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Flashbacks Pretty Slick


In the mid-1940s, a flashy cropout heated up the brush tracks in Arizona.


By TONYA RATLIFF-GARRISON


foaled, the Tucson, Arizona, horseman wasn’t displeased. “It didn’t make any difference to me,” R.W. told Glynn


A


W. Haynes in a January 1980 Paint Horse Journal article. “I kind of liked all that color.” And his sentiment was understandable. The rabicano


cropout filly, which R.W. named Slicker, was eye-catching with a rich sorrel coat etched in roan hairs, flashy white markings, and a flaxen mane and tail. Even though all of the white might have surprised R.W., Slicker’s pedigree naturally predisposed her to being colorful. Foaled in 1943, Slicker was linebred with Joe Reed appearing in both sides of her pedigree. She was by lead- ing Quarter Horse racehorse sire Joe Reed II and out of the Quarter Horse Wood’s Della Moore, who was by the Joe Reed son Red Joe Of Arizona. The Joe Reeds were renowned for producing overo horses. R.W. started Slicker as a 2-year-old in a corral behind a


round house by the railroad tracks in downtown Tucson. She was conditioned there by R.W., who was an insurance agent; Jack Cox, a railroad section foreman; and R.D. Hay, a part-time jockey. “We just had fun with them,” R.W. told Glynn. “We


didn’t race them to make money. It was just for the plea- sure of handling them and riding them.” On Sundays, the men would take a couple of horses to a ranch a few miles outside of Tucson for match racing. Slicker quickly developed a reputation for speed, and soon R.W. was inundated with challenges to race against the 15-hand mare. So R.W. devised a method of testing all comers before racing Slicker. “Whenever they wanted to match Slicker, I’d just say, ‘You


run against this little mare of my wife’s, and if you beat her, we’ll run.’ Most of them could never beat that mare, so I didn’t have to run Slicker against many of their horses.” The mare that belonged to R.W.’s wife was a Quarter


Horse named Dottie who was used mostly as a bar- rel racer. Because Dottie had never been able to beat Slicker in a match, it was the perfect way to evaluate the challengers. Although Slicker won the majority of her match races,


R.W. never kept track of how many races she ran or what horses she ran against. Her first official American Quarter Racing Association race was March 24, 1946, at Tucson’s Rillito Racetrack in a 440-yard allowance.


lthough R.W. Thurman was surprised to see the white markings on the filly his Quarter Horse mare had just


Slicker broke out of the gate and immediately went to the outside rail, despite efforts by jockey John Cheeney to keep her straight. In the process, she bumped Red Wagon (QH) several times, forcing her over against the rail. At the wire, it was Goosy Lucy (QH) in front with Slicker a length behind. Slicker made four more starts that spring but never fin- ished better than third because she continued to cut over to the outside rail. R.W. was bewildered by the mare’s behavior. “She had a good disposition most of the time, but she could be a little ornery when she wanted to,” R.W. told Glynn. “She wasn’t too bad in the gates, but she wouldn’t just walk in either. You had to coax and push her in.” When Rillito closed for the summer, the training trio began working with Slicker breaking from the gate. Al- though they had seen some improvements in the mare, she once again broke to the outside rail in a fall quarter- mile handicap at Rillito and finished second again behind Red Wagon by four lengths. On December 8, 1946,


however, Slicker finally ran straight and won a 330-yard race about a half-length in front of Clabson (QH). She raced twice more in 1947, but that was her only win. G.W. surmised Slicker might have made AA or even AAA had she been started and trained by a professional because her tendency to go to the outside rail would have been corrected early. Later that year, G.W. sold Slicker to Owen Lewis and his son, Merrick, for $700. The Lewis family owned the El Estacada Ranch in Tucson and raced a number of horses in the late 1940s and early 1950s before they moved to Ohio. Although G.W. eventually lost contact with the new


owners and never really knew what became of Slicker, he heard Merrick made her into a polo pony; that fact, how- ever, was never confirmed.


Tonya Ratliff-Garrison is a contributing editor for Paint Horse Racing. To comment on this column, email tonyag@ apha.com.


PAINT HORSE RACING  JANUARY 2013  11


Jockey R.D. Hay on Slicker


APHA FILE PHOTO


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