Page 54 - June 2021

SPEEDLINES
Lou became a successful jockey while he stayed close to home. It is reported that the runners he rode would include the legendary Joe Blair (shown).
of people sit in a room and start a secret going around the room, when we get to the final individual the secret is not what was originally told to the first person.
The beginning source for my information comes from an article written by a man named Craig Phillips, which was a pseudonym used by the legendary Quarter Horse historian and western writer Nelson Nye. Nye was also the one-time editor of
the Texas Livestock Journal where the story “A Man And His Horse” appeared in the
April 15, 1949 issue of that magazine. Mr. Nye interviewed Lou Kirk, which allows
us to get the story from the horse’s mouth so to speak.
Nye started with this observation about a philosophy that the Kirk family believed. “The Kirks have
always been short-horsemen and
adhere to the notion that a horseman is born and is not made into one as you’d turn a man into a barber or soda-jerk.” Lou Kirk, the son of Louis “Lude” Kirk, started his horseman’s life as a young boy riding broncs and as a jockey. The young Kirk even toyed with the idea that he wanted to be a jockey on the national level, but his father wouldn’t let him.
Lou became a successful jockey while staying close to home. It is reported that the runners he rode include the legendary Joe Blair, the sire of Joe Reed P-3, the sire of
Joe Reed II and grandsire of Leo. Joe Blair was a traveling racehorse that toured the country and took on all comers. He set a New Track Record for 3 furlongs in :39 in 1916 at Juarez, Mexico. He also is famous for losing his match race with the legendary Pan Zareta at the same track in 1915. Kirk also
delve into the life of Lou Kirk and his horses, we have several sources that interviewed a number of people who were close to Mr. Kirk. This leads to a variety of versions of the story as well, and this is especially true when it comes to the pedigrees we will be discussing. That is not unusual as we all remember things differently. When a group
52 SPEEDHORSE June 2021
“The Kirks have always been short-horsemen and adhere to the notion that a horseman is born and is not made into one as you’d turn a man into a barber or soda-jerk.”
Jack Dempsey (shown) grew into his name as an undefeated racehorse with young Lou Kirk in the saddle.
Speedhorse Archives