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When Jet Deck retired, he stood at stud with Bud Warren alongside Sugar Bars.
SPEEDLINES
SPEEDHORSE August 2023 37
The Pedigree
One of the things we have learned about Bud Warren’s breeding program
was that he brought horses together from
a variety of bloodlines that represent a history lesson on the development of the American Quarter Horse. This history shows how the prominent Thoroughbred lines, the South Texas line of horses such as the Old Billys, the Cajun-Bred running horses and the blood of Peter McCue have come together making the Quarter Horse what it is today. The pedigree of Jet Deck will reinforce that history as his pedigree is made up of examples of these bloodlines.
The storyline of the pedigree of Jet Deck has its beginning with an Oregon rancher named James V. A. Carter. Carter - according to the article “James Carter’s Magic Touch” by Ray Reed that appeared in the July 1970 Speedhorse, formerly
the Quarter Racing World - was highly successful in his ranching business and didn’t seriously enter horse racing until he was 50 years old.
Carter’s pursuit of good racehorses and the breeding of good racehorses took him to the Corralitos Ranch of H. S. Bissel
of Las Cruces, New Mexico. Bissel had Midnight Jr that he bought from Walter Merrick and a Thoroughbred named Nassak. Carter and his son William went to New Mexico and bought a mare, a yearling colt and 15 yearling fillies. The price range of the horses bought was $150 to $600 a piece. This is where the story gets interesting.
During the selection process, they came to a pen of three fillies, and they picked two of the three, they were Midnight Belle and Midnight Star both by Midnight Jr. When it came time to load the two fillies the third filly put up a fuss and Bissel offered her at a discounted price and Carter bought her. Her name was Belle Of Midnight. She is the maternal granddam of Jet Deck.
As an added note: Carter liked the stallion Nassak and he wanted to buy some foals by him. But it took them three days to find one filly sired by him. She was Caprica and she was the maternal granddam of Top Moon, a stakes winner and leading sire by Moon Deck.
Midnight Jr was bred by Kenneth Montgomery and purchased by Walter Merrick as a yearling. Merrick successfully raced the colt in match races, used him as a ranch horse and as a sire. As a racehorse sire, he had five racing ROM from 18
© Speedhorse Archives
Alamitos, which established a record for the track. This also made him the winner of $138,342, making him the leading money earner for the year. His overall record for 1962 showed 15 starts with 11 wins, one second and two thirds. He was named the 1962 Champion Stallion and the Champion Two-Year-Old Colt.
Jet Deck started slowly in 1963 with a second to Tiny Charger in the Bay Meadows Inaugural Handicap and then faced a disqualification in the Shue Fly Stakes. It was also the last time he would lose in his next seven races. This includes four stakes wins in the Pacific Coast QHRA Derby and the Los Alamitos Invitational Championship, where he set another World and Track Record for the 440 yards in a time of :21.49. He moved to Ruidoso where he won the Ruidoso Championship Stakes and then the Ruidoso Derby.
The next set of races for Jet Deck came at Centennial in Denver, starting with
a second in a division of the Colorado Wonderland Handicap. He followed that up with three more stakes wins in the Rocky Mountain Derby and two more divisions of the Colorado Wonderland Handicap series, including the final of this set of races.
The next start came in the Josie Bar Handicap at Los Alamitos, and it was his last stakes win. He finished fourth in an allowance race and second to Scooper Chick in the Autumn Championship. Jet Deck won eight stakes races in 1963 from 16 starts with 11 wins and three seconds earning $62,286. He was the 1963 World Champion, Champion Stallion and Champion Three-Year-Old Colt. His 1963 earnings resulted in his being the first American Quarter Horse to earn over $200,000, or $200,628 to be exact. He retired to stud with none other than Bud Warren, joining the stallion roster with Leo and Sugar Bars.