 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|||||||||||
 |
STANLEY CARTEL CONTINUES THE LEGACY OF LADYBUG STALLION STATION
Stanley Cartel will be featured in the Grade 1, $795,000 Los Alamitos Super Derby on Sunday along with a powerhouse cast of three-year-olds.
© William Zuazo
LOS ALAMITOS, CA–NOVEMBER 9, 2024–The anticipated running of the Grade 1, $795,000 Los Alamitos Super Derby will once again feature a powerhouse cast of 3-year-olds. The field will include BP Cartel Policy is the fastest qualifier and multiple graded derby winner – certainly one of the top runners on the West Coast, and Dark Nme, the 2023 AQHA champion 2-year-old filly after winning the Grade 1 Rainbow Futurity, Grade 1 Texas Classic Futurity, and the Restricted Grade 1 Remington Park Oklahoma-bred Futurity.
The field will also feature an undefeated colt named Stanley Cartel, who by the looks of recent performance could just be starting to scratch the surface of his vast racing potential.
For Quarter Horse aficionados, seeing the Stanley name on this horse, along with the name of breeder Weetona Stanley, immediately associates this standout with one of the greatest success stories in the history of Quarter Horse racing. Dating back to 1970, the Stanley Family has worked at the famed Ladybug Stallion Station in Madill, Oklahoma, a haven for great Quarter Horse sprinters that first raced for Marvin and Lela Barnes and later operated by Lela’s brother A.F. “Sonny” Stanley, Jr., his wife Weetona, and their sons Stan, Steve and Fred.
The history of the Ladybug Stallion Station is truly an American success story. The names of the great horses associated with the Oklahoma ranch are as long as they are great. Names like 1999 AQHA Hall of Fame inductee FL Lady Bug and her son, Lady Bug’s Moon, the winner of the 1969 Rainbow Derby and a member of the 2013 Class admitted to the AQHA Hall of Fame. Lady Bug’s Moon is one the industry’s greatest broodmare sires with his daughters producing Mr Master Bug and Miss Squaw Hand, who finished 1-2 in the 1982 All American Futurity for Marvin Barnes.
More recent names include the likes of First Prize Rose and her son, the AQHA World Champion First Down Dash, plus names like Heza Fast Dash, First Carolina, Fast First Prize, Fast Prize Zoom, First Prize Dash and countless others.
In Sunday’s Los Alamitos Super Derby, Stanley Cartel and Dark Nme’s families on their dam’s side go back to First Prize Rose. While Dark Nme is owned by TYKHE Racing, the PYC Paint Your Wagon colt Stanley Cartel is owned in partnership by Weetona Stanley and Dunn Ranch. At a simulcast parlor somewhere in Oklahoma, Fred Stanley will be watching Stanley Cartel and the rest of the greats in this year’s Super Derby, hoping to add a victory in Los Alamitos’ biggest derby to the great list of accomplishments by horses raised at Ladybug Stallion Station.
“We drew the six (post) with James Flores, which means that Stanley Cartel will be one of the first horses to load,” Fred Stanley said. ”He's always loaded first or third in every one of his races except for the last one in the trials. He loaded on the outside post number eight and he only had 6.5 seconds before they popped the gate.”
Stanley was thrilled when Stanley Cartel drew a post position that would allow him to be loaded early in the Super Derby.
“We'll be right there and that will give the horse the time that he's been used to,” he said. “He's (mostly) drawn (inside). He didn't know what to do from the outside. I'm a little biased, as you can imagine, but I got the win pictures in the mail today, and it is right at the finish line, and the rider is already standing up. He had a tight, tight hold, tight hold on the horse, and never touched him with the (crop) the entire race. Never, never, never moved the crop the entire race.”
Armando Cervantes piloted Stanley Cartel in the trials, the first time that as a 3-year-old, the five-time winner did not have a horse to his right. When the gates opened he flew, moved in and then took off.
“The rider knew he was qualifying when he put that much distance on good horses,” Stanley added. “When you are about two lengths in front, he knew there was no need to push him. He knew he was in the final.
“Lots of little things in the trials that basically were all brand new for the horse,” Stanley added. “The fact that the two fastest qualifiers (BP Cartel Policy and Stanley Cartel) drew side by side, I loved it. In just about every race, he's broke on top. The last race, even though he broke on top, he didn't break quite as fast as he would have if had another 10 or 15 seconds in the gate. He did not know those gates were going to open in six seconds. We just need a good, clean race and let the chips fall where they may.”
Fred Stanley, 68, and his mother, Weetona, who at age 98 is the world’s leading female breeder of Quarter Horses, have three ranches in Southern Oklahoma, all of them within five miles of each other. Fred, who is the youngest of the three Stanley brothers, would love to be on track for the big race, but his responsibilities at the ranch, and some ailments with his back, the result of an injury he endured when he was unloading bales of hay, will keep closer to home on Sunday night.
“I’m in charge of three ranches, and we have 125 head of horses. Our horse operations stand alone. In other words, every dollar goes into the horse account. It's not personal money. We are not allowed to borrow any money from this account according to dad's will. The horses must pay for their way from the get-go, it must be managed on a budget. There is no leeway. There is no, let's go buy a new truck or new trailer. We had 28 foals last year and we had 28 stud fees that had to be paid for last year. Those stud fees can range from $5,000 to $30,000 so we can easily put over $200,000 just on stud fees. If we do all embryos, that's another $200,000.”
With other expenses, the total costs can easily be over half-a-million dollars per year.
”If you don't keep it where every dollar you spend is being spent as wisely as you can and as conservatively as you can, dad knew that it would eat you up financially. We've seen many people who can last eight to 10 years and then they're out. If you last 20 years that's huge. If you last 40, 50, 60, that's almost unheard of. Dad knew that. The horses have to generate the money and whatever they generate we reinvest into the ranch the following year. That's how dad set up his will 31 years ago.”
