I were at Ruidoso Downs when Three Oh’s won the 1968 All American. Chuck just shook his head. I told him that five hundred bucks was all that had kept him from the win circle that day.
“But how do you know, really, what will happen? If I had kept Three Oh’s, would he still have won? If Chuck and Bill had bought him, would he still have won? You never know.
“It’s the same way in the breeding part of
it. A man can map out bloodline crosses that seem foolproof, only the nick won’t show. Then something like John Henry comes along, whose sire’s stud fee was only $2,500. The unexpected is simply a factor, in all of it. Horses that aren’t supposed to do it, do it. Some of the horses you KNOW can do it, don’t. The good ones can some from anywhere if the blood’s there, if the nick’s there. That’s the eternal gamble in this business, any way you view it.”
The living room windows of the Pool home overlook the mare pastures, and Vernon’s gaze always wanders in that direction when he speaks about his horses.
“There’s no way you can help but get attached to some of your horses. It’s happened to me a lot of times. My main business is still buying and selling, that won’t change. I guess it’s true that I’d sell anything except my fam- ily. It’s also true that a few mares have been part of the family, some are part of it now, and I imagine some more will come along that I’ll find a reason for not putting a price tag on. Or, if I do, it’ll end up the way it did with
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136 SPEEDHORSE, March 2019
Susan & Vernon Pool