Page 28 - June 2016

H H e e z z a a D D a a s s h h a a F F i i r r e e w w i i n n s s t t h h e e $ $ 8 8 0 0 3 3 , , 0 0 1 1 2 2 L L o o s s A A l l a a m m i i t t o o s s Super Derby-G1 by 1-length on 10/31/15
Gelding of the Year and the AQHA Champion Two-Year-Old Gelding. He ended 2015 with a record of 8-6-1-1 and a bankroll of $982,699.
“I thought last year was unbelievable while watching Heza Dasha Fire win, but this year has been amazing watching these two,” Shawn Meneely said, adding, “My mom is a big reason for this success. She works hard in picking the stallions, she does the research, she raises them and takes care of them. She’ll call me for advice from time to time and I tell her, ‘Why are you asking me?’ She knows these horses better than any of us.”
The other big reason for the Meneelys’ success is Dasha Freda, the mare they bought for $40,000 as a yearling at the 2003 Heritage Place Yearling Sale.
“James McArthur picked out Dasha Freda for us when she was a yearling,” Don said. “When I found that he had bought her for us I was like, ‘Sheesh.’ When Kathy saw her she said, ‘Don, we have weanlings that are bigger than her.’ She turned out to be the greatest thing that ever happened to us in racing. She did pretty well on the racetrack and she’s given us these two horses. I just have to thank James McArthur.”
Trained by Donna McArthur, Dasha Freda won four of 16 starts, including the 2005 California Derby Challenge-G3. She finished second in the La Primera Del Ano Derby-G2 and was a finalist in three Grade 1 stakes races, finishing fourth in the AQHA Derby Challenge Championship and fifth in the Ed Burke Memorial Futurity. She retired with earnings of $111,741.
Making her way to the broodmare barn, Dasha Freda’s first two foals were sired by First Down Dash. Her 2008 daughter, Fearless And First, was a multiple graded stakes finalist and winner. The mare raced through 2012, earning $39,055. A full sister, Fast Dashin Freda, was born in 2009. She placed once, banking $3,835.
While Dasha Freda was off to a good start as a broodmare, it would take a few more years before she elevated herself to the status of an
I I m m a a F F e e a a r r l l e e s s s s H H e e r r o o w w i i n n s s t t h h e e $ $ 1 1 , , 9 9 0 0 8 8 , , 1 1 7 7 5 5
Los Alamitos $2 Million Futurity-G1 on 12/13/15
elite dam. In the meantime, her next two foals were starters and winners. Heza Fearless Dasher, a 2010 gelding by Carters Cartel, raced in Mexico, where he won $39,320 and in 2014 became Dasha Freda’s first stakes-placed runner. He went on to win the Velocidad Classic last year. Fearless Fire si 110, a 2011 mare by Walk Thru Fire, won two races and $22,774. Her
full brother Heza Dasha Fire was born the next year and took Dasha Freda straight to the top of Quarter Horse racing’s broodmare ranks, though it almost wasn’t under the Meneelys’ colors.
“We always sold the males and kept the fillies,” Kathy said. “We didn’t have a filly to
sell in 2013, but we had Dash (Heza Dasha Fire). Our trainer, Jose Flores, loved Heza Dasha Fire and Shawn enjoys racing our horses, so we decided to keep him and run him.”
If not for the success that Heza Dasha Fire enjoyed in 2014, the Meneelys may not have kept Ima Fearless Hero the following season.
“Dash made it possible,” Kathy related. “We are a shoestring outfit, so when Heza Dasha Fire did so well, we did not have to sell Hero. We had him in the catalog at the Ruidoso Sale, but if someone wanted to buy him they were going to have to pay the price. No one did, so we brought him home to race. Heza Dasha Fire allowed us to repurchase Hero. We used the money he earned to continue making payments and the other costs involved.”
The fact that Dasha Freda has consistently produced starters and winners, and is now producing Champions, shouldn’t come as
any surprise to those who have followed this maternal family through the years. She hails from one of the industry’s great female families, developed by the Gentry Brothers.
Dasha Freda’s dam is Fearless Freda,
a multiple Grade 1 winner and earner of $262,121. She was as successful in the breeding shed as she was on the racetrack, producing nine winners from 11 starters. Two of Fearless Freda’s foals – Fredericksburg ($393,304)
and Fredaville ($325,321), were Champions. Fearless Freda passed away in January 2014 at
H H e e z z a a F Fe e a a r r l l e e s s s s D D a a s s h h e e r r w w a a s s t t h h e e w w i i n n n n e e r r o o f f t t h h e e 2 2 0 01 15 5 Velocidad Classic at the Hipdromo de las Americas
the age of 21, but not before she was named a Dam of Distinction by the AQHA. To qualify for the award, a mare must meet one or more of the following criteria: Dams that produced two or more individual AQHA racing champions; Dams that produced at least three individual Grade 1 stakes winners; Dams that produced
at least two foals ranked in the top 10 money earners of any particular year, as of December 31 of that year, and two G1 stakes winners; and dams that produced at least three foals that were in the top 10 money earners of any particular year, as of December 31 of that year.
Fearless Freda is out of Such An Easy Effort si 111 (Special Effort – Easy Kiss, by Easy Jet), who won 14 of 33 starts in the late 1980s. Six of those were stakes wins, including the Grade 1 Denim N Diamonds Futurity, Grade 1 La Primera Del Ano Derby, and Grade 1 Quarter Horse Breeders’ Classic Distaff Classic. She won $496,127 in her career and set a New Track Record at Hollywood Park of :21.580 for 440 yards.
Such An Easy Effort passed on her speed to her offspring, producing 17 starters from 18 registered foals. Fourteen of her starters were winners, two were stakes winners, and three were stakes-placed runners. In addition to Fearless Freda, Such An Easy Effort is the dam of two-time AQHA Champion Deelish si 102 ($604,153), Such Easy Cash si 105 ($57,435), and others. Her dam was the 100 percent Register of Merit producer Easy Kiss si 97 ($101,022).
Those who have enjoyed the exploits of Heza Dasha Fire and Ima Fearless Hero over the past two years might be disappointed to learn Dasha Freda will not have a two year old on the track in 2016. According to the Meneelys, she lost the 2014 Tres Seis foal she was carrying in mid-pregnancy. She did produce a Tres Seis colt the next year, however. Not A Tres Of Fear will turn two in 2017, and it’s a safe bet that the eyes of the industry will be following his progress to see if lightning can strike a third time for Dasha Freda.
26 SPEEDHORSE, June 2016