Page 34 - May 2022

SPEEDLINES
Valiant Hero has sired four Champions, including:
Futurity-G1, with his full brother Valiant Valor finishing fourth in that race. Valiant Valor would later win the 2013 Turf Paradise Jackpot Stakes to earn stakes winning status.
Lana Merrick-Bailey was one of the first to breed and get a colt from that 2009 foal crop. Lana is the granddaughter of Walter Merrick, the legendary owner, breeder and trainer of great racehorses including Easy Jet.
Lana may be the granddaughter of Walter Merrick, but she has formed her own history of success with horses as a barrel racer. She is a two-time NFR qualifier in 1987 and 1989. She was awarded the 1987 WPRA Rookie
of the Year title and she won the Wrangler NFR barrel racing average in 1989. Her horse for these titles was her beloved Scoti Flit Bar (Scoti). The loss of Scoti prompted Lana to start The Rising Star Award that is given to a first time NFR qualifying horse so that horse will always be remembered. Katies Desire (Rio) carried Lana to the 1991 BFA World Champion Sweepstakes title.
It was about this time that Lana was making a move from Cheyenne, Oklahoma, to Norman, Oklahoma. She was in the process of training and developing two barrel racing horses. They were Frenchmans Fable and
a colt named High Valor by Valiant Hero.
She also found with the move she didn’t
have the facilities or the time to continue the development of her young horses and she opted to sell them. This is how Dona Kay Rule was able to purchase High Valor (Valor), and as we say the rest is history.
Dona Kay Rule has been a horsewoman all her life and she qualified for the Wrangler NFR barrel racing for the first time in 2019 at the age of 61 riding Valor. As the story goes, Valor was waiting in the wings when Dona and her horse A Juicy Adventure (Juice) were injured in a warmup accident at a Missouri rodeo. Valor was vaulted into the limelight and now they have
Feature Hero, shown winning the All American Derby-G1.
Ima Fearless Hero, shown winning the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity-G1.
Flowers Handicap. He was sired by Nashville by *Nasrullah. His dam was Blue One by Count Fleet, a Thoroughbred Triple Crown winner and half-brother to the Thoroughbred sire of Quarter Horses Depth Charge.
Jets Fair Lady, the dam of Sizzle Te was an ROM earner sired by the World Champion Jet Deck, a son of Moon Deck by Top Deck and out of Miss Night Bar by Barred. The dam of Jets Fair Lady was Sooner Lady by Leo, and she was out of Betty Warren by King P-234.
Sizzle Te had a modest sire record with 43 ROM and only two stakes placed runners that earned $234,177. His second stakes placed runner was Electrifying Lady. She was second in the Silver Dollar 440 Futurity. His leading money winner was Andy Tes Sizzle with $25,478 in earnings.
Lilsalady is the dam of Sizzling Lil. She is
a Thoroughbred mare by Reb’s Policy and out of Heres To Lil by Exalted Rullah. The dam
of Heres To Lil is Jumpin Jackie by Dumpty Humpty and Jumpin Jackie was out of Opal Jack by No Competition. This line of mares was bred by the late Dr. Bart K. Baker, founder of the Equine Medical Center in Cypress, California, and they were all unraced.
THE SIRE RECORD
The Valiant Hero runners have earned $27,193,525 with 538 racing ROM, 52 stakes winners and 63 stakes placed runners. His runners include Feature Hero, the 2013 Champion Three Year Old and Champion Three-Year-Old Gelding and winner of the 2013 All American Derby-G1; and Ima Fearless Hero, the 2015 Champion Two- Year-Old Gelding and winner of the 2015 Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity-G1.
The Valiant Hero/Mr Jess Perry cross has made an interesting contribution to the Valiant Hero sire record. When we look at his top 20 runners, we see that 13 of the broodmares from this group were sired by Mr Jess Perry or by one of his sons. A look at his 52 stakes winners also shows that 23 of them were also out of a Mr Jess Perry sire line of mares.
THE CROSSOVER CONNECTION
The first crop of foals sired by Valiant Hero came in 2009 and his first foals raced in 2011. His first stakes winner was Valiant War Hero. The unbeaten Valiant War Hero was the winner of the 2011 West Texas
32 SPEEDHORSE May 2022
Dona Kay Rule with High Valor, the 2019 and 2020 PRCA/AQHA Barrel Horse of the Year by Valiant Hero, at the NFR. ©Kenneth Springer
Valiant Hero’s first stakes winner is Valiant War Hero, shown winning the West Texas Futurity at Sunland Park.
Coady Photography
Ruidoso Downs
Los Alamitos