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SPEEDLINES
Wrangler, made 25 starts with 21 wins and earnings of $507,689. He won the Lubbock Downs Futurity, Sun Country Futurity and the Jet Deck Stakes at two. He won the Los Alamitos Derby, the New Mexico State Fair Handicap and the Champion of Champions at three, and was named the AQHA World Champion, Champion Three Year Old and the Champion Three-Year-Old Colt. He won the Vessels Maturity, Los Alamitos Invitational Championship and a second Champion of Champions in 1977 to be named that year’s AQHA World Champion, Champion Aged Horse and the Champion Aged Stallion.
Dash For Cash sired horses that have earned $39,991,197 and is still #4 on the all-time million dollar sire list. He has 145 stakes winners and 16 Champions, headed by World Champions Dashingly, Dash For Speed, Dashs Dream, First Down Dash and Cash Rate.
Dash For Cash is the Rocket Bar branch of the Three Bars sire line that has made such a major impact on the continuation of this line of horses and on the million dollar sire list. The Dash For Cash list of million dollar siring sons is headed by such horses as Mr Eye Opener, Takin On The Cash, Dashing Val, On A High, Calyx, Some Dasher, Rime, Pritzi Dash, Victory Dash, By Yawl, Gone To The Man and, of course, First Down Dash.
First Down Dash was the 1987 World Champion, Champion Three Year Old
and Champion Three-Year-Old Colt. He won the Hollywood Park Invitational,
Laddie Handicap-G2, Dash For Cash Derby-G1, QHBC Championship-G1, Los Alamitos Derby-G1 and the Champion of Champions-G1 to earn his titles. He started in 15 races with 13 wins and eight stakes wins. Two of those wins came in the Dash For Cash Futurity-G1 and Kindergarten Futurity-G1 in five of his six starts at two. He earned a total of $857,256.
First Down Dash is the sire of horses that, to date, have won $88,854,000 with 258 stakes winners and 36 Champions. His World Champions include Wave Carver, A Ransom, Down With Debt and Dashing Folly.
The contributions of First Down Dash to the Three Bars sire line has been phenomenal. His million-dollar siring sons include Walk Thru Fire, FDD Dynasty, Royal Quick
Dash and Dash Ta Fame, who have all made the list of top 25 leading sires of money earners. Walk Thru Fire is now the all-time leading living sire of money earners with over $38,127,421. The Three Bars sire line is alive and well through Rocket Bar.
THE NICK THAT STARTED IT
When Rocket Bar retired from racing
to stand at stud, his first runners were Thoroughbred foals with 22 starters and 18 winners. He sired two stakes horses, with the first being a Thoroughbred foal recognized by the AQHA as Blue Okie, foaled in 1958. Blue Okie is the only foal by Rocket Bar that was listed by the AQHA that year, and that means he ran against Quarter Horses. His AQHA record shows that he won five of 24 starts with earnings of $4,136. The Equibase Thoroughbred record shows that he made 110 starts with 18 wins, eight seconds and seven thirds, earning $16,781.
The Quarter Horse sire record for Rocket Bar shows that his first AQHA registered foal came in 1959 with Reckon Bar, the winner of two starts in which he earned an “A” rating-equivalent to a 75 speed index today. His record shows he made 11 starts with two wins and one third earning $375. His dam is Nothing Doing by Kamachero and she was out of Speed’s Pride by Speed To Spare.
The AQHA sire record for Rocket Bar shows 10 foals born in 1960 when he sired six Quarter Horses and four Thoroughbreds. Five of his six AQHA starters earned two ROM, including Flyer’s Rocket, who
was a finalist in the 1962 La Mesa Park Thanksgiving Stakes and La Mesa Park Las Ninas Handicap. This horse had five wins from 28 starts and earned his ROM in racing. He was out of River Flyer by Bob Randle, by Flying Bob and out of Miss Bob by Flying Bob.
The sire record for Rocket Bar seemed to be getting off to a slow start at this point, but his 1961 foal crop accelerated his success as
a sire. This crop shows 32 foals, 30 starters and 27 winners/ROM, including five stakes winners and four stakes placed runners with earnings of $256,537.
This prompts us to ask; ‘What made this crop of foals more successful?’ The answer brings us to a nicking pattern that seems to follow Rocket Bar and his sire Three Bars. A nick occurs when a stallion and a mare or set of mares from another bloodline are crossed to produce an outstanding foal or foals. The basis for a nick is the phenomenon of hybrid vigor and the complimentary effect. Hybrid vigor is when a stallion and a mare or set of mares are crossed to produce outstanding foals. Hybrid vigor enhances genetic diversity when the two bloodlines are not closely related. This is what leads to genetic diversity which is important in improving our horses. The complimentary effect is based on what the stallion and the mare(s) bring to the
mix to improve the foal through improved
...we have to stop and think what would have happened if Bubba Cascio hadn’t trained horses for an Appaloosa breeder named Thayer Hobson, the man who didn’t want to breed to Three Bars. Makes us think - Might there not be a Rocket Wrangler to sire Dash For Cash?
Charles “Bubba” Cascio trained Rocket Bar, the sire of Rocket Wrangler; Go Galla Go, the dam of Rocket Wrangler; Rocket Wrangler, the sire of Dash For Cash; Dash For Cash, the sire of AQHA’s All-Time Leading Sire of Money Earners – First Down Dash
82 SPEEDHORSE April 2020