Page 47 - March_2022

These 2-time Graded stakes winners join the Cross Triangle Ranch broodmare band in 2022
“We try to fit the mare with the sire. You have to be selective to what sires you breed to.”
- Benny Greathouse
SPEEDLINES
Apollitical Patty winning the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity-G1.
Aint She Tempting winning the Oklahoma Futurity-G2
of race mares for her broodmare band. The Holt breeding program keeps the number of mares in the broodmare band small with a limit of about 12 mares. Unlike other commercial breeders, they don’t do embryo transfer and that limits the market for the foals produced. A particularly good example of supply and demand. The idea is to get one good baby to sell and that makes the program more economical to operate.
Bennie Greathouse, the manager for Julianna Hawn Holt’s Cross Triangle Ranch, explained why the mares carry their foals and why they don’t do embryos, “Basically, she sells everything and we think that is helping
us at the sales because Mrs. Holt is bringing only one foal and they know that. The next thing is we don’t bring anything back to run. We sell everything. If you have the last bid, she will honor it.”
Some of the mares that have been
in the Cross Triangle Ranch broodmare band over the years include the Quarter Horse racing Champions Corona Chick, Heartswideopen, Stylish Jess BR, Apollitical Time and Higher Fire. They will add the major stakes winners Apollitical Patty and Aint She Tempting in 2022.
The 2021 Ruidoso Select Yearling Sale saw the following yearlings sell that were
bred by Julianna Hawn Holt. The sale
was topped by a colt named First Texas Flash by First Moonflash that sold for an all-time record of $800,000. His dam is Stylish Jess BR, and he is a full brother to Champion Two Year Old and Champion Two-Year-Old Filly Flash And Roll who was sold as a yearling and then repurchased by Holt and is now a Holt broodmare. One Fearless Eagle by One Famous Eagle sold for $200,000 and his dam is Love Samba, a Holt bred mare that was originally sold and then repurchased to be a Holt broodmare. Gallant Warrior by One Famous Eagle
sold for $200,000. His dam is Apollitical Time, the dam of leading sire Apollitical Jess. Big Dream Baby by Apollitical Jess sold for $115,000. She is out of Champion Two-Year-Old Filly Kates Dynasty. One Cool Dude by First Moonflash sold for $105,000. He is out of A Dash Of Sweet Heat, a daughter of Holt’s great broodmare Corona Chick.
The base of the Cross Triangle Ranch breeding program is their great mares, and the selection of stallions is a key part to the success of the program. Greathouse explained how the stallions are selected, “We try to fit the mare with the sire. You have to be selective to what sires you breed to. Personally, I believe if you are going
to run one you can breed one way and if you are going to breed to sell you have to breed another way. That means we go to the commercial success of the sire in our selection of stallions.”
He went on to confirm that they look at the pedigree of the stallion and mare to look for breeding patterns, but then he added, “We look at the pedigree of the mare and match that with a sire, but sometimes we
get away from that and breed to what’s hot.
I think the mare is the biggest part of it, so when you breed them to the top sires you are going to come up with a decent baby.”
The 2021 Ruidoso Select Yearling Sale saw several Holt-bred leading sellers
Sale topper First Texas Flash sold for an all-time record of $800,000.
Holt-bred broodmare Love Samba, shown winning her All American Futurity-G1 trial, is the dam of One Fearless Eagle who sold at the sale for $200,000.
Champion Kates Dynasty, shown winning the Texas Classic Futurity-G1, is the dam of Holt-bred Big Dream Baby, a $115,000 seller at the sale.
A Dash Of Sweet Heat, the high seller at the 2011 Ruidoso Select Yearling Sale, is the dam of One Cool Dude who sold for $105,000 at the sale.
SPEEDHORSE March 2022 45
Ruidoso Downs Susan Bachelor, Speedhorse
Reed Palmer Dustin Oroana Photography
William Zuazo, Speedhorse