Page 55 - June 2021

SPEEDLINES
rode horses like Baby Luck, Maggie McGee, Juanita and Jack Dempsey.
One race that has stayed with Lou was when he rode against Milo Burlingame, who is mostly remembered for being a one-time owner of the great foundation sire Peter McCue. Burlingame had also reportedly ridden Peter McCue, although he does not appear riding the horse in any official races. But Peter McCue had many unofficial races, so he could have been his jockey at different times. Lou rode a horse named Little Dick, who was bred by his dad and owned by a Navajo Indian named Baldasar. The match race was for $1,000 a side. Little Dick and Lou got the lead from the start and went on to win the race. He didn’t recall the name of the mare Burlingame was riding.
It looks like Lou started his breeding program before he started his riding career. When he was seven years old, his father (Louis) gave him a mare, and he named her Headlight, who was sired by Daylight, a stallion that the senior Kirk bought and used as a sire. Daylight was reported in this material as sired by Medier, who traces to
a horse named Silver Dick. The dam of Daylight was Little Annie, and she has no reported pedigree. The dam of Headlight was Pet, or Little Pet as she became known, and she was one of the first mares the senior Kirk started his breeding program with in the early 1900’s. They indicate that Little Pet was sired by Traveler and out of a Peter McCue mare.
The senior Kirk added two stallions to his breeding program, first with Tex and then Jack Dempsey. One version of the pedigree of Tex shows that he was sired by Daylight, the stallion Kirk bought earlier. Another source says that his sire may have been Columbus, a horse whose blood was used in the Kirk breeding program. Columbus was sired by Silver Dick, a son of Billy Caviness. Columbus was out of Fannie Anderson by Billy Caviness. Billy Caviness was an Old Billy horse. His sire was Brown Dick by Martin’s Cold Deck by Old Billy. Tex was used on the Kirk mares like Little Pet.
Jack Dempsey was purchased as a young colt from the Cooper Ranch. Louis Kirk’s wife told the following story about her first impression of the young colt in the article “Hoss Woman” by Amelia Downing in the 1955 issue of The Quarter Horse Journal. “When they unloaded the lumbering colt from the boxcar, my heart was at a standstill. Surely with his experience through the years as a breeder he could have yielded more for the seven hundred-fifty dollars he had paid
Some pedigree pundits believe that Erskine Dale is the sire of the 3-time AQHA Racing World Champion Shue Fly (shown).
to cart this one home.” She then added, “I underestimated his judgment for the first time. He couldn’t have picked a better one if he had searched the world over.”
Jack Dempsey, the horse, was named after Jack Dempsey the boxer, the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion from 1919 to 1926. The lumbering colt grew into his name as an undefeated racehorse with young Lou Kirk in the saddle.
The pedigree of Jack Dempsey has its own twists and turns. A horse named Big Boy is listed as the sire of Jack Dempsey and that is a well-known fact. This horse was a successful Arizona “short horse” as they were called in this time period. He is listed as sired by one of two horses: Dominus Arvi or Don Masavri depending on who is reporting the pedigree. I think that the Don Masavri is a phenetic pronunciation for Dominus Arvi that resulted in this odd spelling. Dominus Arvi was a successful racing Thoroughbred. He was a stakes winner in the Citrus Belt Handicap and the Mount Lowe Handicap at the Old Santa Fe Race Track. Both races were for 6 furlongs. Dominus Arvi was sired by Kismet by Melton and his dam was Chitose by Rio Bravo. The dam of Big Boy was an unknown mare.
The dam of Jack Dempsey is a mare named Oklahoma Queen. We find two mares with this name and, depending
on the pedigree, they are both listed as
the dam of Jack Dempsey. They will be Oklahoma Queen I and Oklahoma Queen II. Oklahoma Queen I is sired by Tom Campbell by Bob Peters by Pony Pete. The dam of Tom Campbell is a mare by Bob Peters. Pony Pete is sired by Barney Owens by Martin’s Cold Deck, the same horse we saw in the pedigree of Silver Dick. Martin’s Cold Deck, being the son of Old Billy,
who was by Shiloh and out of Ram Cat by Steel Dust. The dam of Oklahoma Queen
I is Brunk’s Queen by the Thoroughbred Quartermaster. Oklahoma Queen II is out of Oklahoma Queen I and she is sired by A. D. Reed by Peter McCue. She was foaled in 1920 and Jack Dempsey was foaled in 1919. So, Oklahoma Queen I looks to be the dam of Jack Dempsey.
Many of the Jack Dempsey runners
came before official records, but Vivian Kirk in The Quarter Horse Journal article “Jack Dempsey” in the January 1976 issue, listed some of his better home bred runners. They include Cotton Tail, Static, Joker, Dempsey Maid (also known as Gallup Maid), Hazel D and Mame Taylor. An interesting side note: the Kirk’s traded Static for a Thoroughbred named Erskine Dale. Some pedigree pundits believe that Erskine Dale is the sire of 3-time AQHA Racing World Champion Shue Fly. The official sire for Shue Fly is Cowboy P-12.
SPEEDHORSE June 2021 53
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