By Christie Millier first published in the August 2001 issue of Barrel Horse News
Along with the Thoroughbred stallion Beduino, Dash For Cash dominates the genetic picture in racing. The Dash For Cash line is quite evident in barrel racing, too.
Bred by B.F. Phillips Jr. of Dallas, Texas, Dash For Cash was foaled in 1973 and hit the ground running. As his trainer, C.W. “Bubba” Cascio, once said, “he beat good horses bad.”
As a 2-year-old, Dash For Cash accumulated $114,340 with victories in the Sun Country Futurity, the Lubbock Downs futurity and the Jet Deck Handicap. In 1976 the sorrel stallion returned to the tracks with a roar. He was named Champion Three-Year-Old, Champion Three-Year-Old Colt as well as World Champion. In both 1976 and 1977, he won the Champion of Champions race.
Dash For Cash possessed a speed index rating of 114 and a stride measured at 32 feet. In the April 1991 Quarter Racing Journal article, “Clocking the Fastest Horses on Earth,” Dr. George W. Pratt wrote: “When he set the quarter-mile track record at Los Alamitos, Dash For Cash clocked :21.17, reaching a peak speed of 77.09 feet per second, or 52 -1/2 miles per hour.”
Both Dash For Cash and the great Thoroughbred, Secretariat, stood 16.2 hands at the age of 3. Equine artist Jim Reno created bronzes of both stallions and concluded the two horses had identical measurements. It was Secretariat that posted an incredible 31-lenth victory in the Belmont Stakes.
Dash For Cash was retired from racing in December of 1977, and his first foals were born over the next few months. Dash For Cash’s test breeding had involved 39 mares. From 19 foal crops, Dash For Cash would sire 1,328 AQHA-registered foals.
When Dash For Cash was syndicated for $2.5 million at $62,500 per share, Phillips managed the syndicate. Following the Phillips Ranch dispersal in 1993 (five years after Phillips’ death), Dash For Cash was moved to the Four Sixes Ranch at Guthrie, Texas.
Veterinarian Glenn Blodgett has worked for the Four Sixes since 1982, and said of Dash For Cash, “He was fast, and a real good gate horse. He broke fast and was a real smart running horse. I hear lots of people say they (his get) were real smart horses, and in general his offspring were better in the gates than most horses, not silly or prone to flip.”
A lot of the racing Quarter Horses have been used in other disciplines, as well. The Dash For Cash line is one of the more prominent crossovers, probably because he was such an outstanding animal.
“There was something real special about being around him,” Blodgett went on. “You felt you were around a more sensible, smarter horse than average. He ad a real level-headed mannerism. I’ll always admire a horse that seems to be a real sensible horse and doesn’t have any bad habits. He was real good to work with no matter what we were doing with him.”
All-American Dad
Dash For Cash’s sire was Rocket Wrangler, winner of the 1970 All-American Futurity. Rocket Wrangler was by the Thoroughbred stallion Rocket Bar, by Three Bars. Dam of Rocket Wrangler was Go Galla Go, by the 1955-57 World Champion Running Quarter Horse and World Champion Stallion, Go Man Go. Dash For Cash was out of a plain looking Thoroughbred mare, Find A Buyer, owned by the King Ranch.
In an article written by Richard Chamberlain for the July 1996 Quarter Horse Journal, Phillips explained why he bred Find A Buyer to Rocket Wrangler.
“She had a fine pedigree. Rocket Wrangler had a fine head and neck, and the mare needed help. That’s why I bred her to him.”
Had Phillips not considered conformation as important as speed, racing would be a different world today. How different?
The March 1997 Quarter Horse Journal reported eight of racing’s 11 champions in 1996 descended from Dash For Cash.
In all, Find A Buyer produced 12 AQHA-registered foals, but none held a candle to Dash For Cash. The sorrel stallion two full siblings; the ’76 sorrel gelding Boogie Machine, and the ’78 sorrel stallion Second To Nothing.
Dashing for Barrel Cash
Jockey Jerry Nicodemus rode both Rocket Wrangler and Dash For Cash and said of Dash For Cash, “You’d show Dash For Cash something one time and he’d catch on.”
Barrel racers mounted on Dash For Cash-bred horses tend to echo these claims. Ranked high in the WPRA World standings are Amy Dale of Graham, Wash., and Bo Hill of Dodge City, Kan. Both women ride Dash For Cash grandget.
Dale rides Quick Judge, a 1992 gray mare by Judge Cash. Double-bred Dash For Cash, the mare is out of Miss Quick Leeta by Race For Cash. Both Amy and her mother, Wynette Dale, a WPRA Gold Card member, train futurity horses.
“Quick Judge was the first by Judge Cash to go out and run barrels competitively,” Wynette said. “We’ve ridden or owned several by Judge Cash. Trainability is the thing we look for in a horse. They all are so smart and learn so quickly – the mares are all different, so it has to be coming from the Dash For Cash. They like people and are very friendly, very kind, not flighty, and are pretty much all-business horses. If we could buy lots more Dash For Cash or Judge Cash horses, we would.”
