Page 115 - April_2023

SPEEDLINES
SPEEDHORSE April 2023 113
Joe Blair is the sire of Joe Reed, the sire of Joe Reed II – the sire of Leo
Della Moore is the dam of Joe Reed
© Speedhorse Archives
© Speedhorse Archives
Bar, the dam of Easy Jet, for Walter Merrick; and Savannah Jr, the 1965 All American Futurity winner, for J. R. Gates. When Wells left the track as a trainer, he started the Wells Ranch in Oklahoma, where he stood Azure Te, Easy Six and Savannah Jr. Leo Jr ran AA time, earning his ROM with 30 starts - three wins, three seconds and five thirds. He was a finalist in the 1949 Peter McCue Handicap.
The injury bug wasn’t over yet. When Warren bought Leo, he had a stifle injury from a kick by an unruly mare. Horsemen thought that Leo was not a good buy for the new breeder and based on what we have seen Leo seemed to be jinxed. Warren’s description of Leo may give us some insight into why
he ignored the criticism and bought Leo. As we stated, Warren was a self-described true “short horse man” that was looking for power for that quick burst of speed. This is what he had to say about his great stallion. “Leo was something else, he was the most muscular horse I’ve ever seen to this day. He looked like a wrestler. He looked like he could whip any stud that you could turn in the lot with him.
“He was so muscular that he looked like
a weightlifter in a man,” Warren continued. “Just so powerful all over. He was not Thoroughbred lookin’. He was kind of high headed and real high in the wither, but he was a musk ox. He would knock your eye out to look at him. He looked like a bear.
“He certainly didn’t look like a Thoroughbred at all. But he had blinding speed and power and that combined with some of the other refinements of the Thoroughbred made great short runnin’ horses and, of course, in those days we didn’t run very far – 300 yards was a pretty good distance.”
PEDIGREE OF A SHORT HORSE
Leo was a proven short distance runner that was built for power, and a look at his pedigree tells where his speed and power came from. Leo’s double grandsire Joe Reed P-3 was sired by the speedy Thoroughbred Joe Blair. Joe Blair, the racehorse, will be remembered as the horse that ran second to Panzarita when she set a world record for 5-furlongs in :57 1/5 that stood for 32 years. Joe Blair reportedly set his own record for 3.5 furlongs in :39 the next year.
Bonnie Joe was the sire of Joe Blair. Bonnie Joe was sired by Faustus, a son of Enquirer and out of Lizzie G by War Dance. This makes Faustus a full brother to Mannie Gray, the dam of Domino, and this gives Bonnie Joe a blood affinity with Domino. As you will see later, this is a key pedigree factor that may be a key to Leo and his nick with Three Bars, Top Deck and Depth Charge. The dam of Bonnie Joe was Bonnie Rose by Bonnie Scotland, and Bonnie Rose was out of Melrose by Childe Harold. Miss Blair was the dam of Joe Blair. Her sire was Bowling Green by King Galop and Bowling Green was out of Playing Fields by Adventurer. Miss Blair was out of Com-I-Cut by Pursebearer and Com-I-Cut was out of Isbell by Spendthrift.
The dam of Joe Reed was the great Louisiana race mare Della Moore. We have several versions of her pedigree. It has been established that she was sired by Old D J, the famous Cajun-Bred Running Horse foundation sire. Old D J, or Dedier as he was also known, was sired by Crazy Que
by Queue. Crazy Que is officially listed in AQHA records as Crazy Q. The dam of Old
DJ was Meon, or sometimes spelt Mignon, and she was by War Eagle and out of Inez
by a horse named King - not to be confused with King P-234. The AQHA records says Della Moore’s dam was La Hernandez by Dewey. The other version of her pedigree says that she was out of Belle by a horse named Shamrock and out of Dilly by Dewey and out of Old Dilly by Queue. Lloyd Gary,
who researched the pedigrees of many of the Cajun-Bred running horses, believed that Dilly was La Hernandez.
Della Moore reportedly ran the quarter in :22 and is the dam of two important sires in Joe Reed and Joe Moore. Joe Moore was sired by Ott Adam’s great sire Little Joe,
the paternal grandsire of King P-234. Della Moore also produced Grano De Oro and Aloe by Little Joe and Panzaretta by Paul El.
Joe Reed P-3 was reportedly bred by Henry Lindsey, who raced Della Moore. Lindsey actually handled Della Moore for Mrs. Moore of Houston, Texas. Lloyd Gary researched this information and found that Mrs. Moore was the wife of a bank official at the Bank of Commerce in Houston.
There are two versions of how Joe Blair and Della Moore came together to produce Joe Reed P-3. The first has it that Della Moore was stabled next to Joe Blair at the track. Joe Blair and Della Moore were given the opportunity to mate when they disturbed a poker game with their noise. Della Moore was in heat and the poker players put them together to keep the commotion down.
The second version comes from Lloyd Gary as it was told to him by Gabriel Strauss, the jockey of Della Moore. Strauss was the man who had Leo in his barn when Ted Well