Page 30 - Speedhorse, October 2021

SPEEDLINES
earners of $121,409 including one stakes placed runner in her first foal Just You by Hawkinson. He was third in the 2007 AQRA Open Spring Futurity. Dunkle, winner of $49,221, was her leading money earner with four wins in 25 starts.
The sire of First Place Kate was First Place Dash, who was bred by Windham. He was a stakes winner in the 1997
Manor Downs Derby-G2, winning six of his 14 starts to earn $64,160. He was a stakes finalist in the 1996 Texas Classic Futurity-G1 and 1997 Remington Park Derby-G1. First Place Dash had a short but prolific career as a sire. He sired 195 foals with 150 starters that earned 122 ROM with 18 stakes winners. His runners earned $4.7 million. His leading money earner was First Place Queen, winner of $880,869. She won the 2002 Golden State Futurity-G1 and the Los Alamitos Million Futurity-G1.
One of the things we have found is that a broodmare sire must have a good mother and First Place Dash is no exception. He not only was a son of leading sire First Down Dash, but also he was out of Indigo Illusion, the 1983 Champion Two-Year-Old Filly. She was an important racehorse and broodmare for Jerry Windham. She won the 1983 Faberge Special Effort Futurity and the 1983 Las Ninas Handicap-G3. Later she won races
like the Rainbow Derby-G1 and the Vessels Maturity-G1 on her way to winning 17 of her 30 starts, earning $867,417. She was
One of the first race horses purchased by the Lees was Wild Six, shown winning the 2007 Rainbow Futurity.
whoever wins the coin toss puts a price on her and the other can take her at that price. So, we flipped a coin and ended up with her.”
First Place Kate, foaled in 2002,
was purchased by the partnership of K. Kessinger/J. Lee/L. Sherwood in 2003 from her breeder Jerry Windham. She had a very short race career in 2004 with the AQHA listing no official starts. She became a broodmare for the Lees and her first foal came in 2005. She is the dam of eight foals and seven starters with seven ROM and the
started. The horse’s name was Peekaboo, and he did good enough to give me the bug.”
He continued about how his involvement increased from there. “Then we bought some horses together. We bought Gus The Creek and he ran fourth in the All American Derby and fifth in the West Texas Classic Derby. Then we bought Wild Six, who won the West Texas Futurity, the Rainbow Futurity and was sixth in the All American Futurity and fourth in the All American Derby.”
Like many of those who get interested in racing, Lee also started breeding racehorses. He continued about that side of the story. “I had a couple of mares at different breeding farms getting them bred and raising babies. My wife said, ‘No, if we are going to raise babies, we are going to raise them at home.’ So, she built me a nice barn and we brought our broodmares home. We brought Wild Six home from Oklahoma.”
He continued, “We have seven or eight mares, and we try to breed them to the good ones like Apollitical Jess and the hot stallions of the day. We own KJ Mucho Macho Man, so we bred a few mares to him trying to promote him a little bit.”
One of the early mares to be a part of their breeding program was First Place
Kate, who was bred by Jerry Windham,
and as we delve into her history, we will see her connections to the Windham breeding program. Lee explains how she became a broodmare. “We bought First Place Kate that went back to First Down Dash. She was by a son of First Down Dash. Three of us bought her and we ran her and two of the partners at the end of the race career flipped a coin and
28 SPEEDHORSE October 2021
The Lees and Ruben Mares own KJ Mucho Macho Man, who stood his first year at stud this year.
Linda Earley, Speedhorse
Ruidoso Downs