Page 56 - 20 July 2012

Gunar Loup, age 13, rides bucking horses; Gatlin, age 15, prefers to get his excitement from dirt bikes and four-wheelers. The outdoor-loving family also hunts, fishes and water skis.
Kay bred, raised and trained Happybucknmardigras, her 5-year-old 1-D barrel- winning mare.
picking out names. “We don’t have a naming system,” she said. “We like catchy names. If we hear something we like, we write it down or put it into our phone, and come foaling season we have a whole list and we narrow it down from there. Just incorporating sires’ and dams’ names is too boring. But every now and then we’ll come up with something that way, too.”
As with the names they choose, humor plays a large part in the friendships the couple has formed—and in the naming of their Wacky Racing partnership. “It was Rick who came up with the name,” Wade said.
Miller explained, “I was thinking Wade and Ricky, and out came Wacky.”
tHe rAcIng operAtIon
The Loups give credit to Runnin Broke and Wacky Racing’s main trainer, Vann Haywood, and also to Kevin Broussard in Louisiana and Louis Franco in Oklahoma. “We run them where they can win,” Wade said.
The Loups and their partners don’t
limit their racehorses to those they’ve bred and raised. Dont Lie Lucy (Cash Dont Lie-Runaway Lucy, Runaway Winner) was AQHA’s East Regional High-Point Claiming
to work their full-time heavy equipment jobs in landscape. Kay goes out about 7:30 to put the sale prep horses on the walking wheel and clean stalls. By mid-afternoon Wade and Juan arrive to feed and clean stalls again. “We put a lot of effort in,” Kay said, “but the horses are part of our family. We want to be sure they’re doing OK.”
“We put a lot into it but we get a lot out of it,” Wade added. “The whole operation has been very pleasant to me.”
They agree that the best part of the business is raising stakes winners. “It was seven or eight years before we had our first big win,” Wade said, “but when it hit, we’ve had one winner after another. We’ve been fortunate to have the small number of mares that we have, and have the success that we’ve had.”
tHe BreedIng progrAM
Each of their seven broodmares brings something special to the herd,
and the Loups try to breed
to what fits each mare. “We learned right quick that it costs as much to feed a stakes producer as a non-stakes
producer,” Wade said. “We went to top pedi- grees pretty quick—fashionable bloodlines— Mr Jess Perrys, Streakin La Jollas, Dash For Cash, Chicks Beduino and Strawfly Specials.
“If it’s my own and I put them in the sale and they don’t sell, we’re willing to keep them and run them ourselves,” Wade said. “We help them be successful racehorses and we turn them into mamas to join our broodmare lot.”
In addition to their race broodmares, Kay breeds Mardi Gras Madness, the black barrel mare she raised in 1997. The Dash For Perks granddaughter with $15,000 in career earnings has a special place in Kay’s heart, and Kay takes particular care in placing her foals, the young- est three of which she still has.
Mardi Gras Madness’ 5-year-old A Streak Of Fling daughter, Happybucknmardigras, whom Kay calls “Mini Me,” has taken Kay to 1-D barrel success. Ridden by Tori LeBlanc of Houma, Louisiana, “Mini Me” recently ran in the All American Youth in Jackson, Mississippi, where she qualified for the 1-D finals, then fell going around the second barrel.
“Her first time on her, Tori ran the fastest time of the day,” Kay said.
Kay loves bonding with the babies and
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“We’ve been fortunate to have the small number of mares that we have, and have the success that we’ve had.”