Page 58 - May 2021

Graded stakes winner Born To B Bad is learning the lines to a new song
by Richard Chamberlain
B
Born To
Bad
Racehorses are kinda like rock’n’rollers. Some are stars, some are one-hit wonders, some are wannabes, some are has-beens, some are
never-were’s. Some pile up hit after hit, some chart from time to time, some never get out of the gate.
Born To B Bad got out of the gate in fine order. Scoring hits such as the John Deere Juvenile Challenge-G3 at Ruidoso and the Speedhorse Derby at Fair Meadows landed him in this and other racing publications, and now the 7-year-old bay gelding is back in the studio (well, the training pen) laying down tracks
for what his people hope will be his next hit – which already has gotten him on television.
“He’s big, he’s stout, he’s got a lot of run,” noted Steve Kenyon on the Cowboy Channel’s Western Sports Roundup. Kenyon was speaking with owner Melissa Slayton and barrel racer Stevi Hillman, who is schooling “B Bad” to run the cloverleaf.
“He’s doing really good,” Stevi said in April, a few weeks after Born To B Bad’s televised
appearance. “I rodeo, so I’ve had him off and on as I can. We’re in California right now, and he’s home with his owner, getting a little break. He’ll come back next week. But his training is coming along great. He’s a really intense horse. It’s funny: He’s really sweet and easy to get along with, but when it’s time to work, he’s very intense, he wants to do everything right and wants to please you.”
The 2012 WPRA Reserve Rookie of the Year and five-time Wrangler NFR qualifier, Hillman knows how to play the music. The horsewoman trains out of her place at Weatherford, Texas, not far from Slayton’s home at Tolar.
“Born To B Bad has just been a blessing
to us,” said Slayton. “There were three things
I was looking for when I was looking for his next career. First of all, I wanted a trainer who lived fairly close to me, and Stevi was about 30 minutes away. Second of all, I wanted someone who was going to love him just as much as we did. And the third thing was, I wanted someone who was going to make him as successful in his next career as he was in his previous one.”
That third is asking a lot. A career earner of $279,131, Born To B Bad at three was ranked #4 by wins. He is one of 19 stakes winners and the earners of more than $11.4 million by his sire Freighttrain B, who topped the 2020 charts with rock star and 2020 World Champion Whistle Stop Cafe. Foaled in March 2014, Born To B Bad is the first stakes winner and one of three winners overall from four starters
out of the
winning Separatist mare Dosvedanya ($19,485).
Slayton bred Born To B Bad in partnership with N.R. Stevenson and raced him in partnership with Cody Bowling. Owned by Slayton alone since April 2019, Born To B Bad is an AQHA Superior Racehorse with 11 wins from 41 starts over five seasons. The gelding faced the starter in 17 stakes and came home the winner in four, including his first, when Tammy Johnson sent him out under jockey Adrian Ramos for the win in the Grade 3 John Deere Juvenile Challenge in July 2016 at Ruidoso, which set the gelding up to run second by a nose to One Proud Eagle in the John Deere Juvenile Challenge Championship-G2 that
fall at Los Alamitos. Improving with age and experience, Born To B Bad followed with scores the following year in the Speedhorse Derby
in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the Altoona Derby
at Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa. Back in fine form as a 4 year old, Born To B Bad came home first in the Oklahoma QHRA Fall Classic Stakes in September at Will Rogers Downs at Claremore and returned at 5 to run second to LD Is Back in the Leo Stakes-G1 in May at Remington Park.
Race trainer Tammy Johnson
56 SPEEDHORSE May 2021
“Oh, he’s such a natural. He has a great mind and great ability, and he’ll do anything you ask him to do.”
– Tammy Johnson