Page 42 - February 2021

SPEEDLINES
John Shaw Jr. and Elmer Heubeck, Duck Dance (shown below) is the sire of Dream Duck was bred to Ronas Ryon breeders of Duck Dance TB. Fitting Celebration’s dam Dream Duck. (shown) producing Fitting Celebration.
He continued, “With Fitting Celebration there is a little twist to it. One of our really good mares was Shining Saint, a St Bar mare that we bought at the All American sale in 1969. We had come to know Bill Hedge at Blue Ribbon Downs and Bill was our advisor. Daddy and
I had walked through the sale horses. We picked out Shining Saint ourselves and when Bill Hedge came in that evening for the sale,
he said, ‘I found you one,’ and sure enough it was Shining Saint. We felt even better about
her because of Bill Hedge knowing she was the right one. So, we bought her.
“She started in the trials of the Blue Ribbon Downs Futurity that was run in January every year. She qualified for the finals. I think she finished fourth or fifth. She won some more races for us. Her dam was Shining Note, a full sister to Golden Note.” Golden Note was the 1961 AQHA Co-Champion Two-Year-Old Filly. She finished third that year in the All American Futurity. She came
in behind Pokey Bar and Bunny’s Bar Maid, her Co-Champion for the filly title.
“We bred her to Third Martini. Third Martini was one of those very handsome well-bred horses. He was fast but not as fast as Duck Dance, but he was very sound and that is what we were looking for in those Thoroughbred horses. Elmer was
my advisor, and he was a guru for soundness.
He taught us the purpose of soundness and by breeding to those Thoroughbreds, we had better tendon structure and better bone.”
Third Martini had that soundness as he made 56 starts with 25 wins, 7 seconds and 5 thirds earning $229,340. He won the Queens County Handicap at 9 furlongs, the Knickerbocker Handicap at 9 furlongs, the Longport Handicap and the Palm Beach Handicap 8.5 furlongs. He was bred by Paul Mellon of Rokeby Stables and owned by Mellon and Hobeau Farm.
The Shining Saint/Third Martini cross produced Here Comes My Baby. She was bred to Duck Dance, producing Dream
Duck. Dream Duck was bred to Ronas Ryon and that cross produced Fitting Celebration.
So, based on their lessons from Elmer Heubeck, they sold Fitting Celebration and Dream Duck as they were both off in the knee. Shaw noted that Elmer Heubeck thought Fitting Celebration would not make it as a racehorse, but she would make a good broodmare and as Shaw put it, “Daddy said we were wanting racehorses and not broodmares, so we sold both of them.” Shaw professed that that was one of the two biggest mistakes he has made in the horse business. And history tells us he is probably right. Oh! The other mistake was when he turned down getting a mare named Sparkling Tip, dam of horses like Merridoc.
This is not the end of the story as we have more to tell, and I foresee that coming in the future. But at this time, we want to wish all those connected to Whistle Stop Cafe congratulations on garnering the title as the AQHA World Champion. We are all looking forward to 2021 and her three-year-old campaign.
Bill Hedge confirmed the purchase of Shining Saint, the second dam of Dream Duck.
40 SPEEDHORSE February 2021
Third Martini TB, the sire of Hear Comes My Baby, the dam of Dream Duck.