Inside 'Scoop' a sure bet

LOS ANGELES — Only a Hollywood script could match this reality. In Ruidoso, NM, on Labor Day the 48th All American Futurity featured the finest 2-year-old quarter horses in the world, all sharing the same DNA and all from Vessels Stallion Farm in Bonsall. It is the richest race in the world for quarter horses where the purse is $2 million and each horse running is out of the World All-Time Leading Sire “First Down Dash.” But it’s not only the horses that share the same DNA, it’s the family legacy of training, owning and breeding of champions that make this script worthy of a great screenwriter. There truly is an inside “Scoop.”

Frank “Scoop” Vessels III is a third generation horseman just like two of the horses running as great-grandsons of First Down Dash. Vessels’ grandfather moved to California in the 1930s from his native Kentucky. Vessels Sr.’s hard-earned success in the western oil industry helped feed his passion for quarter horse racing, leading to his founding and building the Los Alamitos Race Track in Los Angeles. Soon, breeding the finest American quarter horses began with the purchase of interest in a stallion named “Clabber,” the American Quarter Horse Association’s (AQHA) first racing champion. Over the next six decades the Vessels name became synonymous with training, breeding and the owning of world-class quarter horses.

With names like “No Secrets Here,” “Gun Battle” and “My First Passion,” it is easy to see why the zeal for raising these beautiful animals in the Vessels family has never died. The family and breeding legacy of First Down Dash as the sire of three sons, three broodmare sires, three grand sires and one great-grand sire in this year’s All American Futurity is a dream come true. That’s 10 of 10 horses sharing the same DNA, and a champion from the Vessels Stallion Farm no matter who wins.

Vessels Stallion Farm in its present location was established in 1985. It is owned by Scoop and Bonnie Vessels. Frank “Scoop” Vessels III is president of the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association and formerly served as president of the American Quarter Horse Association from 2004 to March 2005. For more information, go to http://www.vesselsstallionfarm.com.