Page 39 - January 2019

Flying Bob and W.R. “Bob” Randle.
Maritime Provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. The Acadians, originally from France, came to South Louisiana after several wars between England and France forced their expulsion from Canada, sending some back to France and some to south Louisiana.
F. S. LeBlanc in his book Cajun-Bred Running Horses tells us that the Acadians who came to south Louisiana weren’t necessarily horsemen, but that it didn’t take them long to join in as horsemen who loved to race. Along the way, the Acadians developed a new dialect that became the Cajuns with a language of their own. This Cajun love of racing gave us the Cajun-Bred Running Horse.
As you travel through the history of south Louisiana, it seems that there was a racetrack on just about every corner. That is an over statement, but it gives you an idea of the scope and popularity of horse racing in south Louisiana. It was common for a family to have a racehorse, and often that racehorse was a mare. Noah Zeringue of Erath, Louisiana, was a sugarcane farmer and he owned a mare named Belle.
Richard Chamberlain in his “Quarter Paths” column in the May 2006 issue of
The American Quarter Horse Racing Journal provides us with some interesting insight into Zeringue’s mare Belle, whom he called Belle Z. When Belle was born, she had “a foxtrot gait.” So, when she showed up at the races, she wasn’t taken very seriously as a racehorse. But Belle was serious and Chamberlain reports that she was virtually unbeatable.
He reported two race records for Belle. One record shows that she had 22 starts with three dead heats and just two losses. Her other record shows that she won 24 matches with two dead heats and one loss.
But like many great race mares, there came a time to find her a mate to give Zeringue his next racehorse. This is where Chicaro TB comes into the picture. Like the race record for Belle, we have several versions as to how Chicaro came to cover her to produce Flying Bob.
Bob Gray in his book Great Horses of the Past has a chapter on Flying Bob, and this version appears to be the most accurate. Gray
reports that Noah Zeringue had gone to the Fairgrounds in New Orleans and he saw Chicaro run. The race was a losing effort for the horse, but according to the story, he was just recovering from throat surgery. Noah was still impressed by what he saw.
Chicaro was owned by Bob Carter, who stood the horse in Nunez, Louisiana, just west of Erath. One report shows that it was Noah who suggested that Chicaro start his stud career, opening him up to sire Cajun- Bred runners. Noah took Belle to be bred
in 1927, but the mating didn’t take and she returned in 1928, conceived, and foaled Flying Bob in June of 1929. When the colt was born, he was christened Bob in honor of Bob Carter.
This is where it gets interesting, as Bob was then registered as a Thoroughbred named Royal Bob. His dam in this pedigree was a Thoroughbred named Erath Queen. The breeder of Erath Queen is S. U. Leblanc of Erath. This was very common
in most all racing circles where Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds coexisted. They
SPEEDHORSE, January 2019 35
SPEEDLINES
courtesy AQHA Hall of Fame