Page 54 - Speedhorse October 2018

“I am an electrical contractor and in about 1978, a gentleman owed me some money for a job and asked me if I would like to have a horse,” said Miller. “It wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be, but I figured out right away if I didn’t take the horse, I wasn’t going to get anything. So, I took the horse.
“At the time, I didn’t even know there were Quarter Horse racehorses,” he continued about the horse he got in the deal. “But that is what he was, and he was a double-bred Depth Charge. He was by a son of Johnny Dial (by Depth Charge) and out of a Depth Charge bred mare. Sadly, we lost him in a stall accident, but by then I had the fever.”
He then tells us what came next. “I traded for one and he was a three year old that Jacky Martin had broke. He was a Lady Bug’s Moon stud out of a Johnny Dial mare. His name was Moon Beau.
“I took him to Florida and we raced
him at Pompano Beach. The reason the guy traded him to me is he had quit running. But he didn’t tell me that before we took him to Florida. He broke out in front and was running away with the race and then
he quit. Everybody passed him. Then came
a big track inquiry on why the horse quit running. So, we took him to a vet clinic and they found about six things wrong with him. One of them was a ruptured flapper. So we fixed everything, took him back, put him in another race and he won by such a distance they had another track inquiry. Why did my horse run so good?”
The horse came through the inquiry and then it was back to the races. “We took him to Louisville, Kentucky, where he set a Track Record. He was a black stallion and I never bred him. But that is how I got into racing.”
The racing fever had hit. Then the breeding fever came. He explains what happened next. “When I got interested in breeding, I bought mares that local horsemen said were good mares. I bought about 10 or 15 mares and I had babies. I was so proud of them. The first sale I took them to was the old Haymaker Sale. I was watching horses back then in the late 70’s and early 80’s that were bringing $20,000, $25,000, even for AA horses. I found that my $500 to $600 babies were telling me I didn’t have any mares. So, I bought a six-horse trailer, hauled the mares to Oklahoma, sold them, and bought me one good mare. Then, I settled in to the idea that all I needed was about four or five mares if they were good ones, and that is what I have today.”
The fortunes of the Miller breeding program improved after a trip to Texas. “I went to Wes Mickles’ place in Weatherford,
Texas. Wes had horses like Rebel Cause and his dam. He had a stallion there named Cameronian and I flew down there to see him before I bred to him.”
Miller was puzzled by one thing. “I couldn’t figure out why the purchase price on the babies was so high compared to the stud fee. I thought they must be good, so I wanted to see some of his babies. Mickles sent me to the owner’s ranch to see the babies.
“When I got there, I found out they were in bankruptcy, so I was able to buy three
mares from him and one of those mares was Diamond Spoon by Tiny’s Gay and out of Casco Charge. That mare was a blue hen mare. She was in the top one hundred as a producer until people started using embryos. She had one baby a year and had 13 starters with nine AAA or AAAT runners and three AA.”
The pedigree of Diamond Spoon gives us a genetic foundation for her title as a “blue hen.” She was by Tiny’s Gay, the 1974 World Champion, Champion Racing 2 Year Old and Champion 2-Year-Old Colt. Tiny’s Gay won the 1974 Kansas Futurity, 1974 Rainbow Futurity and was second in the 1974 All American Futurity before we graded our stakes. He also won the 1974 Tumbleweed Futurity to put a record of 12 wins in 13 starts, earning $444,721. He didn’t race at three.
Tiny’s Gay had a successful but limited career as a sire. He sired six crops of 392 foals with 328 starters with 239 ROM, 16 stakes winners and 31 stakes placed runners. His foals earned over $3.4 million. His leading money earner was Merridoc, winner the 1979 Bay Meadows Futurity and 1979 Golden State Futurity. His earnings stood at $249,736.
Tiny’s Gay became the broodmare sire of 1,026 foals, with 631 starters, 448 ROM, 39 stakes winners and 39 stakes placed runners. He is the Broodmare Sire of 1988 World Champion Merganser, winner of the 1998 All American Futurity, and 1990 Champion 3 Year Old Special Project, winner of the 1990 All American Derby-G1. Merganser is his leading money earner at $1,373,704.
Tiny’s Gay is by 1965 Champion Stallion, 1966 Co-Champion Stallion and Aged Stallion Tiny Watch, who had 38 starts with sixteen wins, twelve seconds and three thirds. Tiny Watch is by Anchor Watch TB and out of Clabber Tiny by Clabber.
Casco Charge, winner of the 1968 Keystone State QHRA Derby with earnings of $3,560, had 26 starts, four wins, seven seconds and four thirds. She was also second in the 1967 George Washington Futurity and third in the 1967 Midway Downs Premier Futurity.
The produce record for Casco Charge shows that she produced 14 racing
ROM, including 1976 Champion Aged Stallion Heza Charger, winner of the 1974 Texas Futurity and 1975 El Primero Del Ano Derby. He also won the Pomona Championship and was second or third including a second in the 1976 Go Josie Go Stakes and third in the 1976 Go Man Go Handicap. He was also a finalist in 1976 Champion of Champions.
Some Charge TB, the sire of Casco Charge, had 36 starts with eight wins, four seconds and five thirds earning $9,650. He sired 75 Quarter Horse starters with 23 racing ROM, including two stakes winners and one stakes placed runner. His foals earned $57,967. His leading money earner is Copan Buck, winner of the 1961 Inaugural Handicap at Centennial Race Course who had earnings of $19,067.
The daughters of Some Charge produced runners that earned $571,734 from 62 starters, with 34 ROM, two stakes winners and four stakes placed runners. His leading money earner is Heza Charger with $301,289.
Some Charge is by Depth Charge, a son of Kentucky Derby winner Bold Venture. The dam of Depth Charge is Quickly
by Haste. Some Charge is out of Miss Somebody, a daughter of Chance Shot. The dam of Miss Somebody is Ruth Landolt by Midway, who is the sire of Percentage, the sire of the legendary Three Bars.
Casco Rose is the dam of Casco Charge. Casco Rose was a race mare with no official record. She was considered a match race horse. Casco Rose produced 8 foals/starters with four ROM and two stakes winners. Her runners earned $71,891. Her other stakes winner beside Casco Charge is Lady Afton 2, winner of the 1968 Keystone State QHRA Futurity.
The 1971 foal out of Casco Rose was Rose Bug by Lady Bug’s Moon. Rose Bug is the dam of First Prize Rose by Gallant Jet. First Prize Rose earned $22,754 with a second in the Three Bars Handicap 1st Division and a third in the 1979 Sunland Park Fall Derby.
First Prize Rose is the dam of World Champion First Down Dash, the all-time leading sire of money earners with over $88 million. His full sister is First Prize Dash, dam of 30 ROM runners with six stakes winners including First Prize Leesa winner of the 2009 Remington Park Futurity-G1; First Carolina, winner of the 2006 Heritage Place Futurity-G1; First Prize Robin, winner of the 2006 Remington Park Futurity-G1; and Fast First Prize, winner of the 2002 Heritage Place Futurity-G1. First Prize Dash was named the 2006 AQHA Broodmare of the Year.
52 SPEEDHORSE, October 2018
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