Page 146 - Speedhorse June 2019

Speedhorse Graham Paint & Appaloosa Futurity-G1
DTL CHASIN TALE
by Tracy Gantz
Shez Showin Off is the kind of mare anyone would want. A Champion herself, she is now producing top-quality racehorses for Tonya and Dean Lester of Skiatook, Oklahoma. One of her foals, DTL Chasin Tale, captured the $259,400 Speedhorse Graham Paint & Appaloosa Futurity-G1 at Remington Park on June 1.
All of DTL Chasin Tale’s connections have strong roots in the Paint business. Jockey Cody Smith and trainer Matt Whitekiller were team- ing up for their fourth Speedhorse Graham P&A Futurity together, following in 2009 with I Kick, in 2015 with World Champion Painted Turnpike, and in 2017 with Bully Pulpit.
For this edition of the Speedhorse Graham, Smith qualified DTL Chasin Tale and Southern Electric, also trained by Whitekiller and earlier the winner of the PSBA American Paint Classic. The jockey had to choose between the two.
“It wasn’t an easy decision for sure,” Smith said. “That other horse is an extremely nice horse as well. I won a futurity on him this meet as well. It’s a good problem to have, but it’s not a decision you want to make.”
Smith made the correct choice. DTL Chasin Tale went off as the even-money favorite, drawing post position 10, but ending up in post seven after three scratches. He broke fourth while getting bumped by Southern Electric to his inside. That
didn’t deter him, however,
and he overhauled rivals to
win by 1/2-length in :17.813
for 350 yards.
“We didn’t get away from the gate real good, but he has so much heart,” said Whitekiller. “He finally got going and showed how good he is.”
DTL Chasin Tale has been good from the begin- ning. “He was never a problem growing up,” Dean Lester said. “He wasn’t flashy, but he is now.”
The gelding has only lost once, in his first outing when second by just a neck in his trial for the Oklahoma Paint and Appaloosa
Futurity-G1. He won the final, following that with a score in the Victoria Ennis Memorial. He then added his Speedhorse Graham trial on May 18, qualifying the second fastest after a 1 1/2-length victory.
Tonya purchased Shez Showin Off, a daughter
of Royal Quick Flash
and stakes-placed Texas Showboat, as a year-
ling from Larry Steele’s Steele Farms in Gibson, Oklahoma. One of Texas Showboat’s stakes-placings came in the Speedhorse Graham when it was called the Graham Paint Futurity.
“I actually went out there to look at a different horse and couldn’t get her out of my head,” Tonya said a few
years later. “I knew Royal Quick Flash was a young stallion who was starting to throw run- ners, and I liked her mother’s record.”
Remington Park $259,400 • 350 yards :17.813 • si 81
PYC Paint Your Wagon
Wagon Tales QH
Signs Zoomer
DTL CHASIN TALE, ‘17-g.
Royal Quick Flash
Shez Showin Off
Texas Showboat
144 SPEEDHORSE, June 2019
DTL Chasin Tale and Cody Smith win the $259,400 Speedhorse Graham Paint & Appaloosa Futurity
RACING NEWS
Dustin Orona Photography