Page 46 - December 2017

Fulton Bred and owned runners include...
Her Racing Education
When it came to her horse passi
Mer
Right: 1991 World Champion runner/multiple Champion sire Special Leader
Left: Merle became involved
in the Quien Sabe racing program about the time Joe Kirk’s homebred Dashs Dream was racing. The filly, shown here after winning the 1984 All American Derby, was the 1984 World Champion.
second in the Champion of Champions-G1. Throughout her three-year, 24-race career, she finished out of the winner’s circle only five times, won $1,119,610, and was crowned 1984 World Champion, Champion 3 Year Old, Champion 3-Year-Old Filly, and 1985 Champion Aged Mare.
Joe Kirk’s first Fulton-bred stakes winner was Flaming Jet (Jet Deck–Dusty Bound, Through Bound) in 1973. Other Fulton- bred greats include Special Leader (Special Effort–Miss Eye Opener, Dash For Cash), Reckless Dash (Dash For Cash–Shaken Not Stirred, Raise Your Glass) and Effortless Dream (Special Effort–Dashs Dream, Dash For Cash), all foaled in 1987. “The mares got to be ‘my girls,’” Merle says. “They’re just my family. We bought Fly In The Pie at a sale and she was crippled from a racing injury, which caused her to founder. I cooked Thanksgiving dinner that year and then left it and went down to the barn to spend time with her.”
Merle also bred Paint stakes horses including the 2011 2-Year-Old Paint Champion Running Filly, Brief Encounter, by Country Quick Dash and out of Judy Janise, by Judys Lineage.
i
was a quick study. “When Joe Kirk and I
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Above: Champion broodmare sire, multiple graded stakes winner Reckless Dash
Below: Graded stakes winner Effortless Dream
first got together, I started asking him more questions,” she says. “It didn’t take long, because I love horses, to understand the racing business, and we went to the races together all the time.”
That was about the time Dashs Dream
(D
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olved in the Quien
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n the track,
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mitos, and the All American Gold Cup-G1, then returned
to Los Alamitos to finish fourth in the Z. Wayne Griffin Director’s Stakes-G3 and
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44
SPEEDHORSE, December 2017