Page 73 - August 2021

Three Bars, a Thoroughbred who crossed extraordinarily well with Quarter Horse mares, sired a list of greats that includes:
Galobar, winner of the inaugural All American Futurity in 1959.
5-time Champion sire Rocket Bar.
No stallion has exacted a greater influence on Quarter Horse bloodlines than the legendary Three Bars. A Thoroughbred who
crossed extraordinarily well with Quarter Horse mares, Three Bars sired a list of greats that includes Galobar (the winner of the inaugural All American Futurity), Rocket Bar, Three Chicks, and Pokey Bar – as well as the first three AQHA Supreme Champions in
Kid Meyers, Fairbars and Bar Money. Blessed with a muscular conformation that could give a runner, “a little more reach, a little more refinement,” Three Bars forever changed the breed and played a singular role in shaping the Quarter Horses of today.
Three Bars came into the world on April
8, 1940. The son of multiple-stakes winner Percentage and a swift mare called Myrtle Dee, the colt could trace his lineage back to the sensational Domino - one of history’s greatest sprinters. Between 1893 and 1895, Domino captured a host of prestigious races, including the Withers Stakes– and retired as North America’s richest racehorse. In addition, Three Bars’ dam
was a daughter of Luke McLuke, the winner of the 1914 Belmont Stakes. Fittingly, Three Bars’ first owners – Jack Goode, Ned Brent, and Bill Talbot – spied promise in the colt from the moment of his birth. “We all said that we had hit the jackpot,” Goode reminisced. “So, we named him Three Bars. You know when you hit the jackpot [on a slot machine] how three bars come up? That’s how he got his name.” Initially, it seemed that Three Bars was destined to live up to his name. “He was a kind old horse,” recalls Joe Merrick, whose father Walter Merrick played an integral role in establishing Three Bars as the greatest sire in Quarter Horse history. “He’d pin his ears at you now and then... he didn’t want to fool around
or anything, but he wasn’t any trouble to manage... he was kind of all business and no nonsense.”
Three Bars was also gifted with blinding speed. While still a young two year old, Ned Brent remembered the colt covered 440 yards
in just over 21 seconds. Just as Three Bars’ hopeful owners began to prepare their charge for the racetrack, however, the colt’s progress was impaired by a leg ailment. With the colt’s racing prospects apparently ruined, Goode, Brent and Talbot made the decision to sell Three Bars. They found a buyer named Beckham Stivers, who paid a nominal $300 for the horse and if Three Bars managed to win a race, Stivers would have to part with an additional $300.
After being sold to Beckham Stivers, Three Bars’ career prospects continued to plummet.
Champion sire Three Chicks.
1961 & 1962 Champion Pokey Bar.
Myrtle Dee was a daughter of Luke McLuke (shown), who won the 1914 Belmont Stakes.
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