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Toast To Dash
The Robicheaux Ranch Team: Bud Leblanc, Logan Gautreaux, Shelby Bernard, Ryan Robicheaux & Glen Miguez
$264,480. Dashin Gage, a son of Oak Tree Special, won last year’s Sale Futurity.
The incentive program includes bonuses
for stallions, which benefits the stallion owners who choose to stand their horses at Robicheaux.
Robicheaux Ranch primarily serves its clients, though the family owns a few mares, often in partnership.
“It’s hard to pass up having a few mares for the breeders’ awards,” said Ryan. “We’ll also foal share with some people from out of state.”
If someone owns a farm in Texas, for example, it would cost more money to board a mare in Louisiana than to take care of her
at home. Foal sharing with Robicheaux allows them to offset those extra costs and breed to a Robicheaux stallion within Louisiana to take advantage of the incentive program.
Robicheaux will race an occasional horse, such as Streakin Patriot, a gelded son of Game Patriot- Streakin Ash, by Streakin La Jolla, who won the 2005 LQHBA Sale Futurity for them. Streakin Patriot eventually earned $346,153, and the Robicheaux’s sold him to a client with the under- standing that they could buy him back after he finished racing. They eventually returned him to the ranch, where he lives in contented retirement.
In partnership with Dan Mars’ Mars Racing, Robicheaux Ranch campaigned Dash To Celebrate, a gelded son of Toast To Dash-Yahoo
Lets Celebrate, by Royal Quick Dash. Dash To Celebrate won the 2007 LQHBA Sale Futurity and earned $252,436. He retired to the ranch for a while and is now a riding horse in Mississippi.
“They were good to us, and we might as well be good to them,” said Ryan of the geldings.
The Robicheaux family not only repays the loy- alty of their racehorses, they appreciate and nurture the farm employees, which number about 15 at the height of the breeding season. Regina said that they try to cook for their employees at least once a week.
“You can only be as good as the help that you have,” said Ryan.
One of the key team members is their vet- erinarian, Dr. Phillip DeVille.
“He’s been with us since Shoestring Stud Farm,” said Ryan. “Then we left to go to L-J Farms, but before we bought the farm back, Daddy went and talked to him, asked him if he would come back.”
A busy breeding farm is a year-round endeavor, but because of their good help, the Robicheaux’s can usually find some vacation time in November and December. That’s when Jude and Ryan often enjoy hunting. It’s a life that the entire family enjoys, including daughter Kayan, who helps out on weekends at the ranch while attending college.
“We’ve been blessed with good horses and good clients,” said Jude, as he prepared to start another successful breeding season.
First Down Illusion
Swingin Jess
Whathaveigottado
SPEEDHORSE, March 8, 2013 39
Amanda Glidden: Speedhorse Don Shugart Don Shugart
Don Shugart
Speedhorse