Page 72 - Speedhorse February

LOOKING BACK
The Costa Mesa, by Arizonan, won a Los Alamitos Race in 1961 going 400 yards in 20:04 with jockey John Figueroa. Trained by Frank Figueroa. Bill Scherlis, Quarter Racing World Archives
He crossed well on most any mare, and some of the mares that went to Spotted Bull were very cold in blood, and I’ve noticed this . . . Any time you’ve got a really hot stud and you hit him with a complete outcross, the result is often blessed with superior speed and matching brains. I was (still am) impressed with the number of champion sprinters, near champions and stakes horses he sired from mares of rather limited success on the race tracks. This fact, more than anything else, explains the difference between the great
and the good. I’ve noticed that first outcross with other Thoroughbred stallions, and it impresses me, but not to the extent Spotted Bull did with his limited opportunities prior to his untimely death. His accomplishments were rather electrifying!
Spotted Bull was indeed a clown. There for a while he got a reputation as a bad horse, which was undeserved and came about due to an accident. Mel Haskell and I used to talk about it a lot, because he came to the hospital with a fractured hip while I was there with a cracked vertebra. This must have been about ’54 or ’55. Exactly what happened was that Mel Haskell and Jimmy Livingston were out
at the Ricon Stock Farm where Spotted Bull was standing. This was the off-season, and the stud had been turned loose in the infield of the training track to play. They flood irrigated it, and they had big dikes to control the irrigation waters. They hadn’t irrigated for a week, and when you don’t irrigate in Tucson in the summertime for a week, the ground gets some kind of hard. The big clods of dirt from throwing up
the dikes to control the water were rock solid. Charlie Hall, who was Mel’s trainer for years, had a little dog, and Spotted
Bull loved chasing this mut. He took out after this little dog as a stud will do, and when this dog realized he was overmatched in size and speed, he ran toward Mel for protection. Spotted Bull was so intent on chasing the dog that he failed to see Mel until the split second before he swerved to avoid hitting him. Mel, understandably, leaped sideways at the same instant, and
in doing so, lost his footing and fell. The hardened clod that greeted his fall broke his hip. Spotted Bull didn’t touch him.
Oh My Oh AAAT, by Spotted Bull, proved her worth on the track and carried on to produce All American winner Three Oh’s. Bill Scherlis, Quarter Racing World Archives
70 SPEEDHORSE February 2025