Page 107 - Speedhorse March 2018

Bill Doolin broke his maiden at Fair Meadows in 1947 and then won four straight in Arizona. Mason said the colt represented well what a Star-Beggar cross could do. By Chicaro, Bill Doolin is out of Little Peach (by Beggar Boy TB). Little Peach is out of Peaches 1 (by Oklahoma Star).
Deck - established strains and families through which the thundering runs of Old Cold Deck would forever echo.
Old Cold Deck became Coke Blake’s ideal, and Blake began his famous family of horses (his desire was to breed all-round horses that could do anything) with the help of Cold Deck’s son Berry’s Cold Deck, and representatives
from three other strains – Brimmer, Bertrand and White Lightning. These White Lightning actually descended from Brimmer and Bertrand strains. They were primarily gray horses, 15 handers, weighing about 1300 pounds, hard to beat for 300 yards.
On record is the story of a shootout between Jack Alsup, one of the three brothers who created the White Lightning strain in Tennessee. Seems the Alsup brothers finally sold their horses and left Tennessee. Then Jack reappeared with the objective of acquiring a White Lightning, probably on his own terms. Anyway, the sheriff was shot, and Jack headed out with White Lightning. A posse was subsequently formed to round up the Alsup brothers. Shelp and Lock were killed, but Jack survived and still had the White Lightning. Somewhere on the edge of it all, Coke Blake acquired four White Lightnings in Oklahoma.
Time consumes everything, even the greats. By 1903, Berry’s Cold Deck was aging but still breeding strong. During that same year his special son, Tubal Cain, was foaled by Lucy Maxwell, a White Lightning by Alsup’s Red Buck. The story comes down that Coke Blake chose Tubal Cain to replace his sire as chief stud when he heard the stallion make a sound like low thunder when he shook himself.
A significant number of horses counted in Cross J foundation stock were linked to Cold Deck and Blake horses through John Dawson’s stallion Old Red Buck by Red Man by Tubal Cain, and out of Pet Dawson out of Babe Dawson – this mother/daughter team linked to Cold Deck through Babe’s sire Little Earl.
Such was the foundation blood that awaited the mahogany bay, Oklahoma Star, when Ron Mason bought him out of a calf lot in 1932. Star, sixteen or seventeen at the time, had logged more than a dozen years on brush tracks. He had sons and daughters everywhere. But most
of those would not make it into the AQHA of the future. Most remained unknown, except to those who owned them.
Something wonderful seems to happen when a good man and a good horse get together. The partnership of Oklahoma Star and Ron Mason was no exception. The man gave the stallion the best mares he could provide, and the stallion took it from there. In just a few short years, the black horse moved in, and no one will deny that Beggar Boy knew what to do with Oklahoma Star mares.
Bred by Mason, Black Beggar (Beggar Boy TB, Baldy Girl, Oklahoma Star), after winning in 1941.
Part 2 will appear in our April issue.
SPEEDHORSE, March 2018 105
LOOKING BACK - AN EXCERPT FROM MAY 1981 ISSUE
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