The American Quarter Horse Association announces the selection of the 2012 inductees into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame. Induction into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame is one of the highest honors in the American Quarter Horse industry.
The Hall of Fame selection committee reviewed the nominees, and the AQHA Executive Committee recently approved the following three people and three horses for induction:
Bob Loomis
Bob Loomis won his first public notice as a reining trainer in 1972 when he was co-reserve champion at the National Reining Horse Association Futurity on Britton Princess.
In 1976, C.T. Fuller sent High Proof to Bob for training. They won the NRHA open class at the All American Quarter Horse Congress, then the senior reining at the AQHA World Championship Show. High Proof’s elegant style changed the way reining horses were bred and trained. High Proof was inducted into the NRHA Hall of Fame in 1991.
In 1978, Bob bought Topsail Cody to cross on his Boss’ Nowata Star mares. He began training the stallion in 1979 to AQHA and NRHA championship titles. Topsail Cody would eventually pass the million-dollar mark in progeny earnings. His son Topsail Whiz, also a Loomis horse, would also pass the million-dollar mark. Topsail Cody was inducted into the NRHA Hall of Fame in 1996.
In all, Bob has won six NRHA Futurity championships. He has written a book about reining, “Reining: The Art of Performance in Horses,” and was inducted into the NRHA Hall of Fame in 1992. He is an AQHA 20-year cumulative breeder.
Gordon Hannagan
John Gordon Hannagan got his first horse at age 8. He became an auctioneer by chance when an ailing auctioneer needed a substitute. About a year later, Gordon was working regularly. His first big break came when he was asked to work the American Quarter Horse sale at the Chicago International Livestock Show Sale. Not long after that, Gordon bought his own place, Gordyville, a combination show and sale facility, where he runs the Breeder’s Classic Futurity Sale in October and the Breeder’s Classic Futurity in July. In between, the facility is host to breed shows, horse sales, rodeos and auctions.
Gordon started working ranch sales as well, including a sale at the historic King Ranch.
He began his own breeding program in 1951 with a roping mare. He is a 30-year breeder in a program that has produced two AQHA Champions. His wife and children continue to show horses. He has been involved with halter, performance and racing American Quarter Horses.
Gordon was a founder of the Illinois Quarter Horse Association and has served as president and vice president. He is in the Illinois Quarter Horse Hall of Fame.
Walter Fletcher
AQHA Past President Walter Fletcher rodeoed through college and even after he graduated. And he was a pretty good tie-down roper. However, in 1975, he decided to go another direction and traded a couple of rope horses for a daughter of Top Moon called Sweet Mooner. The mare’s race record was not too outstanding. However, she was the foundation of Walter’s breeding program.
For the next seven years, Walter bred Sweet Mooner to a different stallion every year, and when the mare’s broodmare career was finished, she had produced the winners of more than $330,000. And one of the mare’s daughters, Sweet Katrina, was the dam of Sweet N Special, the 1990 racing champion 3-year-old filly.
Like many AQHA members, Walter is a successful rancher and farmer, as well as a horseman. But his avocation has been successful, too. Walter and his wife, Pat, have been breeding racehorses for more than 30 years now, and their record is pretty impressive seven stakes winners and the earners of $1.7 million.
Walter was elected to the AQHA Board of Directors in 1993 and served on the Racing Council for 10 years. He was elected to the AQHA Executive Committee in 2002 and served as president in 2006.
During Walter’s tenure, he helped add two new classes to AQHA events – performance halter and ranch sorting.
Hollywood Dun It
Hollywood Dun It first attracted attention at the 1986 NRHA Futurity, when the 3-year-old finished second. He followed that second-place finish with a win in the 1987 NRHA Derby for his then-trainer and future owner, Tim McQuay. He earned $65,808 in NRHA competition.
Hollywood Dun It retired to the breeding barn in 1989. His first two foal crops earned more than $200,000, and future crops helped him reach the NRHA million-dollar mark at age 16, the youngest sire in that club. “Dun It” would eventually became NRHA’s first $4 million sire. After his death, he reached the $5 million mark.
He sired 1,194 foals that have won the NRHA Futurity, the NRHA Derby and Superstakes, the National Reining Breeders Classic, the All American Quarter Horse Congress Futurity and numerous other futurities and derbies. In AQHA competition, his foals have won eight world championships, eight reserve world championships and more than 11,000 points. His foals also have points with the Palomino Horse Breeders of America and the International Buckskin Horse Association.
In 1998, Hollywood Dun It was selected as the model for the first Breyer Animal Creations reining horse. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2004 and was euthanized in March 2005.
Indigo Illusion
Indigo Illusion was foaled in 1981, sired by Hall of Famer Beduino (TB) and out of Capri Copy, a daughter of Duplicate Copy. As a small yearling, she sold for $7,000 in 1982 at the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Association Sale. It was a relative bargain. The mare went on to earn $867,000 and eventually sold for $1 million.
The mare began her race career in 1983 with an undistinguished seventh-place finish. Her next two trips were to the winners circle, a place she would visit 17 times in her life. In August that year, she ran what was then the fastest 440 yards recorded for a 2-year-old anywhere in the Faberge Special Effort Futurity. It was the second fastest 440 yards recorded by any racehorse.
From July 1983 through July 1984, Indigo Illusion won 13 consecutive races. Upon retirement, she produced 19 foals. Of those, 13 were starters, and 10 were winners, including Magic Dozen, Illusive Feature, First Place Dash and Streakin Sixes. Her foals won $562,510.
Of those foals, First Place Dash sired 103 winners from 150 starters. His foals earned $4.6 million. Streakin Sixes has 110 winners from 198 starters. His foals have earned almost $2.5 million.
Indigo Illusion died in November 10, 2007, at age 26.
Steakin La Jolla
Streakin La Jolla was foaled May 1985. The sorrel stallion had slab-fractured as a 2-year-old and came back after surgery to run as a 3-year-old. A screw in his knee started coming loose, and it was removed. He ran through the pain and retired undefeated, his biggest win the All American Derby Consolation after winning his Derby trial but failing to qualify. Running on the same ground on the same day, his Consolation time was faster than the final Derby time.
After his connections retired him to stud, he stood in Louisiana before moving to Texas. He was the 2005 and 2006 Texas Quarter Horse Association Stallion of the Year. His best known offspring is Mr Jess Perry.
He was retired from stud duty two months before his death on June 11, 2009, due to an irregular heartbeat.
