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SPEEDLINES
1963 Champion 2-Year-Old Colt Mr Tinky Bar
1970 Champion 2-Year-Old Colt Rocket Wrangler
1964 Champion 2-Year-Old Gelding Nug Rock
1968 Champion 3-Year-Old Filly and 1970 Champion Aged Mare Top Rockette
1971 Champion 2-Year-Old Filly Osage Rocket
Rocket Bar is the sire of
FIVE Champions
his maternal grandget include two World Champions in Tiny’s Gay and Charger Bar.
The legacy of Rocket Bar lives on through his many fine runners, but his ultimate legacy is the continuation of Three Bars line through his son Rocket Wrangler, the sire of Dash For Cash. Rocket Wrangler was born
in 1968. The story of how Rocket Wrangler came into the world is an interesting story and we will let his trainer Bubba Cascio tell us how it happened.
“I was training some Appaloosas for
a man in Bandera, Texas, named Thayer Hobson,” Bubba stated. “A real nice man.
He had a lot of money. The ole man just kinda liked me. He said, ‘Bubba, you got any good mares?’ I said, ‘No sir, I don’t own any mares.’ He said, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘The ones I want to own, I wouldn’t be able to pay for.’ He continued to say, ‘I tell you what I will do. You go buy any two mares you want. Keep them at your place and raise the colts, and I will put up the stud fees and whatever. It won’t cost you a quarter. I will give you half of everything.’ Well, I can’t lose, so I go and buy Go Galla Go and her mother.”
“I set four track records with Go Galla Go,” Cascio continued. “She was by Go Man Go and out of La Galla Win. Hobson said,
‘Breed those mares to any horse you want.’ Then he said, ‘I don’t care what it costs, but
I don’t want to breed to Three Bars.’ At the time, Three Bars was the big guy. I said, ‘You don’t want me to breed to Three Bars?’ ‘No sir!’ Well, I didn’t ask him why. I said, ‘Okay sir,’ and two days later, I called him and said ‘Mr. Hobson, those mares are headed to be bred.’ ‘Well, good good good! What we going to breed them to?’ I said, ‘Rocket Bar.’ He started laughing and he said, ‘You got as close to him as you could, didn’t you?’ I said, ‘Yes sir, I sure did.’ That’s how he got here.”
Cascio trained Go Galla Go throughout her career in 1963 and 1964. She was stakes placed in 1963, with seconds in the West Texas Futurity and Columbus Futurity. She won three stakes in 1964 in the West Texas Derby, Oklahoma QH Exhibitor’s Association Derby and La Grange Downs Derby. Three of her track records came in 1964 at 350 yards in Enid (Garfield Downs) in :18.080; at La Grange Downs in :18.050; and at Lubbock Downs in :18.070. She made 35 trips to the track in two years with 15 wins, 10 seconds and 6 thirds, earning $28,285.
The produce record for Go Galla Go shows that she had 14 foals/starters, 11 ROM and two stakes winners. Her foals earned
$315,685. Her first stakes winner was Go Galla’s Man by Tonto Bars Hank, who won the 1969 Georgia Championship. Her one stakes placed runner was Go Galla’s Lady by Truxton King TB, who ran third in the 1975 Raton Derby.
Rocket Wrangler, her second stakes winner, never ran for the Cascio/Hobson team as Mr. Hobson passed away. J. R. Adams purchased the horse from Hobson’s widow
at the urging of Bubba, who continued to train the horse with Jerry Nicodemus serving as jockey. They won the Rainbow Futurity and the All American Futurity, placed second in the Goliad Futurity and All American Congress Futurity, and third in the Sunland Park Fall Futurity, with a sixth in the Kansas Futurity. He was named the 1970 Champion Two-Year-Old Colt.
B. F. Phillips Jr. bought half interest in Rocket Wrangler, and they stood the horse at the Phillips Ranch in 1971. Rocket Wrangler returned to the races in 1972 under the ownership of Adams, with a win in the New Mexico State Fair Handicap, a third in the C. L. Maddon’s Bright Eyes Stakes, and a sixth in the HQHRA Inaugural Handicap and the Champion of Champions. He finished his racing career with a third in the
80 SPEEDHORSE April 2020