Page 81 - March 2017

. . . although racing and the horses are enjoyable, the true treasures of horse racing are the people you meet along the way.
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be around. She’d give it her all when she ran, but she could be kind of ornery in the paddock— hard to saddle and kind of had an attitude that it was her way or no way. I think her disagreeable attitude is what made her run like she did; she was a tryer!”
Laura Erickson has a soft place in her heart for Bac By Design as well. “She was my favorite yearling out of that crop we took to Heri-
tage Place, and Lonnie bought her,” she says. “When he bought her, he was already a client and our friendship really started to develop then. She did well racing, and then when I moved to Oklahoma and started Royal Vista Ranches here, he sent Bac By Design down to breed and foal. It was so nice to get her back in my life again. She was a longtime favorite, and when you foal them and sale prep them, then watch them have success and then they come back to you as a broodmare, it’s really special.
“Lonnie ended up breeding her to Wave Carver his first year at stud and got Wave Bac,
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2 year old. I can remember when my father went to watch her in a maiden race,” Lonnie says. “She ran last and he said, ‘I think I could’ve run along behind her and kicked her in the rear every jump!’ So he was pretty disappointed, but then by the time we got her back out to Holly, Colorado, she improved quite a bit and ended up winning the Gateway Downs Futurity and the Raton Futurity. Jack Woods trained her, and she ended up raising Ima Stella, who produced Master Kane for us.”
THE ’90S: UPS AND DOWNS
Ima Liz’s 1982 filly, Miss Denali, produced Tanisha and Prowl, both by Bully Bullion. Tanisha, foaled in 1991, held the track record
at Arapahoe at one time and was a good short- distance runner, winning the Northeast Kansas Quarter Horse Association Derby-G3 in 1993; the Foothills Derby in 1994; the Estes Park, Jet Deck and Evergreen Handicaps in 1995; and the Dash For Speed Handicap in 1996.
Prowl, a 1997 gelding who has retired to John Hammes’ pasture, holds a Top 100 Equibase ranking by wins in 2000. Ridden by Russell Vic- chrilli, he won the Rocky Mountain Futurity-G3 and the Mile High Futurity-G2, then came back in his sophomore year to win the Rocky Mountain Derby. “I’ve never seen a horse that could break
as far back as he did and run by horses at the end,” Lonnie says. “I remember the first time we ran him at Denver, he broke last and was on the
Cheryl and I turned our backs and were starting back to the grandstand, but we could hear people starting to holler and when I turned around to look, he was running through the pack and ended up running second. He always seemed to want to break last and then try to run and catch them.”
Sadly, Lonnie’s dad passed away in 1993. The year before, he’d gone to the Heritage Place Sale and bought The Runaway (Runaway Winner– Emies Jet, Easy Jet). “When he got to be 2, after my father had passed away, John Hammes took him to Arapahoe and he ended up winning the Mile High Futurity (Grade 3). Debbie Freeman rode him.
“The year after that, I went down to the Heritage Sale and bought a mare named Krishna’s Winner, another Runaway Winner that kind of reminded me of The Runaway. She ended up winning that Gateway Downs Futu- rity at Holly, Colorado, and then ran second in the Mile High Futurity at Arapahoe. Debbie Freeman rode her, too.”
A SOFT PLACE IN THEIR HEARTS
“The next good runner we had,” Lonnie says, “we were neighbors with Barbara Hintz and
her father was Charlie Socolofsky, who raised Raise A Secret. Barbara had a little filly she ran through the sale, Bac By Design, a Splash Bac mare out of Bright Design [by Special Effort], and we won the first running of the Cherry Creek Futurity with her in 2001 with Alex Valdez riding.
“I have a soft place for her,” says Lonnie. “She was the last one we had as far as stakes winnings, and she was kind of a funny horse to
SPEEDHORSE March, 2017 79
Prowl is shown here with the Terwilligers in the winner’s circle after his victory in the 1999 Rocky Mountain Futurity-G3. The gelding also won the Mile High Futurity-G2 and Rocky Mountain Derby-G3.
Miss Denali (shown winning at La Mesa Park in 1984) was bred by Lonnie and his father Dwight. The mare produced New Track Record setter Tanisha and multiple stakes winner Prowl.