Page 206 - October 2016

The Wheelers’ mare Kita Wheeler, the dam
of Game Chicken, also produced Champions Kickin Texas and Eye Opening Chick
“In the years Jim and I have been married, and through all the struggles and hard work, it’s just a great blessing and a great achievement in our lives for sure.”
Stakes placed, Imahotchicken has lifetime earnings of $79,562 and she’s still running as of 2016.
Game Chicken has two more foals on the ground by Royal Quick Flash: JS Chickenpox, a 2015 filly; and El Diablo Chicken, a 2015 gelding.
Raising and running their homebreds has been a rewarding experience for the Wheelers.
“We sit around and talk about it, and ask ourselves ‘Can you believe it?’” Shirley said. “We’ve just been so blessed.
“She’s just one of those big, well-put- together mares. She has great conformation,” Shirley continued. “You’ve got to say her breeding is awful good, too. But, I can’t say she passed on her disposition because her disposition is way better than her offspring— her offspring are pretty rank when they first start working with them! But, she gives the colts a lot of her conformation.”
Setting The Bar
Thanks to the success of her three running-age foals to date, Game Chicken raced to the top of the Leading Dams chart, surmounting the $500,000 benchmark in record time with the fewest number of foals. It was Imachickenkicker and Flashthechick’s 1–2 finish in the 2013 Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum Stakes that pushed Game Chicken over the top.
“My husband said that as much as we’ve done, as much as we’ve got ahead of us, he really thought this race would mean more to him than anything, with both of them in there trying to run first and second again,” Shirley said. “It meant an awful lot to us.
“It just seems amazing to us that she’s done
Kickin Texas wins the 2006 GLQHA Paint Futurity at Mount Pleasant Meadows, Michigan
Born in 2003, Game Chicken hit the track as a 2- and 3-year-old. Though she amassed $19,000 and logged a 90 speed index, Game Chicken only had lukewarm success on the track.
“She was a good mare and I really liked her,” Shirley said. “She would make the finals, but she wouldn’t come back and win them that much. As a runner, she didn’t do what her offspring have.”
But bigger things were in store for Game Chicken. Retired to the Wheeler’s broodmare band, the mare produced her first foal in 2009, followed in quick succession by two more in 2010 and 2011. With three top racehorses
out of three tries, Game Chicken soon found herself thrust into the limelight as one of Paint racing’s top producers.
Dam Good
As far as broodmare duty goes, Game Chicken came out of the gate firing.
Her first, Flashthechicks, hit the ground in 2009. Sired by $6 million Sire Royal Quick Flash, Flashthechicks wasted no time lighting up the track. The sorrel solid Paint- bred gelding’s achievements are impressive: two-time World Champion Solid Paint-Bred Running Horse, six Champion titles, and two No. 1 Honor Roll Solid Paint-Bred Gelding awards. With wins in 11 of his 30 starts, Flashthechicks has logged seven stakes wins, including the 2013 Mister Lewie Memorial Handicap-G1, the 2011 American Paint Classic Futurity-RG1, the 2011 Graham Paint & Appaloosa Futurity-G1, and the 2011 Pot O’Gold Futurity-RG1.
In four years of racing, Flashthechicks
has a top speed index of 102 and more than $315,000 in lifetime earnings, ranking him at
Eye Opening Chick wins in 2011 at Will Rogers Downs
No. 2 on APHA’s Lifetime Leading Money- Earners chart behind Got Country Grip.
Imachickenkicker, a 2010 sorrel solid mare by Dos Poruno, is Game Chicken’s second foal, and she too proved successful. A four-time APHA Running Champion, Imachickenkicker has $144,334 in 18 lifetime starts and has a top speed index of 103.
In an interesting twist, the half siblings went head-to-head twice in 2013. In both races—the Paul Harber Memorial Handicap in March and the Cowboy and Western Heritage Handicap in May—Imachickenkicker outran Flashthechicks in tight races, surprising even the Wheelers.
“We were really surprised about her outrunning ‘Flash.’ That was really amazing,” Shirley said. “Some horses don’t mature as early as others, so maybe she was just late maturing. Whatever the case, she’s certainly made it interesting for us this year.”
Game Chicken’s third foal, Imflashinthechicks, made his debut in 2013.
A full brother to Flashthechicks, the 2011 sorrel solid gelding has won half of his 18 starts to date, with four victories and four seconds
in stakes race—including a win in the 2016 Colors of Texas Maturity-G2. The 2013 World Champion Running Solid Paint-Bred has $176,707 lifetime earnings to date; he has two more Champion titles to his credit and a No.
1 APHA Solid Paint-Bred Gelding Honor Roll win, too.
Imahotchicken, Game Chicken’s fourth foal to hit the track thus far, was born in 2013. Sired by Royal Quick Flash, the sorrel solid filly has followed in her big brother’s hoofprints, logging a record of three wins, six seconds and three thirds to date over 17 starts.
204 SPEEDHORSE, October 2016
paint horse bulletin
Kelli Johnston, Coady Photography