Breeding


Sunland Summary Pedigree Analysis: Nucky, Wagon Full Of Gold Bring It Home
Nucky wins the West Texas Futurity Sunday afternoon at Sunland Park.

© Coady Photography
Sunland Summary Pedigree Analysis: Nucky, Wagon Full Of Gold Bring It Home

By Andrea Caudill

Q-RACING JOURNAL—APRIL 13, 2015—It must have made Bobby Cox smile a little bit when favorite and fastest qualifier Nuckyrolled home first in Sunday’s $198,924 West Texas Futurity (G2) at Sunland Park. After all, the Fort Worth, Texas-based champion breeder not only bred this horse but also his young sire, Dominyun, as well as Dominyun’s mama.

It must have made owners Denis and Julie Schoenhofer smile, too, as they picked the horse (then named "Southern Courage") up for only $12,000 at last year’s Heritage Place Winter Mixed Sale. Nucky, who now shares a name with the main character in the TV series “Boardwalk Empire” (as well as the real life Atlantic City politician Nucky Johnson), is 2-for-2 with earnings of $98,594.

Dominyun is a son of leading sire Mr Jess Perry, and in his career won or placed in nine of 11 starts and earned $336,180. He was third in the Grade 1 All American and Dash For Cash futurities, and second in the Ruidoso Derby (G1). He is a half brother to the likes of stakes winners A Down Right Runaway ($108,203) and Riddick ($67,598).

Dominyun stands at Royal Vista Ranches in Wayne, Oklahoma, and already this year has gotten three winners from 11 starters, including Oklahoma Futurity (G2) qualifier Adelady, also bred by Cox.

Nucky’s dam is the Southern Cartel mare Southern Brook. Southern Brook was bred by Bill Price and is now owned by Van Carter; this is the mare’s third foal.

Southern Brook was four times race placed in 18 career starts. I profiled her family in detail last year with stakes winner Coronas Concierge, who is out of a full sister to Southern Brook.

Wagon Full Of Gold wins the Bank of America Sunland Park Challenge Championship. © Coady Photography
Also highlighting the weekend card at Sunland Park was Wagon Full Of Gold’s triumph in the $103,650 Bank of America Sunland Championship Challenge (G2) on Saturday.

Racing for Ezra Elton Lee, Jill Giles and Melvin Neugebauer, Wagon Full Of Gold was also a finalist in the 2013 All American Futurity (G1). Wagon Full Of Gold has now won five of 12 starts in his career and earned $156,304. I profiled the gelding’s fascinating story back in 2013, with highlights here:

Wagon Full Of Gold races for a partnership of co-breeder Ezra Lee, Jill Giles (wife of Wes), and Melvin Neugebauer. Lee bred the horse in partnership with his cousin, Toby Dahl, from a mare in their grandfather’s breeding program.

Their grandfather Merrill Lee was a World War II veteran who was captured in the Philippines and endured the horrific Bataan Death March and life as a prisoner of war for 42 months. When he was freed and recovered, he reenlisted in the Air Force and also served in the Korean War. He married his wife, Virginia, in 1948, and upon his retirement took up breeding racing American Quarter Horses. The Billings, Montana, residents bred horses for more than 30 years. Racing horses regionally, they bred 22 winners from 43 starters, with earnings at more than $750,000. Among their runners were stakes winners Jodys Irish Miss, MNV Pack And Dash and MNV Soupandfrackers.

Upon Merrill’s death, the cousins purchased mares from the estate, including the 1992 mare Cheyennes Bullion. A daughter of Bully Bullion out of the Arbeka Jet One mare Cheyennes Huwana bred by Larry Rice of Scottsbluff, Nebraska, the mare was a stakes-placed runner in Montana. She had already produced stakes-placed runners MNV Ms Pure Bullion (by Pure D Dash, $7,584) and MNV Miss Arbeka Jet (by First Wrangler, $21,357), but her 2005 foal by Panther Mountain put the family on the national map.

DMNV Mountable would win or place in 13 of 21 starts, including victories in the Grade 1 Texas Classic, Remington Park and Heritage Place derbies and Kansas Jackpot Futurity (RG2), and numerous other placings. He would earn $479,515 and stands at stud at TNL Farm at Bosque, New Mexico.

Cheyennes Bullion did not have a foal again until 2010, with Wagon Full Of Gold foaled in 2011. The mare died in 2012.

A resident of Bayfield, Colorado, Lee was able to acquire a breeding to Pyc Paint Your Wagon, a son of Corona Cartel, has progeny earnings of more than $17.9 million. The stallion is owned by PYC LLC and Reliance Ranches LLC and stands at Lazy E Ranch at Guthrie, Oklahoma.

Lee raised Wagon Full Of Gold, and remembers the day when he brought trainer Wes Giles out to see a crop of youngsters that included Wagon Full Of Gold.

“I think I had 15 or so babies in the corral,” Lee remembered. “I didn’t tell him the breeding on any of them, and Wes picked that colt out as his favorite.”

AQHA News and information is a service of the American Quarter Horse Association. For more news and information, follow @AQHARacing on Twitter, watch the AQHA Racing Newscast and visit www.aqharacing.com.