Page 30 - Speedhorse September 2017

The 1967, 1977, 1987, 1997 & 2007 All American Futurity Winners
1967 All American Futurity winner Laico Bird.
The All American Futurity
can often be a “battle of the sexes,” a race of fillies vs. colts. The 2017 All American will mark the 59th running of the race. In the history of this race, 15 fillies have won the All American dream. This is a pretty good average, as the Kentucky Derby has been run 142 times with just three fillies winning this very prestigious race.
Our look back at the All American Futurity will profile five of the 15 All American winning fillies Laico Bird (1967), Hot Idea (1977), Elans Special (1987), Corona Cash (1997) and Heartswideopen (2007).
1977 All American Futurity winner Hot Idea
Laico Bird Wins The 1967 All American Futurity
28 SPEEDHORSE, September 2017
The win by Laico Bird in the 1967 All American Futurity-G1 proved to be one of those races that started out to be a “battle of the sexes,” but soon became a race dominated by females with six of the starters being fillies. The fastest qualifiers were the colts Savannah Dandy with a time of :19.90 and Turf ’s Best with :20.08 for the 400 yards. The third fastest qualifier was the filly Laico Bird in :20.09.
Laico Bird had an outstanding race record coming into the All American with 14 prior starts. She had recorded stakes wins in the Raton Futurity, Texas Futurity, and Columbus Futurity, and was second in the Rainbow Futurity-G1. She had won or placed in all but one of her 14 starts and had already earned over $115,000.
Laico Bird was bred by Ben Ray Campbell in Oklahoma. She was sired by Good Bird TB and out of Paula Laico by Laico TB. She is listed as owned by the Jones brothers Jimmy and Floyd Jr. of Norman, Oklahoma. She raced in the All American as owned by Floyd Jr. and trained by Jimmy.
Floyd Jones Sr. bought Laico Bird as a yearling for $5,000 from Johnny T. L. Jones of Quanah,
Texas (no relation to the Oklahoma Jones), turning her over to his sons. The Jones Brothers were partners with Walter Merrick in her sire Good Bird. The Joneses bought a part of Good Bird based on how they had seen his Thoroughbred colts win races against Quarter Horses.
All American second fastest qualifier Turf ’s Best, winner of the Rainbow Futurity, went into the finals the 2-1 betting favorite. He was followed by Laico Bird at odds of 3-1. Savannah Dandy was 4-1 and Go Mae Go was 7-1. The filly qualifiers Sea Nymph and Barne’s Ladybug were 13-1 and 18-1, respectively.
When the gates opened, it was a race between the fillies. Laico Bird broke behind Barne’s Ladybug, who was on the lead, but caught her 150 yards out of the gate and took the lead. Then another filly, Sea Nymph, came charging from behind to nearly catch her at the wire. Laico Bird was the fourth filly to win the All American Futurity-G1 in the first nine runnings of the race.
Laico Bird, with Bobby Harmon in the irons, would officially win the race by a head in :20.11
SPEEDLINES