Page 41 - Speedhorse July 2018

W could easily be the best runner I ever sent to the track,” Warren stated. She won 14 of her 16 starts at the age of two.
Warren confided that he wanted to stay true to his short horse bloodlines, but that he had reluctantly fallen to the pressure to bring in bloodlines that would stretch his runners out to better suit distances like 400 and 440 yards. He bred to Three Bars and then introduced Sugar Bars by Three Bars into his program. Later, he stood World Champion Jet Deck. These are all horses that would stretch his short horses out to compete at longer distances.
When I visited with Warren, we talked about many of his horses including our examples here. When I asked him about
the best mare he ever saw, he related that a Thoroughbred mare named Lena’s Bar was “the best he had ever seen.” This is quite a statement coming from Warren, a dyed in the wool short horse man. As we look back at Lena’s Bar, we will find this to be a very foretelling statement.
Lena’s Bar was bred, owned and raced by AQHA Hall of Fame member Walter Merrick, another short horse man. An example of
his runners is 1952 Champion Mona Leta, winner of the 1951 Oklahoma Futurity at 220 yards. She is by Leo and out of Hot Heels by Midnight Jr. Hot Heels is out of Joan by Joe Hancock, giving us a true short horse pedigree.
Merrick also saw that he needed to introduce Thoroughbred blood to stretch his horses. He leased Three Bars and brought him to Oklahoma to stand in 1952. Many feel this was the point when the Three Bars influence on the Quarter Horse started. One of the mares bred to Three Bars in 1952 was Flit and she produced the AAA runner Leo Bar from that mating.
Merrick was a jack of all trades in Quarter Horse racing. He was an owner and a trainer, racing horses that he bought, bred or that were brought to him. It was in 1951 that Eldon Cluck brought him a Thoroughbred mare to train, and she would become that would be a big influence on Merrick and Quarter Horse racing. Her name was Lena Valenti.
Lena Valenti had been raced quite a bit. Equineline internet records show she had
40 starts from 1948 to 1950, with three wins, five seconds, five thirds and earnings
of $4,572. They report she may have had more starts than this. The Walter Merrick biography WIRE TO WIRE, by Frank Holmes, shows a picture of her winning a race at Arnett, Oklahoma, that was run at the distance of 3/8ths of a mile.
The year Merrick took over her training, Lena Valenti recorded one official unplaced Thoroughbred start. Merrick put her into
Double Dancer was the first foal produced by Lena’s Bar. Double Dancer, by Double Bid, is the sire of 21 racing ROM and five stakes winners.
Quarter Horse races. She made two official starts with one win and one third. She earned $93. She had a start in August of 1951 at Enid for 440 yards, a Quarter Horse race governed by the American Quarter Racing Association. She won the race and got an AA rating, which was the highest rating at the time. This gave her a Register of Merit.
Merrick later bought Lena Valenti and bred her to Three Bars. The foal produced by this mating was Lena’s Bar. Merrick reported to Holmes that Lena’s Bar didn’t start at two. As a Thoroughbred, she was ineligible for Quarter Horse futurities. She got to the races in 1957, running in Quarter Horse races with
no Thoroughbred starts. She equaled the track record at Albuquerque in 1957 for 400 yards in :20.300. Lena’s Bar won her first stakes
race in 1958 in the Buttons And Bows Stakes and then won the C. L. Maddon’s Bright Eyes Handicap in her next start, giving her two stakes wins for the year. She also finished third in the 1958 Shue Fly Stakes. Her third stakes win came in the 1959 Bright Eyes Stakes and she was also second in that year’s Shue Fly Stakes. Lena’s Bar set a track record in 1959 at Sunland Park going 350 yards in :17.900. She was stakes placed in two more races in 1961, with thirds in the Sunland Championship and the Shue Fly Stakes.
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