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3-time Champion Laico Bird’s 1967 All American Futurity winning connections include owner Floyd Jones Jr., trainer Jimmy Jones, and jockey Bobby Harmon.
sad part of the story. She produced only two foals. The first was stakes winner Fly Laico Bird, who won the Columbus Triple Crown Futurity and was second in Oklahoma Futurity, Sun Country Futurity and Ruidoso Derby. The filly earned $129,931. The second foal was Laico Bird 2, a stakes placed runner with a second
in the Bart Express and a third in the Jack Robinson Invitational Handicap. She earned $42,200. Both fillies were sired by Jet Deck.
Laico Bird’s daughter Fly Laico Bird was the dam of 12 foals, 10 ROM and two stakes
winners. Her first stakes winner was Missy Laico Bird, winner of the Leo Handicap 2nd Division, and her second stakes winner was Fols Laico Bird, winner of the Oklahoma/Texas Challenge Handicap. Laico Bird 2 did not produce a foal.
The successful race record of Laico Bird proved that she was a good dispositioned mare, but she had one fault that could have caused her a problem. Jimmy Jones told Jim Pitts in the Horsemen magazine (November 1967) article “How Laico Bird Became The Richest Quarter Horse” that, “She’d buck and kick sometime in
the stall when she was feeling good.” He added, “Apparently, she doesn’t like to be cooped up.”
He went on to explain, “But, she is real good in the starting gate. The main thing is on the track she’s calm, knows what she’s there for. Laico Bird just has a lot of sense.”
Jimmy went on to describe her size and speed this way, “She’s like a deer, with quick small feet, very alert. She stands about 14.1 hands, weighing 950 to 1,000 pounds. Laico Bird looks like
she can move fast.” And fast is how she ran to become the 1967 All American Futurity winner.
30 SPEEDHORSE, September 2017
“She’s like a deer, with quick small feet, very alert. She stands about 14.1 hands, weighing 950 to 1,000 pounds. Laico Bird looks like she can move fast.”
Third fastest qualifier Laico Bird wins the 1967 All American Futurity.
SPEEDLINES
