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  First
Down Dash, si 105, is a living legend! Sired by
Dash For Cash, si 114, out of
First Prize
Rose, si 98 (by Gallant Jet), First Down Dash is the World's All-Time Leading
Sire of Racing Quarter Horses!
THIRTEEN of his
FOURTEEN years at
stud, First Down Dash has sired a National
Champion. His recent statistics show him with 1,391 foals of racing age, 1,171
starters, 858 winners, with earnings of $50,223,014. He is
sire to 178 Stakes Winners, 158 Stakes Placed, and 1,051 ROM.
First Down Dash
is the only stallion to ever sire
five All American Winners: Royal Quick Dash,
Dash Thru Traffic,
A Classic Dash, Corona Cash, and Falling in Loveagain. He is the sire of
eight millionaires. Twelve First Down Dash sons rank among the Top 50 sires
of 2004 money earnings, and
he is the #1 maternal grandsire of 2004 money earners at $4.7 million.
Very
recently, First Down Dash son Ocean Runaway won TWO
million dollar
races (the first Quarter Horse to win two million dollar races in the same
year): The Los Alamitos Million Futurity and the Golden State Million
Futurity — and they were just five weeks apart! And, First Down Dash
daughter Cash For Kas became the first three-year old filly to win the
Champion of Champions (December 2004), since Dashing Folly, also sired by
First Down Dash, won in 1996.
He leads as a sire of top selling
horses, too. In 2004, First Down Dash's yearlings averaged
$69,522.
First Down Dash excels as a
broodmare sire, too. He is 2004's #1
Leading Broodmare Sire by Earnings and by Two-Year-Old Earnings. He is one of the all-time Leading Maternal Grandsires in AQHA
history.
He was a Champion racehorse, too.
First Down Dash, si 105, had
earnings of $857,256. He was named World Champion in 1987, World Champion
Three-Year-Old, and World Champion Three-Year-Old Colt. His wins included the
Dash For Cash Futurity, Kindergarten Futurity, the
Champion of Champions, and the Los Alamitos Derby. Additionally, First Down Dash
was first in the QHBC Championship Classic, first in the Dash For Cash Derby,
1st in the Laddie Handicap, and 1st in the Hollywood Park Invitational. He won
an impressive 13 of 15 starts. His flawless conformation and an
exemplary attitude has capitalized into progeny earnings exceeding $50 million.
The success of his productivity is a
tribute to his own sire, all-time-leader
Dash For Cash. First Down Dash has sired a national champion every
year since
1991 - 26 in all. He has 3 World Champions,
DOWN WITH
DEBT in 1994, DASHING FOLLY in 1996 and A RANSOM in 2000.
 His incredible success as a sire is also
attributable to the maternal side of his pedigree, which connects him to
the incomparable FL Lady Bug. In an
article in the American Quarter Horse Racing
Journal (February 2004), Richard Chamberlain writes,
"First Down Dash exhibits much more the phenotype of his bottom side than his
top."
The
great First Down Dash stands
at Vessels Stallion Farm, in
Bonsall, California.
It is Circle D's honor to stand
a son of First Down Dash.
First Down Dash and
Scoop Vessels, Vessels Stallion Farm, Bonsall, California
(Photo from The
American Quarter Horse Racing Journal, August 2004
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First Down Dash is First
Sire of the All American
Amarillo, Texas, September 3, 2006--If
any doubts about First Down Dash’s influence on American Quarter Horse
racing remain, check out the field for Monday’s $1.9 million All American
Futurity (G1) at Ruidoso Downs. All of the 10 starters in the 440-yard race
have the stallion in their pedigree, which the crew at Vessels Stallion Farm
in Bonsall, California, recognizes as a tremendous accomplishment.
“It means he is what he is,”
said farm owner and AQHA Past President Frank “Scoop” Vessels about the
22-year-old son of Dash For Cash. “He’s simply the best sire in the history
of Quarter Horse racing.”
In
the pedigree rundown for this year’s All American starters:
--
First Down Dash is the sire of First Freeze, My First Passion and fastest
qualifier No Secrets Here.
-- He is the broodmare sire of Genuine Botticelli, Mightys First Call and
Separate Bet.
-- His son Stoli sired Dont Let Down.
-- His son Dash Ta Fame sired Gun Battle.
-- His son Okey Dokey Dale sired Okey Dokey Fantasy.
-- Remember Me Rose is by Corona Cartel, whose sire, Holland Ease, is a son
of First Down Dash.
With 17 crops to race, First Down Dash also is the all-time leading sire of
American Quarter Horses by progeny earnings with more than $55.5 million. He
has sired a record five winners of the All American: Royal Quick Dash
(1991), Dash Thru Traffic (1992), A Classic Dash (1993), Corona Cash (1997)
and Falling In Loveagain (1998). Royal Quick Dash is the sire of 2002 All
American winner AB What A Runner.
Vessels said First Down
Dash’s offspring possess the uncommon intelligence and athletic ability of
their sire.
“You can breed him to those Beduino (TB) mares that might be a little
hot-blooded, and yet (the offspring) are calm, they want to learn, they want
to do good for you,” Vessels said. “Anybody can train them. That’s not the
case with a lot of horses. I think that’s one reason he’s done so well for
so many people.”
First Down Dash raced for Vessels Stallion Farm, which also has had its
share of All A merican success as an owner and breeder. The farm won the race
in 1973 with Timeto Thinkrich, and bred Royal Quick Dash and Dash Thru
Traffic. This year, Vessels is represented by three starters as the
co-breeder of My First Passion with Martha Wells; the breeder of No Secrets
Here, whom Vessels co-owns with Benny Rosset; and as the breeder of Separate
Bet.
“To
be able to see him every day is really special,” Vessels said. “Both Bonnie
(Vessels’s wife) and I try very hard not to miss a time when we can stop by
and see him. He’s very much a member of the family.”
"Just A
Rumor" A granddaughter of First Down Dash |
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