Page 42 - December 2016

Ima Chickie Two
“Watching a horse you’ve bred and raised, and been involved in its growth and development, crossing that finish line first is a thrill!”
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winning the PCQHRA Breeders’ Futurity-G2. The 2009 mare has since joined her dam Dasha Freda and Dasha Freda’s 2008 daughter
Fearless And First as one of Quarter K & S-Quarter K’s four broodmares.
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s first homebred stakes winner was Ima Chickie Two, shown
Heza Dasha
The Meneely’s homebred Fire Heza Dasha Fire, shown above winning the 2015
Los Alamitos Super Derby-G1, is out of their broodmare Dasha Freda. Heza Dasha Fire was the 2014 Champion 2-Year- Old Gelding and then was named 2015 World Champion, Champion 3 Year Old, and Champion 3-Year-Old Gelding.
Kathy Meneely gives Heza Dasha Fire a kiss after
his Los Alamitos Super Derby victory.
Racing’s Ups And Downs
So now the Meneelys had two good mares. But their change in direction started out a little rocky. Although they’d bought First Down Dream to run, she ended up having stifle problems so Don and Kathy retired her to raise babies.
Dasha Freda made up the difference, though. Her first year out, she finished with a 9-1-3-2 record and $34,585 in earnings. As a sophomore in 2005, she earned graded stakes winning
status for crossing the finish line first by a head
in the California Derby Challenge-G3. That
year she also ran second in the La Primera Del Ano Derby-G2 and was a finalist in the Golden State Derby-G1 and AQHA Derby Challenge Championship-G1. She finished her race career with a 16-4-4-3 record and $111,741 in earnings.
“You just kind of walk on air for a week,” Kathy says of S-Quarter K’s milestone stakes win. “We were just ecstatic. When you see that nose in front, you think, That’s not my horse — that can’t be my horse! It’s thrilling every time.”
“I’m a yeller,” she adds, laughing. “As soon
as that gate opens, I’m hollering, ‘Go faster!’ My boys say, ‘Mom, root in your heart — don’t yell!’”
After selling most of First Down Dream’s babies, Kathy and Don decided to run one. And in 2011, that filly — Ima Chickie Two, by Chicks Beduino — became Quarter K’s first homebred stakes winner. “Watching a horse you’ve bred and raised, and been involved in its growth and development, crossing that finish line first is a thrill!” says Kathy.
In her freshman year, Ima Chickie Two
won the PCQHRA Breeders’ Futurity-G2 and qualified to the Kindergarten and Governor’s Cup futurities. The following year, she finished second in the Governor’s Cup Derby-G2, and then won the PCQHRA Breeders’ Derby-G3. She has now joined her dam, Dasha Freda and Freda’s 2008 daughter by First Down Dash, Fearless And First, as one of Quarter K and S-Quarter K’s four broodmares. “She ended up winning almost $350,000,” says Don. “That set us up financially to do what we wanted to do: breed to good stallions.”
40 SPEEDHORSE, December 2016
Los Alamitos
Los Alamitos
Los Alamitos