Page 216 - September 2018

The second dam of Higheasterjet, Goldy Niner Two, was purchased by the Beldens with a Mr Kid Charge filly at her side. That filly, Are You Kidden Me, raced early in her 2-year-old year and responded with a second in the Jay Chambers Memorial Futurity and qualified for the finals of the Rocky Mountain Quarter Horse Association Futurity. She is currently trying to recover from a throat problem so she can attempt a racing comeback.
Goldy Niner Two provides Higheasterjet with a solid dose of strong foundation breeding. Mr 89’er, the sire of Goldy Niner Two, is a son of leading broodmare sire Leo and out of the celebrated King daughter 89’er. Mr 89’er is a full brother to Sooner Leo, the dam of Champion Leolita.
Goldy Niner Two was produced by the AA daughter of Chudej’s Black Gold named San Juan Gold. Chudej’s Black Gold is a leading son of Depth Charge and San Juan Gold is out of a daughter of the legendary foundation sire Vandy.
Higheasterjet’s sire Pine’s Easter Jet faced the starter for three years through his 4-year- old season and retired with his stakes winning credentials and earnings of over $70,000 while racing in New Mexico and Texas.
As a 2 year old Pine’s Easter Jet was second in the Armistice Futurity, as a sophomore he accounted for the Pin Oak Derby, and he came back as a 4 year old to win the Jet Deck Stakes.
A member of Jet Deck’s final crop, Pine’s Easter Jet counts Higheasterjet as by far his leading performer.
Jet Deck was named World Champion as a 3 year old and he became the first Quarter Horse to pass the $200,000 mark in earnings when he performed the feat in 1963, only 18 years before his son sired the first millionaire.
As a sire, Jet Deck has done more than could be asked of any horse. He sired 80 stakes winners, eight Champions, the earners of nearly $6.8 million, and his son Easy Jet has sired the earners of over $11.6 million and seven Champions.
Jet Deck possessed the classic Top Deck-Three Bars cross, being by the Top Deck son Moon
Higheasterjet makes his final start on January 5, 1985, winning the Jockey Invitational Handicap at Los Alamitos.
Deck and out of Miss Night Bar, a daughter of the Three Bars son Barred. Leading Sire Top Moon is also by Moon Deck and out of a Barred mare.
Pine’s Easter Jet is a half-brother to a pair of stakes winners and out of a solid black type female family. Pine’s Easter Jet’s half-sister by Good Bird, Pine’s Birdie, earned over $16,000 while counting the Three Bars Handicap, the Armistice Futurity and the Raton Futurity Consolation among her 11 victories. Pine’s Birdie is the dam of stakes placed Birdies Bar.
Pine’s Triple, a half-brother to Pine’s Easter Jet by Triple Chick, won the Pin Oak Derby, the Pitahaya Derby, the Colorado Stakes and the Gulf Coast Stakes.
That’s Pine, the dam of Pine’s Easter Jet,
is a daughter of the Thoroughbred mare Miss Pines. A daughter of the Green Flash son Flash’s Dandy, Miss Pines has proven to be the fountainhead of the highly productive family.
Miss Pines is the dam of America’s Playground Futurity winner Kool Moon, and the Thoroughbred Pines Dandy, winner of the Debutante Stakes at the Fair Grounds.
Miss Pines produced Miss Diamond Chick from the cover of Diamond Charge. Miss Diamond Chick is the dam of Jay Chambers Memorial Futurity and RMQHA Futurity winner Diamond Chicklet. An earner of over $152,000, Diamond Chicklet was also second in the Kansas Futurity and third in the Blue Ribbon Futurity
Miss Diamond Chick is also the dam of Chicks N Diamonds, a stakes-placed full brother to Diamonds Chicklet.
Triple Pines, another daughter of Miss Pines, is the dam of stakes winners Miss Moon Pines and Triple Moon Too, and the stakes placed Miss Trimoon.
It was a late summer afternoon when Alamitos Doll Two was very comfortable in Oklahoma and her sons were setting both money earning and money spending records in the Sacramento mountains.
While it was quiet on the Canadian River flat and very boisterous at Ruidoso Downs that day, August 30th will always be remembered
as the day that a celebrated American Quarter Horse could be called a millionaire. And, it took the leading running short horses over the past century in his lineage to get the job done.
Congratulations to Higheasterjet, Pine’s Easter Jet, Alamitos Doll Two, Jet Deck, Alamitos Bar, Goldy Niner Two, Three Bars, Top Deck, Do Good, Leo, Depth Charge, and all the rest.
It took 100 years to get the first millionaire and eight days to get the second – Special Effort, who won the 1981 All American Futurity on September 7th.
Special Effort first won the Kansas Futurity on May 31, 1981, and then the Rainbow Futurity on July 26. His victory in the All American Futurity on Sept. 7 made him Quarter Horse racing’s only Triple Crown winner. Special Effort received the 1981 World Champion title, among others.
Although Higheasterjet was the first Quarter Horse millionaire and the first horse to win the All American Futurity (1980), All American Derby (1981) and All American Gold Cup (1982), he never received an AQHA Champion award. Super Sound Charge took the 1980 World Champion title; Town Policy was the 1980 Champion Gelding; Special Effort took 1981 World Champion honors; and Sgt Pepper Feature took the 1981 Champion 3-Year-Old Gelding title, as well as the 1982 World Champion and Champion Aged Gelding titles.
Higheasterjet continued to race until seven years of age, earning a total of $1,633,035 from 30 starts with a record of 20(8)-2-2. In 1982, he received the title of AQHA Supreme Race Horse and Superior Race Horse.
Higheasterjet died in 2004 at the age of
26. Ruidoso Downs was the scene of his richest victories, and the track annually recalls the gelding’s accomplishments with a stakes race named in his honor.
214 SPEEDHORSE, September 2018
LOOKING BACK - AN EXCERPT FROM OCTOBER 1981 ISSUE
Somehow it seems fitting that Quarter Horse racing’s first millionaire had a bit of horse trading involved in his existence.