Page 87 - September2021

She continued about how the sale came about. “Don Tyner made the deal, and he went to the owners, and they wanted a million dollars. I have often thought and wondered, did they throw that out there because they didn’t think anybody would pay that much, as nobody had paid that much for a horse at that time. So Dan and I prayed about it, and we had to go to the bank and borrow the money.”
David Smith, CEO of Stallionesearch. com, worked for Don Tyner, a bloodstock agent. I asked Smith if they were aware of Special Effort before the Kansas trials. “No, he had run one time down in South Texas. When we bought him, he had two outs and two wins and made like $3,000 after his Kansas Futurity trial win. The first time we had seen him was at Ruidoso.”
He then explained how the sale worked, “The Urschels were clients of ours. So, when Special Effort ran in the trials for the Kansas, Dan told Don to go try and buy him. So, we contacted the people that owned him, and they asked a million dollars for him. We went back to Dan and said, “They want a million dollars for him.’ He said, ‘Okay, let’s figure out how to do it.’ We actually bought him for $333,333.33 down, and then the next year $333,333.33, and then the next year it was $333,333.33.”
The gamble began to pay off as Special Effort won the Kansas Futurity despite a slow start. He got the win coming from behind to win by 1-length over Bar Roulucks. The win was worth $260,522. So, the pursuit of an All American Triple Crown was officially started and that meant the Rainbow Futurity was next.
This time Special Effort and all the contenders for the Rainbow Futurity had to run two races to get into the finals. They were the Rainbow elimination trials and then the time trials. Special Effort won his elimination trial, winning the race by 2
Dan Urschel
3/4-lengths. He came back winning his trial in a time of :20.02 making him the fastest qualifier. The finals of the Rainbow Futurity was a repeat performance in that he won by a length in a time of :19.97, earning $232,537.
The win in the Rainbow Futurity brought another milestone into the life of Dan, Jolene and Special Effort. David Smith explained,
“So, after he won the Kansas and won the Rainbow, we put together a syndication that was different from a regular syndicate because Urschel wanted to keep ownership of him. We sold a 150 breeding rights syndication, with Urschel keeping 50 and we sold 100 of them for $100,000 apiece. We sold out before the finals of the All American. So that was $10 million. There was a payout on them as well with a payment of $20,000 down and $20,000 a year, and that gave you a right to breed one mare to him per year.”
Smith then told how the sale of shares went. “The first weekend we were selling shares before the All American, and we got all the paperwork together and went to California to the PCQHRA Yearling Sale. I will never forget Don saying as we were driving in, ‘This is a breeding rights thing, this is new. I don’t know how this is going to go over, so don’t get disappointed if we don’t get any of these sold today.’ Well, every person we asked in California bought one and when we got back to Ruidoso, we set up a table in the Turf Club. People lined up, came to the table to sit down and sign the contract and give you the money.” He then added, “I think two or three shares resold before the All American for $155,000. We had sold out of the 100. So, three people flipped theirs before the All American.”
The All American was like the Rainbow with an elimination trial and a time trial. Special Effort wouldn’t flinch, he won his elimination trial by 5 3/4-lengths. He then breezed to a win in his time trials with a time of :21.78, setting the fastest time in the trials. The finals of the
All American brought a new factor for Special
He had the fastest time for the trials, and we were very impressed with him. So, Dan decided, ‘Let’s see if we can buy him.’”
Special Effort’s run at the
ALL AMERICAN Triple Crown
SPEEDHORSE September 2021 85
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