Page 38 - NMHBASummer2019

NMHBA TRUSTEE PROFILE:
By Michael Cusortelli
Annette McCloy
In January, New Mexico Horse Breeders’ Association members elected Annette McCloy of Tatum to serve a two-year term on the association’s board of trustees.
Annette is serving her first-ever term on
the board, but she and her husband, Mark, are familiar names in New Mexico racing circles. Last year, their homebred Mr Jess Perry gelding, MM Fourinthemorning, won one of American Quarter Horse racing’s most prestigious 2-year-old stakes, the 400-yard, $1-million Rainbow Futurity (G1) at Ruidoso Downs. MM Fourinthemorning ended his juvenile campaign with earnings of $579,600 from five starts -- all at Ruidoso Downs -- and he was a finalist in the sport’s richest race, the 440- yard, $3 million All American Futurity (G1).
“He is an exceptional horse,” says Annette of MM Fourinthemorning. “We’re hoping for a good derby season from him.”
The McCloys also campaigned Datona Doll, a New Mexico-bred daughter of Jesse James Jr and the winning Dean Miracle mare Maggies Miracle LX. A $45,000 yearling purchase from breeders Benny and Donna Smith at the 2014
New Mexico-Bred Sale, Datona Doll raced in New Mexico and Oklahoma from 2015-16
and banked $193,941 from eight outs. The filly won five races, including the 2016
New Mexico Cup Derby (RG2) at Zia Park, and she ran second in that season’s
Zia Derby (RG2) at Ruidoso Downs and third in the Heritage Place Derby
(G2) at Remington Park.
“She was lightly raced as a 2-year-
old, but she never failed to light the board in any of her races,” says
Annette of Datona Doll. “We’ve bought all of Maggies Miracle LX’s
babies except for Percyjones, who has been her best runner so far. Mark and I eventually decided that we should be breeding and raising the horses we race,
so we bought the mare Lalia.”
The McCloys purchased Lalia from
R.D. Hubbard, who also bred the winning daughter of the First Down Dash stallion Walk Thru Fire. An ’09 foal, Lalia earned
$112,514 from 17 races in New Mexico and Texas and was a finalist in the 2011 Hobbs America Futurity (G2) at Zia Park and ’12 Hobbs America (G3) and Retama Park (G3) derbies.
One of Lalia’s starters, the First Moonflash gelding Miles Of Flash, raced for David and Sandra Barrett, J & SM Inc., and Ralph Nix Jr. The partnership purchased Miles Of Flash from the McCloys at the 2016 Ruidoso Select Yearling Sale. The gelding proceeded to bank $108,779 from 18 outs and qualify to three graded stakes, including the 2017 Zia (RG1) and New Mexican Spring (RG2) futurities.
The McCloys purchased another mare, Easeful Dinastia, a daughter of Corona Cartel and the Grade 2-winning Tolltac mare Dinastia Toll Brz. Easeful Dinastia eventually produced MM Fourinthemorning.
“From that time on, we’ve been raising and racing our babies,” Annette says.
Annette McCloy graduated from Ira High School in Ira, Texas, in 1972. She studied accounting at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.
“Mark and I were involved in a feedlot and farm operation in Texas before we moved to our ranch in Jal, New Mexico,” Annette says. “We sold that ranch to the oil field and relocated to Springer, New Mexico. Mark and I have 400 acres here in Tatum, where we raise the horses, and a ranch west of Crossroads. My accounting background has been helpful to us in our business.”
The McCloys have three grown daughters
-- Jana, Sahala, and Holly -- all of whom were raised with an agricultural background, and seven grandchildren. Jana and her husband, Jake Mitchell, live with their two children in Tatum, where Jana works as an occupational therapist for the Tatum Municipal Schools; both Jana and Jake are also involved in the family’s ranches in Crossroads and Springer.
Sahala is a registered nurse in Gruver, Texas. She and her husband, Lance Gaillard, have two children and also farm in the Texas panhandle. Holly is a second-grade teacher in Gruver, where she lives with her husband, Buster, and their three children.
Annette McCloy recently visited with our magazine for an interview.
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New Mexico Horse Breeder