A 1987 gray son of Dash For Cash, Judge Cash stands at Painted Rock Ranch at Terrebone, Ore. He is out of Mary Mito by Mito Paint (TB). Also by Judge Cash is Cocos Cash, a 1996 gelding out of Sonoma Reed. Ridden by Danyelle Campbell, the gelding placed third at the 2001 Speedhorse Silver Cup Futurity.
Bo Hill has ridden other Dash For Cash horses, but when she teamed up with He Is Slipping by the black stallion Dash For Perks, it was one of the first horses Hill really stuck with. Out of A Flick Bug by Lady Bug’s Moon, He Is Slipping was bred by Marvin Barnes and is a full brother to the 1999 Old Fort Days Consolation Champion, Perk Up N Dash. Hill’s current futurity mount is Madam Flick Bug, another full sibling.
Hill explained the traits, which drew – and held – her interest in the Dash For Perks line.
“Dash For Perks is a real dominate stallion on about any mare,” Hill said. “It’s my opinion, but I think the mare is usually 70 percent, but he’s a dominate sire and I think he contributes more, really tattoos his foals. Not so much in color, but they’re early-maturers, both physically and mentally. They’re very trainable. I’ve ridden 15-20 Dash For Perks over the last few years. I start them myself and there’s no buck. They all have the same look and the dame mind. I always say if you had enough bananas, a monkey could train one.”
Dash For Perks stands at Ladybug Stallion Station, Madill, Okla. Incidentally, A Flick Bug, the dam of the above-mentioned full siblings, is a full sister to two other great-producing mares.
The genetic potential of full siblings such as these mares as not gone unnoticed by Jud Little, Ardmore, Okla. Little owns the brown Dash For Cash son, Cash Not Credit, and is breeding him to proven barrel-racing mares or their full sisters.
“When I bought him, he’d already sired $500,000 in barrel winners,” Little said. “Dash For Cash was probably one of the most outstanding individuals in the breed. Magnificent horse. I put my mares together with the idea of owning a Dash For Cash son.”
In 1992, Kim (Ferguson) Thomas rode Thinkin Of Cash to win the World Championship Barrel Futurity. By Cash Not Credit, the 1988 brown gelding is out of Inaminute by Aforethought (TB). Also in 1992, Thomas rode This Gals Got Creditt to the World Championship Derby championship. A black 1987 Cash Not Credit daughter, the mare is out of Distinguished Gal by Distinguished Man.
In 1998, Kim’s daughter, Marcee, rode Nonstopwithcredit, by Cash Not Credit out of Nonstop Betty by Nonstop Jet, to the Speedhorse Derby title.
‘When Marcee won the Speedhorse Derby on Bad Betty (Nonstopwithcredit), she weighed 61 pounds. When you can put a kid on a horse with $50,000 in earnings, you’ve got a horse with a mind,” Little emphasized.
Dashin’ N Cashin’
Tami (Purcell) Fonteot was the first female jockey to win the All-American Futurity. After years of racing experience, the jockey-turned-barrel racer told the Barrel Horse News in May 1998, “Some families of horses are able to withstand pressure better than others. I tend to lean toward the Dash For Cash’s because of that and because they’ve been good to me.”
Besides speed, Dash For Cash-bred horses seem to possess cutting ability. One example is Miss N Cash, earner of over $124,000 from cutting.
Leading the Dash For Cash offspring in barrel earnings is Real Special Dash. Owned and ridden by WPRA member Teal Rice, Lankin, Kan., the 1994 sorrel gelding is out of Sweet n Special by Special Effort. According to Equi-Stat figures, the gelding has earned $20,022, which does not include WPRA monies. In 2000, Real Special Dash carried Rice to the title of WPRA Prairie Circuit Champion.
Ranked second in earnings is the Dash For Cash son, Automatic Cash, a 1990 brown gelding out of Mlle. Lotaluck (TB). Owned by Shelly Lee of Picayune, Miss., and ridden by Rita Shaw, the gelding placed third in Senior barrels at the 1996 AQHA World Show.
Next in line is Big Bad Dash, a 1993 sorrel gelding out of hug tiny by Tiny’s Gay. Mary Bonogofsky, Carson, N.D., sold Big Bad Dash to college rodeo competitor Jennifer Freeland, Lehigh, Utah, last fall.
“He’d been on the track and you couldn’t tell, he was so quiet. I really liked him,” relayed Bonogofsky. “Exceptional horse; beautiful mind, highly trainable, nice conformation.”
About six years ago, Bonogofsky, a WPRA member, quit her job. She doesn’t take outside horses, but instead divides her time between rodeoing and training futurity colts. Bonogofsky currently rodeos on Texas High Man, a gray Dash For Cash great-grandson by Texas High Dasher out of Miss War Go. Her futurity prospects are Bear Be Gone, by Hard Cash Dash, ad Cash Lenas Chex, by Docs Wired Lena.
“I really like the Dash For Cash horses. I’d sure take one in an instant if I had the chance to get a good one. They’re not real excitable, and retain what they learn,” Bonogofsky said.
