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Fishers Dash (First Down Dash – Fishers Favorite, Beduino TB) in 1999. First Wrangler (The Signature – First Femme, First Down Dash), a stallion he owned in partnership with Vessels, also traveled to Brazil for several breeding seasons. But while Senor Nelson made sure he had the best stallions available, through importing and also buying into syndicates and shipping semen, what he really valued was a great mare.
“I don’t think he had a certain type of
horse that he liked, as far as conformation was concerned,” Genco said. “The big thing that really drove him was the pedigree and what the horses had done themselves. He liked a very strong female line. He liked to bring in horses with a stronger female line. He really had a lot of respect for the Vessels horses.”
Senor Nelson cultivated a stellar broodmare band of his own. One of his top mares was Dinastia Toll BRZ, a 1998 mare bred by his Rancho das Americas. Racing at Los Alamitos Race Course in Southern California for
trainer Jaime Gomez, Dinastia Toll BRZ won seven of 17 starts, including the Charger Bar Handicap-G1, Las Damas Handicap-G2 (twice), and the Z. Wayne Griffin Director’s Stakes Second Division-G3. Stakes-placed in Grade 1 company, Dinastia Toll Brz banked $191,896 on the track.
As if that wasn’t enough, the mare went on to produce 26 registered foals, 21 of which were starters with 15 winners and 17 Registers of Merit. In addition to Champion FDD Dynasty si 102 ($1,173,001), Dinastia Toll BRZ was
the dam of stakes winners Fishers Destiny si 94 ($49,210) and Chaotic Cartel si 89 ($32,605), and stakes-placed winners Brazilian Dasher si 93 ($97,935), Stormy Cartel si 90 ($47,022) and First Dinastia si 92 ($42,985).
Another of Senor Nelson’s best female lines traced back to Honey Again si 92, a winning Double Again daughter who is the dam of stakes winner Honey Fish si 87 (by Fishers Dash) and stakes-placed Six Honey (by Big Streakin Six). When bred to Timeto Thinkrich, Honey Again produced Summer Time Br, a Grade 1 finalist and three-time winner in Brazil. Senor Nelson bred Summer Time Br to his best stallions and she rewarded him with six winners from seven starters, including Summer Toll si 92, by Tolltac, and Grade 1 winner Summer Streak si 99, by A Streak Of Cash.
Summer Toll amassed an enviable race record on two continents, winning 12 of 12 starts in Brazil and the Brazilian Triple Crown. She set
New Track Records at 440 yards and 550 yards at the Jockey Club of Sorocaba before shipping to the United States, where she was once first and once second in two starts at Los Alamitos.
“He came to the United States quite a bit, to the different sales, and actually ended up buying a piece of property in Clovis, California, right near us,” Genco said of Senor Nelson. “For a while, he kept his horses in the U.S. in Clovis.”
Once again partnering with Vessels, Senor Nelson bred Summer Toll to First Down Dash, with the resulting mare named First Down Toll. A winner of $23,864, she was a finalist in the Governor’s Cup Derby-RG1 before making
a real name for herself as a broodmare. She is the dam of One Quick First Down si 96 (by Quick Action TB), winner of the prestigious Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity-G1.
In 2008, Rancho das Americas underwent a dispersal sale where Senor Nelson sold most of his horses. With his longtime friend and partner, veterinarian Dr. Valdemar De Giuli Jr. and his wife, Denise Florencio, also a veterinarian, Senor Nelson built the International Reproduction Center Rancho das Americas. De Guili and Florencio, along with their son, Tuco De Giuli, continue Senor Nelson’s dream of breeding great Quarter Horses in Brazil.
“My dad was always his vet at the ranch,” Tuco De Giuli said of Senor Nelson. “Later, my dad became his partner until nowadays. Despite the fact we have lost Senor Nelson, we are still working hard, just like the way he would like
us to keep doing. He would say, ‘Don´t worry about the dogs barking, just keep moving the horse-drawn carriage.’”
Tuco grew up thinking of Senor Nelson as a grandfather of sorts. The late Brazilian leaves a large family that includes his wife, Suzette, five children, 10 grandchildren and four great- grandchildren.
“Senor Nelson was such a good family man,” Genco said. “I think since we’ve known him, he built two ranches. Every time he built a new ranch, he made sure every one of his kids had room and a place to be there with him on weekends and holidays. He loved having his family around him.”
One of the grandsons, Fernando Fakri Assis, is a well-known country singer in Brazil who performs under the stage name Sorocaba. In addition to a talent for singing, Sorocaba seems to have inherited his grandfather’s love of horses, as he competes in reining when he’s not performing.
“Fernando, he loves the horses and the horse business. It wouldn’t surprise me if Fernando doesn’t end up as part of Rancho das Americas,” Genco said. “It’s a very nice family. We were very blessed and fortunate to have such very good customers through the whole deal.
“I have never met a more gentle man, and just a great family person. He was always a pleasure to be around,” Genco added. “He
didn’t speak a lot of English – he picked up words here and there – so it wasn’t always easy
to communicate. But when you talked to him, even when he spoke Portuguese, you could tell he really meant what he was saying just by the expression on his face. When something would happen, either bad or good, one of his favorite sayings was “isso é vida.” That’s life. And that was his – he never blamed anybody for anything. I don’t think I ever saw the man mad one time in the whole relationship over 30 years. He’d
just shrug his shoulders and say, ‘That’s life.’ He was a great man, and very well respected by all of the people in Brazil that are involved with the Quarter Horse.”
Senor Nelson was highly thought of by his friends and colleagues in the United States, as well. Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Life is what you make it. Always has been, always will be.” There is no doubt that Senor Nelson made his life good, and in the process, changed the world of Quarter Horse racing.
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