Oldest Quarter Horse In History to Race Sunday at Remington Park

OKLAHOMA CITY - When Silent Cash Dasher, age 16, leaves the starting gate in the 11th race on Sunday night, March 29, he’ll become the oldest Quarter Horse to ever race in the USA and obviously, the oldest horse to ever run at Remington Park.

Owned and trained by Gary Earp of Jay, Okla., jockey Denise Lambeth has been named to ride in the race, an allowance at 250 yards with a purse of $24,000. He has been assigned odds at 15-1 in the morning line for Sunday.

Silent Cash Dasher won here at age 13, in May 2006, becoming the oldest horse to ever win at Remington Park.

The Oklahoma-bred gelding won 3 races at Oklahoma tracks last year at age 15, becoming the oldest quarter horse to ever win a race in the USA. The gelded son of Dash Easy from the Silent Devil mare Barrbom Babe was bred by Carl Kirby.

Silent Cash Dasher boasts career earnings of $155,277 and has won 18 of his 81 career attempts. His racing career began in 1997 and he first competed at Remington Park as a 5-year-old in 1998.

Post time for the first of 11 races on Sunday night at Remington Park is 6:25pm



http://www.horsebackmagazine.com/breakingnews.htm

AQHA Debuts Greener Pastures Program

This is a good start. Its about time the AQHA did something for the horses,......of course, it is a voluntary program that wont cost the asociation anything. It will be interesting to see how many owners actually participate in this program. Meanwhile, more needs to be done in the way of funding for equine rehab and retirement.
-------------

America's Horse: Is there an American Quarter Horse in your past or present for whom you'd like to provide a forever home?

With the American Quarter Horse Associations new Greener Pastures program, you'll be able to indicate on a horse's registration certificate that should that horse ever become unwanted, unusable or simply ready for retirement, you will if possible assist in finding him or her a suitable home.

The program is free, completely voluntary, does not imply that a buy back or exchange of money will occur, or that a horse is guaranteed a home, because sometimes situations can and do change. It simply allows members who can and want to an opportunity to provide for the long-term care of horses they've bred or owned. You must be an AQHA member to sign up for or enroll a horse in the program.

AQHA wants to help responsible horse owners, says Tom Persechino, AQHA executive director of marketing. We believe we can better serve the equine industry and help ensure the long-term care of horses we register with this program. By implementing Greener Pastures, we begin to fill a void.

AQHA believes that being green means more than reducing one's carbon footprint; it's actually a much a larger issue of social responsibility to the earth and all of its creatures.

Essentially, the Association will act as a clearinghouse by tracking Greener Pastures-enrolled horses and AQHA members who have indicated the desire to help.

AQHA news and information is a service of AQHA publications. For more information on The American Quarter Horse Journal, The American Quarter Horse Racing Journal or Americas Horse, visit www.aqha.com/magazines.

Source: www.aqha.com

Quarter horse breeding continues apace

horsetalk.co.nz/news/2009/03/001
March 1, 2009

The number of new quarter horse registrations in North America dropped by 30,000 horses last year from 2005 figures, but the breed still accounts for more foals on the ground than all other breeds recorded by the US Jockey Club put together.
The Jockey Club's figures, released this week in the organisation's Fact Book, shows that 135,924 quarter horse foals were registered in 2008. This is a drop from the 2005 figures of 165,057, the highest noted in the factbook since the 1960s. The figures show quarter horse registrations decreasing 6.9% since 2000.

The American Quarter Horse Association has received criticism in recent years for its registrtation policies which welfare groups say fuel the slaughter industry, which exports horse meat to Europe.

The second most prolific breed was the thoroughbred, with an estimated 36,600 registrations on the ground in 2008. This represents a drop of about 1500 foals from the 2005 figure of 38,191.

Registrations of paint horses, which nearly quadrupled between 1990 and 2000, have since declined 52.8% through 2008, with 29,534 registrations, down from 42,557 in 2005. The breed is a derivative of the quarter horse.

Appaloosa and arabian registrations fell 46.6% and 36.6%, respectively.

Other breeds shown in the Jockey Club's figures include miniatures, morgans, paso fino, saddlebreds, and standardbreds.

The Jockey Club Fact Book is published annually as a statistical and informational guide to the North American Thoroughbred industry; the 19th edition of the printed version will be published and distributed in early May.

Pari-mutuel handle on thoroughbred racing in North America declined 7.2% to $14,331,781,748 in 2008, as the worsening economy and continued discord concerning rights fees for advance deposit wagering contributed to the decrease. A more modest decline of 1.3% in North American gross purses to $1,310,838,852 is indicative of the positive impact of alternative gaming recently implemented at racetracks in several states. Pennsylvania, for example, offered nearly $34 million more in purse money in 2008 than in 2007.

In the sales section, total auction receipts in 2008 fell 21.2% to $972,889,922 as turmoil in credit and equity markets in the fall particularly affected gross sales of broodmares and weanlings, which were down 40.1% and 34.1%, respectively.

In the breeding section, the decline in mares bred in recent years is expected to result in moderate decreases in the annual registered thoroughbred foal crop in 2008 and 2009. Among the top 10 foal-producing states in 2007, New Mexico and Louisiana have more than doubled the size of their annual registered foal crop since 1997. Four others - Kentucky, Florida, New York and Pennsylvania - also experienced gains.

Click on title above to see breed registration figures with graphs and charts.