Dash For Cash Sons
In the racing world, it was long held that Dash For Cash sons couldn’t run – but then along came sons like Cash Rate and First Down Dash.
Daddy Hold On, a 1982 son of Dash For Cash, sired SLM Big Daddy that won almost every time he was loaded into the starting gate.
In the barrel racing world, Dash For Cash sons are doing him justice. Proven barrel-horse sires include Lil Easy Cash, Cashtaking, Mr Eye Opener, Sir Cashanova, Reckless Dash, Some Dasher, Hooked On Cash, On A High, Cash Dilemma, Streakin Dash, First Weapon, Dashing Cleat, Cash Pledge, Project Cash, Gone To The Man, Bold Episode, Go Concord – the list goes on and on. For Appaloosa fans, there’s the red roan ApHC-registered Dash For Cash son, Perky Peter.
Dashing Grandget
Dash For Cash’s grandsons would make their grandpa proud. The No. 1 Dash For Cash – sired futurity horse of 1999 was Easy Dash Oak, ridden b Tammy (Dube) Key. Easy Dash Oak was second in overall futurity earnings of $115, 171 for 1999 according to Equi-Stat. Sired by the late stallion Victory Dash, the 1995 bay gelding is out of Easy Little Oak by Easily Smashed. Winner of the 1999 World Championship Futurity, the gelding also won the Elite Futurity and was reserve champion of the Speedhorse Futurity. To date, Equi-Stat records show Easy Dash Oak’s official earnings at $136,492.
Ranked second is the third-place winner at the 1998 World Championship Futurity, Less Return. By Dashing Investment, the 1994 brown mare is out of Instant Return, and has earnings over $89,000.
Third on the list is This Gals Got Credit, followed by One Slick One Two. By the late Dash For Cash son, One Slick One, One Slick One Two is out of Pretty Plunder. One Slick One sired other good barrel horses like Believe And Achieve, Define, and One Slick Winds, which posted one of the fastest first-go times at the 1997 World Championship Futurity.
The Dash For Cash son Takin On The Cash sired several horses on this list, as well. They are: Takin On The Bug (1998 Elite Open Futurity Champion), Mega hoss (23rd at the 1997 Old Fort Days Futurity) and Wahini Cash (1999 World Championship Derby Reserve Champion).
Other barrel-money earning grandget on this list include: He Is Slipping, Dash N Sparks, Nonstopwithcredit, Rollin Vickie and Smashing Eye Opener.
Dash For Cash Great Grandget
Leading the pack of Dash For Cash’s barrel-winning great-grandget with official earnings of over $78,000 is Fame Fox Kirk. Owned and ridden b WPRA veteran Martha Wright, the 1996 sorrel gelding placed fourth at the 2000 Lazy E Futurity. In February 2001, Fame Fox Kirk bested 139 entries to win the Belton, Texas, Rodeo and recently won the Old Fort Days Super Derby. By Dash Ta Fame, the gelding is out of Mamma Soul Kirk by Dr Kirk.
Owned and ridden by Cindy Arnold of Neosho, Mo., is second-leading earner, Memories To Cherish. In 1999, the duo placed fourth at the Speedhorse Futurity and were champions of the Ardmore Barrel Futurity. Arnold also was the 2001 Speedhorse Silver Cup non-Pro Derby Champion. By Leaving Memories, the 1995 sorrel gelding is out of Cherish The Hope.
Third is Up The Middle, by Sir Austin Duncan out of Hot Town Native, ridden by Danyelle Campbell. Other earners on this list include Gems For Royalty, Hardways Fancy Cash, Slippin By Yawl and Whos Baby I Am.
The Look of Eagles
When Orren Mixer painted a portrait of Dash For Cash, he captured the stallions’ “look of eagles.” The look in those eyes is something Dr. Blodgett will never forget.
“He had one of those real big, good, keen, smart, intelligent eyes.”
On May 20,1996, Dash For Cash was euthanized due to complications of EPM (equine protozoal myeloencephalitis). As Four Sixes veterinarian, to Dr. Blodgett fell the unenviable task of putting Dash For Cash down.
When asked if it was the hardest thing he’s ever had to do, Blodgett replied, “Yes and no. Because of his deteriorating condition, I’d had 30-45 days to prepare myself, and when the time came, you know he’d be better off.”
Dash For Cash’s ashes were buried at the foot of a life-sized bronze statue of his likeness in front of the American Quarter Horse Heritage Center and Museum in Amarillo, Texas.
“I saved the shoes he had on him when he died, his halter, and I think they (Four Sixes) did save some of his hair,” Blodgett recollected.
In 1997, Dash For Cash was inducted into the AQHA Hall of Fame. He won 21 of 25 starts, earned $507,688, finished first or second in every race of his career except one. He retired sound, without any arthritic problems later in life.
There’ll never be another Dash For Cash, but his name will forever grace many pages in both racing and barrel racing history. Dash For Cash graced our lives because B.F. Phillips Jr. held firm to his belief that a fast horse is good, but a good-looking fast horse is better.
