Page 59 - May 2017

The Spillers have focused their stallions on breeding dual-discipline prospects for the track and barrel pen...
Triple Vodka, who stands at Blanchet Farms, is bred for both disciplines.
her two daughters when they came along. They raised some barrel horses through the years that won the prestigious BFA $100,000 Slot Race in Oklahoma City, as well as many other champi- onships. Her oldest daughter was the National High School Rodeo Reserve National Champi- on Barrel Racer, and both of her daughters have won momentous titles, including barrel racing, breakaway, and goat tying championships.
Renee began her post-college career as a high school biology teacher and coach, work- ing at several area schools from 1987–1994. Next, she taught for five years for the Depart- ment of Justice at the Federal Bureau of Prisons facility in Three Rivers, Texas, then switched to case management, from which she retired in 2013. It was there that she met her husband, Charles, who was also a case manager and has also since retired.
She and Charles, with some help from Charles’ son, now operate Spiller Quarter Horses a little over an hour south of San An- tonio. There they tend about 60 head, raising 10–20 foals a year and, since around 2000, have focused on breeding dual-discipline prospects for the track and the barrel pen. They also sell barrel prospects and sale-fit their race prospects for the yearling sales.
“She’s obviously got an eye for a horse,” says friend and barrel futurity trainer LaTricia Duke of Three Rivers, Texas. “Her breeding program is testament to that.”
Ima Talented Guy, who stands at Blanchet Farms, is geared toward barrels but is a good crossover stallion.
LaTricia refers to 8-year-old multiple stakes win- ner Triple Vodka as Renee’s fairytale story. Renee and Charles had owned the stallion’s second dam, graded stakes-winning Newport Fancy (Calyx-Lady Newport, Sail On Bunny). “The Tres Seis offspring are so good on the track, but they’re also highly respected in the barrel pen,” Renee says. “When we saw Triple Vodka in the Texas Quarter Horse As- sociation Sale, we decided to buy him and flip.”
They paid less than $5,000 for the colt. “The individuals that wanted to purchase the horse kept saying, ‘The check’s in the mail,’ but the check never arrived, so we kept him and ran him ourselves,” she explains.
Triple Vodka broke his maiden his first time out and then went on to win the TQHA Sale Futurity-RG2 in 2011, marking the first-ever stakes win for the Spillers, and the Old South Derby in 2012. He was undefeated as a two year old and won five of eight starts, going wire-to- wire in each victory. He tallied $224,670 in cumulative earnings on the track. Not a bad return on an investment.
“As a sire, Triple Vodka had his first stakes win- ner, Vodka At Moonlight, in Minnesota last year,” Renee says. The black filly out of Moonlight Mas- querade won the Minnesota Futurity and placed in the Minnesota Stallion Breeders’ Futurity, and earned $48,060 in her first year on the track.
Triple Vodka On Rox, out of Splashed Memo- ries, broke her maiden in her first out in 2016.
Jets Quick Fortune, who stands at the Spiller Quarter Horse facility, is bred primarily for flat track racing.
“She’s one of the first ones we bred and she looks to be real strong for us again this year,” Renee says. That filly’s full sister, Triple Vodka Memorys,
was the top qualifier to the April 2017 Desert Classic Futurity at Turf Paradise on April 9, and Shot Of Triple Vodka, out of Streakin A Tac, will start as a freshman this year.
“His oldest colts are three this year, so we’re
just now being able to see those horses go from the track to the arena,” says Renee. “We have some people who breed to him for straight-up racehorses, and then the colts have residual value when they’re through at the track. Then, we have other people who breed straight-up barrel horses to him. These are the Fire Water Flits, Frenchmans Guys, and so on.”
Friend and client Kimberly Blackmon, own- er of Blackmon Quarter Horses LLC in Ganado, Texas, met Renee when she started attending Wrapn3 events as a competitor about six years ago. “I really like everything about Triple Vodka. He’s a big, nice, strong horse and he’s won money on the track. The thing about him is his attitude. I love his docile personality. It’s because of that and his accomplishments that I decided to breed five mares to him two years ago, and all those babies are just now starting to get broke and going,” Blackmon says of the stallion.
Renee admits she gets a great deal of gratifi- cation from seeing the colts they’ve raised suc- ceeding. She also gets gratification from Triple Vodka babies that other people have bred that are starting to win and do well on the track.
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Courtesy Renee Spiller