Page 40 - January 2019

gave the Quarter Horse a Thoroughbred pedigree, which allowed them to race
on the recognized racetracks. The great Quarter Horse Peter McCue was registered as a Thoroughbred by Duke Of Highlands. Joe Reed P-3 was an AQHA Stud Book foundation Quarter Horse sired by Joe Blair TB. His dam is Cajun-Bred runner Della Moore, but he was registered as Joe Reed,
a Thoroughbred sired by Joe Blair and out of a Thoroughbred Appendix mare named Myrtle Reed. Her pedigree is unknown, but her being an Appendix registered mare shows that she was probably not a pure Thoroughbred mare. They did this to make it possible for horses like Joe Reed and Peter McCue to have access to regular Thoroughbred races.
We don’t know when Bob got his Thoroughbred papers, but he started his race career at the age of about 18 months and
his success gave him the name Flying Bob. According to F. S. LeBlanc in Cajun-Bred Running Horse, Bob was matched with as what was termed a “mature” horse for $200. The “mature” horse jumped the rail and didn’t finish. Noah took $100 of the purse and they set up a rematch for the other $100, which Bob won.
The Flying Bob name came into play in the next match LeBlanc described. The race was a match with a horse owned by Jack Herbert at Herbert’s track. Bob won again, and Herbert was so impressed that he told Noah, “Your colt had to be flying, old sport,” and Bob became Flying Bob.
LeBlanc reported that Flying Bob continued racing for 13 years. His last race was at the age of 15 against a Thoroughbred named Bow Way at a distance of 10.5 arpents, a French measure of length in which one arpent is equal to 63.94500 yards, or just under 64 yards. A four arpent race would be 256 yards and an eight arpent race would be 512 yards. The 10.5 arpent race was equal to approximately 671 yards. Flying Bob won the race pulling away.
THE PEDIGREE
The pedigree of Flying Bob is a mixture
of the Thoroughbred racing elite and Cajun- Bred racing elite. We will start with his Thoroughbred sire Chicaro, who was bred in Kentucky by Harry Payne Whitney. The Whitney breeding program was started by William Collins Whitney and carried on by his son Harry Payne Whitney and his son C. V. Whitney, with each Whitney contributing to the Thoroughbred. The pedigree of Chicaro is filled with Whitney owned and bred stallions that were key to their success as breeders.
Chicle, the sire of Chicaro, was a Whitney bred stallion that was foaled in France and then raced and stood in the United States. Chicle is by Spearmint and out of Lady Hamburg II by Hamburg. Hamburg was a foundation sire for
the Whitney breeding program. He is
by Hanover and out of Lady Reel by Fellowcraft. The dam of Lady Reel is Mannie Gray, the dam of Domino, a prominent source of speed in our pedigrees.
Wendy, the dam of Chicaro, was an unraced mare. Her sire is Peter Pan, a stallion that was a key contributor to the Whitney breeding program. Peter Pan is the sire of Pennant, who sired Equipoise, the sire of Equestrian, the sire of Top Deck. Peter Pan is by Commando by Domino, by Himyar and out of Mannie Gray, the dam of Lady Reel. This makes Chicaro line-bred to a superior female in Mannie Gray with a 5x5 breeding pattern to this great mare.
Chicaro made 17 official starts with
one win, two seconds and three third place finishes. He was third in the 1925 Colorado Stakes at Jamaica Race Course in Queens, New York City. Equibase shows that he was also third in the Pimlico Fall Series Weight For Age No. 3 that same year.
When Belle became the dam of Flying Bob, she became better known as Zeringue’s Belle. The pedigree of this great mare has had a lot of controversy, with several versions coming down through the years. One of
the reasons for this controversy is that
Flying Bob was never a registered Quarter Horse and when his foals were registered, those doing the registrations were not knowledgeable about his pedigree. It was a word of mouth kind of time, where people told pedigrees by memory or what they were told in a given conversation.
Gray and LeBlanc reported that Zeringue’s Belle was sired by the Thoroughbred Dewey and out of Walla. Dewey is by Sain, who was bred in Great Britain and is by St Serf by St Simon. The dam of Dewey is Sister To
Uncle Bob by Luke Blackburn. The dam of Sister To Uncle Bob is Vintage Time by Great Tom. Vandal is the sire of Highland Vintage, the dam of Sister To Uncle Bob. The pedigree of this mare shows that she was bred by the Belle Meade Stud in Nashville, Tennessee. This great breeding establishment was the home of many great stallions, including Great Tom, Vandal, Bonnie Scotland, Inquirer, Bramble and Iroquois. When you study Quarter Horse pedigrees, these stallions will appear in many of them.
LeBlanc shows that Walla was sired by War Eagle TB. He doesn’t give a pedigree for
War Eagle. He shows that Walla was out of a mare named Rosa. Her pedigree is unknown. This is the most widely accepted version of the pedigree for Flying Bob.
The late Lloyd Gary, a native of South Louisiana whose family roots go to New Iberia, Louisiana, did some in depth research on the Cajun-Bred runners. Gary traveled the area, talking to many of the people and their families who were involved with these horses. He interviewed such noted horsemen as Gabriel “Gobb” Strauss, the jockey for Della Moore and the trainer of Go Man Go.
Gary did his own research into the pedigree of Flying Bob, and he reported
that Zeringue’s Belle was bred by Fredrick Odellon Abshire. She was foaled in 1911. He believed she is by a son of Dewey named War Eagle. He called him War Eagle II because he didn’t want this War Eagle to confused with War Eagle by Man O’War. The dam of War Eagle II is Walla and his version shows that she is by yet another War Eagle that he noted was probably a Cajun-Bred runner. The dam of Walla is a Melancon mare whose pedigree is unknown.
According to Gary’s research, the dam
of Zeringue’s Belle is Rosa, a mare bred
by Fredrick Odellon Abshire. She is by McHenry TB. Gary listed McHenry as a Thoroughbred and could be the McHenry that is by Enquirer and out of Ontario by Bonnie Scotland, both stallions are from
the Belle Meade Stud. The dam of Rosa was Cleanette by George by Grant and she was out of a mare by Grant, the stallion that Gary called the foundation sire of the Cajun- Bred runner Flying Dutchman.
The Gary family has ties to Flying Dutchman, who is by Gray Eagle and out of Blinkey by Muckle John. This horse was owned for many years by the C. T. Cade family. Lloyd Gary’s great grandfather worked for the Cade Family in the New Iberia area. His great grandfather Joseph D. Gary was the breeder of Grant.
SIRE RECORD
We hear so much today about successful race horses retiring to stand at stud, eliminating our opportunity to see them race beyond three or four years of age. That was not the case with Flying Bob. Noah Zeringue not only raced Flying Bob, but he was a money earner for the family as a breeding stallion. Noah traveled the area offering his horse as a sire for their next racehorse - the old fashion way to ship semen.
The sire record for Flying Bob has an official side and an unofficial side. He sired many foals that never got registered.
36 SPEEDHORSE, January 2019
SPEEDLINES