Page 12 - March 2017

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by Jennifer K. Hancock
Racing Legs
The year is marching right along and social media feeds contain the first glimpses of possible future Champions from the new foal crop. The 2 year olds are finding their racing legs in schooling events and some have even marked their names in the history books with the first stakes for freshmen runners taking place at Harrah’s Louisiana Downs in the Mardi Gras Futurity-RG2 on March 18.
When Louisiana Downs wraps up on March 22, many Louisiana runners will go from Bossier City south to Vinton for Delta Downs’ 2017 American Quarter Horse season, which will run April 21 through July 8. The richest program of the Delta’s 2017 season will take place on closing night when the track hosts Louisiana Showcase Night. The special live card will feature
eight stakes races for Louisiana-bred runners and the highlight will be the richest event of the year, the $700,000-estimated Lee Berwick Futurity-RG1. The track’s complete stakes schedule and information about the season can be found at www.deltadownsracing.com.
LQHBa HaLL of fame
Delta Downs’ founder Lee Berwick is part of the 2017 Louisiana Quarter Horse Breeders Association Hall of Fame class. Joining Berwick is W.A. Darling and horses Go Vicki Meyers, Streakin La Jolla and Heisajoy. The induction ceremony will coincide with the LQHBA Awards Ceremony on April 8 at the Evangeline Downs Events Center in Opelousas, Louisiana. The 2017 inductees were selected based on their contributions to and impact on the Louisiana Quarter Horse industry.
Berwick grew up as a sharecropper’s son and began in the cattle business. He bought 23 Quarter Horses in a 24-month span in the early 1950s. His enthusiasm for racing led to the development of Delta Downs racetrack, which opened in Sept. 1973 with Berwick serving as the president and a major stock holder for several years.
Berwick became an AQHA Director in 1960 and initiated the AQHA Supreme Champion award. He was elected as president of AQHA in 1969 and helped create the American Junior Quarter Horse Association. Berwick was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 1994. He died in 2001 at the age of 79 and is survived by his wife, Betty.
Born in 1927, William Albert Darling was a native of Pleasanton, Texas. In 1953, after completing his U.S. military service, he moved to Opelousas, Louisiana.
After retiring from the oil business, Darling became involved full-time in his true passion of breeding and raising racehorses. An active LQHBA board member, Darling served as president in 1984 and 1990. As a breeder, Darling had 333 foals make it to the track,
including 197 winners, and had earnings that totaled $5,412,072. He bred 21 stakes winners, which included leading money earner Dashing Obsession, the 2002 Mardi Gras Derby winner. Dashing Obsession, who won 10 of her 23 starts with seven stakes wins, produced 10 foals led by 2013 Lassie Futurity winner Dashing
Jet Rio. Darling’s top stallion was Hemp Meyers, who sired 273 performing foals that earned $2,949,349. Darling received a 30-year Cumulative Breeder Award from AQHA and was recognized as the East High Point Breeder in 2000. At the conclusion of the 2016 racing season, Darling ranked 30th on the annual AQHA list of all-time leading Quarter Horse breeders.
Darling died at the age of 90 in 2011. He was married to Carolyn Christine Darling and had three children, Bruce Kelley Darling, Susan Darling Urban, and Karen Darling Falgoust. Susan now owns the 5.26-acre property where her father got his start in the racing and breeding business. Karen is carrying on his legacy as the owner of Darling Farms, LLC.
Streakin La Jolla’s legacy in the Quarter Horse industry began on the track and continued as a stallion. Bred by the Frisco, Texas-based partnership of B. F. Phillips Jr. and Delbert Smith, Streakin La Jolla was by Streakin Six and was foaled in 1985 out of Bottom’s Up by Raise Your Glass TB. Trained by Charles and Mike Lyles, he was undefeated in eight career races, wrapping his career on the racetrack with a victory in the consolation for the All American Derby-G1. He retired with a perfect record of eight wins from eight starts and earnings of $56,227.
Streakin La Jolla entered stud in Louisiana in 1989, first under the management of Drs. Rick and Brad Boutte at their Pleasure Time Farm. He then spent several more years under the care of Jude Robicheaux, first at Robicheaux’s Shoestring Stud Farm, and then at L-J Farms in Alexandria, Louisiana.
As he was gaining in national prominence, he
was purchased in the summer of 1999 by Robert and Karen Nunnally of Georgia. The Nunnallys made the decision to move Streakin La Jolla to Granada Farms at Wheelock, Texas, for the 2000 breeding season. Under the care of Jimmy Eller and the staff of Granada Farms, he bred several books of more than 200 mares each.
The racing industry’s 11th-all-time-leading stallion has sired the earners of more than $25 million, including Champion and leading sire Mr Jess Perry and World Champion Streakin Sin Tacha, in addition to 81 other stakes winners. Streakin La Jolla’s daughters have produced the earners of more than $21.2 million, making him the ninth-all-time-leading sire of broodmares.
Streakin La Jolla was retired from stud duty shortly before his death on June 18, 2009. He was
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A MONTH IN REVIEW
10 SPEEDHORSE, March 2017
Track chaTTer