Page 47 - February_2023

King P-234 had a racing side, especially when bred to J. O. Hankins’ mare Queen H (shown).
Hank H winning a 330-yard race at Rillito Park.
Hanka, the sire of Hank H
3-Time Champion Tonto Bars Hank after winning the 1960 All American Futurity-G1
Squaw H, dam of Empress Bars.
SPEEDLINES
SPEEDHORSE February 2023 45
Jeff lives in North Carolina and the first time he saw him he was five or six months old.
We went out and looked at him and I had been telling him about the colt. How really correct he was, really well balanced with a lot of muscle, the right kind of muscle that fit his body type. Jeff walked around him, and he looked at him and didn’t say a lot. Then he said, ‘Steve, that horse is very impressive.’ He wanted to name him Impressive and the name was taken. So, I tweaked the Impressive until we came up with Empressum.”
Now for the pedigree side of the name. As I studied the tail female line of Apollitical Jess I came to Native Empress and her great race record. Of course she is an 11-time stakes winner and she was out of Empress Bars. So maybe it is only fitting that the name Empress is in Empressum’s name.
THE DAM
Crazy Down Corona has the distinction of being the only mare to produce an
All American Futurity-G1 winner and a Champion of Champions-G1 winner in the same year. She is now an AQHA Dam of Distinction based the racing record
of her famous sons Empressum and Hes Judgeandjury. This is quite a feat for the home bred mare that was built from the ground up. She was bred by Steve Holt and is now owned by Steve Holt and Jeff Jones.
The official race record for Crazy Down Corona shows six starts with two wins and one second earning $73,162. But they were hard earned starts with a knee chip problem. She made her first start in a maiden race running second and earning her ROM. Her next start was in her trial for the Heritage Place Futurity with a win. Her sixth place in the finals shows that a chip may have been affecting her performance. The answer was surgery, and she came back as a three year old with three more starts. Her first race was an allowance win. She tried the Remington Park Derby trials finishing out of the money and
then she ran in the Miss Olene Handicap also finishing out of the money. She was then retired to the broodmare band.
Crazy Down Corona is the dam of eight starters, five ROM, two stakes winners and two stakes placed runners. Her stakes winners are Empressum and Hes Judgeandjury, who most recently finished third in the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity-G1. Her stakes placed runners include Lotas First with a third in the 2021 Belles Stakes and she was
a finalist in the 2021 Prairie Meadows Distaff Challenge Stakes-G3. Her second stakes placed runner is Cartel Envy, who was third in the Cherokee Nation Stakes, and she was a finalist in the Remington Park Oklahoma Bred Derby-RG3.
This is where the Holt/Jones partnership comes into the picture. Holt related how it happened this way. “Crazy About Corona was a real nice mare just
a bubble off a real top stakes mare that ran out close to $100,000, won or placed in two or three stakes. I had an offer to sell her and then I met Jeff Jones through another acquaintance, and he had a share in First Down Dash. I knew him good enough and I went to him and said if you provide the breeding, we will foal share on this mare. We got two embryos that year and only one of them took and that was
who were the success of the King P-234 dynasty. King P-234 was owned by Jess Hankins and his brother Lowell Hankins. King P-234 was a foundation sire that
we often associate with the performance Quarter Horse. But King P-234 had a racing side, especially when bred to J. O. Hankins mare Queen H by Dan by Old Joe Bailey.
The King P-234 cross with Queen H combined to produce four racing ROM from five starters, including Hank H, Booger H and Your Highness. Hank H is the sire of Hanka, the dam of 3-Time Champion and All American Futurity winner Tonto Bars Hank. The fourth ROM from this cross is Squaw H, the dam of Empress Bars. This mare was a well-known and a noted runner whose official record shows that she had 20 starts with seven wins, eight seconds and two thirds. She won the Eagle Pass Derby, which is not listed on her official record. She won the Tucson Speed Stakes, a 250 yard race in 1949. She set a World Record for 220 yards in a time of :11.9.
What is in a name? The naming of Empressum is interesting but let’s see a pedigree twist on his name. When I asked Holt how he got his name he responded, “I give Jeff the credit on that. We kind of go every other one on naming the foals.
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© Speedhorse Archives
© Speedhorse Archives © Speedhorse Archives