$225,000 in earnings from 15 starts, with a 7-3-3 record and a 109 speed index. “We just try to breed to the very best that we could afford,” Shirley said. “My husband was the one who liked Game Patriot real well. We tried to do shipped semen with him, but couldn’t get that done. We went by the vet’s one evening and he said, ‘she’s still not in foal—you’re going to have to take her to the stud farm and breed her that way.’ So we loaded up and took off for Louisiana.”
Born in 2003, Game Chicken hit the track as a 2- and 3-year-old. Though she amassed $19,000 and logged a 90 speed index, Game Chicken only had lukewarm success on the track. “She was a good mare and I really liked her,” Shirley said. “She would make the finals, but she wouldn’t come back and win them that much. As a runner, she didn’t do what her offspring have.” But bigger things were in store for
It was the 1-2 finish by Imachickenkicker (right) and Flashthechicks (left) in the May 25 National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum Stakes that pushed their dam, Game Chicken (inset), over the $500,000 mark for offspring earnings. Game Chicken is only the third mare to reach this milestone.
Horse mare by Kitaman, a son of Go Man Go and out of a Three Bars (TB) daughter. “My husband and I have been mar- ried 34 years,” Shirley said. “Emma W. had already died, but when I married Jim, I married him and Kita Wheeler.” In 1994, the Wheelers bred Kita Wheeler to one of the Paint industry’s hottest young racing stallions: Judys Lineage. Named 1992’s Champion 3-Year-Old and 3-Year-Old Colt, the sorrel tobiano stallion was entering only his second year at stud, so his sire power was still relatively unknown. The result of the breeding was Kickin Chicken, a 1995 sorrel tobiano mare.
Raced eight times, Kickin Chicken amassed one win, one second and one third, good for earnings of $4,415. Though her race record lacks substance,
Kickin Chicken’s production record speaks volumes. The dam of eight, Kickin Chicken produced six runners by a medley of high-powered running stallions. Among them were 2008 Champion Aged Gelding Kickin Texas, a stakes winner with $33,308 in 38 starts and a speed index of 100, and 2011 Champion 3-Year-Old Filly Eye Opening Chick, earner of $21,393 in 11 starts. But it was Kickin Chicken’s 2003 filly, Game Chicken, who is really leaving a mark on the industry. With a strong dam line coupled with an infusion of running genetics from her sire, Game Patriot (QH), Game Chicken was bred to run. A graded stakes winner himself, Game Patriot— sired by AQHA Hall of Famer Chicks Beduino and out of a First Down Dash (QH) daughter—racked up more than
Game Chicken. Retired to the Wheel- er’s broodmare band, the mare pro- duced her first foal in 2009, followed in quick succession by two more in 2010 and 2011. With three top racehorses out of three tries, Game Chicken soon found herself thrust into the limelight as one of Paint racing’s top producers.
Dam Good As far as broodmare duty goes, Game Chicken came out of the gate firing. Her first, Flashthechicks, hit the
ground in 2009. Sired by $4 Million Sire Royal Quick Flash, Flashthechicks wasted no time lighting up the track. The sorrel solid Paint-bred gelding’s achievements are impressive: two-time World Champion SPB Running Horse, four Champion titles, and two No. 1 Honor Roll SPB Gelding awards. With wins in about half of his 25 starts to date, as of June 17, Flashthechicks has logged seven stakes wins, including the 2013 G1 Mister Lewie Memorial Handicap, the 2011 RG1 American Paint Classic Futurity, the 2011 G1 Gra- ham Paint & Appaloosa Futurity, and the 2011 RG1 Pot O’Gold Futurity.
PAINT HORSE RACING JULY 2013 19
DUSTIN ORONA PHOTOGRAPHY
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