As the lead at Ladybug Stallion Station, Fred Stanley stays on top of the family’s horse business daily. From time to time, he’ll make a trip to Ruidoso Downs.
“I enjoy our home in Ruidoso. I can drive to Ruidoso and spend a few days watching the trials and stay for sales. I can get back to Oklahoma in a day if I need to. There are a lot of things that I miss, even events as close as Oklahoma City. We are galloping yearlings right now. We are way ahead of the ball game. We have a training track and our own unique way.
“It's my father's way and my uncle’s way, Marvin Barnes, who is also in the Hall of Fame. Everything I learned about what I'm doing here at the ranch I learned from what I like to call legends, my aunt and uncle and my father and mother. Hopefully we'll have gate work them in December and January and the ones that are showing the promise, they'll be heading to Los Alamitos. That's the way we do it. I like to break them myself. I watch them every morning. I love to watch them travel. We do a lot of walking with them.”
The Stanleys and their team spend a lot of time with each individual yearling.
“That's just the way I've been taught. It's worked for six decades. It's too early to tell right now, but we will know in January which horses will go on to the Grade 1 races. That's the one good thing about doing it all right here in ranch for those three months. I know a lot about these horses before they are ever turned over to a trainer.
“First Down Dash was raised here. We handled him every day until we went to the sale. He never had a problem. He went on to be the greatest sire of all time. Heza Fast Dash, he's the number eight leading sire of all-time. Born here, raised here and broke here. He went on to become one of the most successful sires of all time.”
As for their yearling fillies, the hope is always to see them back at the ranch, eventually joining the broodmare band.
“It's awesome to have an outstanding stud colt at the racetrack. You are very, very blessed if you do, but primarily you need to make sure that you have the broodmares. If your broodmare band does not continue, you are not going to stay in this business very long. It's the broodmares that you have to have. We haven't bought a mare in 40 years. Everything is home bred and home raised. Everything comes back to the broodmare band. That is the key. We raised all our broodmares. If you look on the catalog pages of our horses, you'll see that the first, third, fourth, fifth down are all Stanley breds. We had a calculation done of the Stanley bred stallions that went on to stand at stud and are still standing at studs and the family bred mares that went on to be broodmares, they've made over $150 million dollars combined. Naturally, I like Stanley Cartel to be the next one.
“My two older brothers, Stan is 78, and Steve is 73 and I'll be 69 next month, their health won't let them do what they used to do. In the 1960s, 70s, 80s, we would never have made it without my two older brothers. My mother managed the office. My father was the stallion manager and the breeding manager.”
In 1972, Lady Bug's Moon's first crop of juveniles made an immediate impact in the Blue Ribbon Futurity trials, which in those days were held on New Year’s Day. Eight of the 10 finalists were sired by Lady Bug's Moon, an accomplishment that was unheard of in those days. Soon after, the ranch had over 500 requests for breeding contracts.
“We had the greatest breeding veterinarian at the time,” Stanley added. “His name was Dr. Leon Self of Ada, Oklahoma. Dr. Self became the first veterinarian to use artificial insemination in the equine industry. We were blessed to have him teach us all from the very start. He was my aunt and uncle's personal veterinarian when they lived in Ada, Oklahoma. We had an inside track on the greatest equine veterinarian of that era.”
Fred Stanley, only 14 years old at the time, would help Dr. Self each morning as he conducted extensive checkups on the broodmares at Lady Bug Stallion.
"Dad developed a reputation of helping mares that were difficult to breed. They would send him mares from all over the nation,” Stanley added. “Dad would say, ‘Take a clean mare and a fertile stud and you can't keep them from getting pregnant. That was the start of our journey as a breeding farm.”
As the ranch continued to grow, Sonny Stanley met Gordon H. Wilson from Vian, Oklahoma.
“Gordon would come and breed horses with us. He was a very intelligent man. Good man. He was older than dad and had been in the horse business longer than us. He had a foundation mare named Casco Rose. She never officially started, but he bred her to Lady Bug's Moon and got Rose Bug. He bred Rose Bug to the Jet Deck stud named Gallant Jet and got First Prize Rose.”
Older in years, Gordon had health complications.
“He and daddy had become great friend by then,” Stanley said. “My dad said 'Gordon, I hope you never sell your mares, but if you ever think about it, would you please call me first.' And he did. That's how dad ended up with Rose Bug and First Prize Rose. That's how he bred First Prize Rose to Dash For Cash and here comes First Down Dash and later First Prize Dash, who was fastest qualifier to the All American Elimination Trials and fastest qualifier to the All American Derby. Every mare in this place goes back to First Prize Rose.
“Once the mares produced the way they started producing, we never stood another stallion at this ranch. We owned stallions but we would have them somewhere else. That's because we couldn't have a broodmare band of 15 and 18 mares, 30 to 40 yearlings here, the 40 recipient mares here (after the embryo transfers), plus the weanlings, and still run a stud farms. We just couldn't do it. We went to strictly broodmares.”
Take a look at Stanley Cartel, whose dam is First Prize Fancy, winner of one race and $3,578. However, her mother is First Prize Dash, who won five races and over $77,000, and First Prize Dash’s mother is First Prize Rose. There it is again, First Prize Rose, from the line of Gordon Wilson’s Rose Bug out of Casco Rose and the cross with Lady Bug’s Moon.
Fred will watch the Super Derby at his usual spot. It’s a drive from the famed Ladybug Stallion Station, but the place features nearly every racetrack in the United States on beautiful theatre-sized TVs.
“I'll watch it there,” he said. “With Stanley Cartel being undefeated at this time, the drives back feel a lot shorter.”
Return Home
View all news