Price for First Down Dash Was Very High -- and a Bargain : Quarter Horse, Winner of 11 of 13 Races, Among Favorites in Breeders Championship

Millie Vessels says she’s a seller, not a buyer, of quarter horses. But when Los Alamitos runs the first Breeders Championship Classic Saturday night, one of the favorites will be First Down Dash, a 3-year-old colt Vessels bought for $97,000 a couple of years ago.

Now, the former owner of Los Alamitos doesn’t regret a penny of the purchase.

“At the time I bought him, I was ticked off, because his price went so high,” Vessels said. “But he runs like hell, and he’s intelligent. He’s not Dash for Cash, but he’s close.”

First Down Dash is a son of Dash for Cash, who was voted the champion quarter horse in 1976 and 1977 and is the sport’s leading sire. His progeny have earned more than $2.6 million this year.

If First Down Dash is to win Saturday, one of the horses he’ll have to beat is Florentine, a 3-year-old daughter of Dash for Cash who is on a five-race winning streak. First Down Dash has won 6 straight this year and 11 out of 13 overall. Gold Coast Express, the defending world champion, may also run in the $125,000 race, although his handlers are considering the $50,000 Breeders Sprint.

The Breeders Classics, patterned closely after the Breeders’ Cup program that was started for thoroughbreds in 1984, are seven races worth about $370,000. Besides the 440-yard Championship and the 350-yard Sprint, the other races Saturday night are the $100,000 Juvenile for 2-year-olds going 400 yards; the $25,000 Freshman for 2-year-olds at 350 yards; the $25,000 Sophomore for 3-year-olds at 400 yards; the $20,000 Marathon at 870 yards; and the $25,000 Distaff for fillies and mares at 400 yards.

First Down Dash was one of the highest-priced yearlings sold in 1985. There were only four horses that year that attracted six-figure offers.

The story of how Vessels bought First Down Dash depends on who’s doing the telling, but there seems to be agreement that Vessels didn’t enter the bidding until the price had reached $50,000 or so. Garland Stephens, one of Vessels’ attorneys, had seen First Down Dash the morning of the sale and thought he might amount to something.

Somebody else familiar with the sale said that First Down Dash had a parrot mouth, a condition not favored by many horsemen.

“I thought he was a good-looking horse, but yes, the shape of his mouth wasn’t too good,” Stephens said.

For a while, Vessels and Stephens appeared to be partners in the bidding, but Vessels says that she signed for First Down Dash and: “I paid the bill.”

Vessels was at the auction, which was part of the B.F. Phillips Jr. Ranch sale in Oklahoma City, to sell six of her own horses. “If I ever bought a yearling before this one, I can’t remember it,” Vessels said.

At $96,000, First Down Dash appeared to have gone to another bidder and was led out of the ring. Stephens says that there was a dispute between two bidders--neither of them Vessels--over who had made the final bid. Another report indicates that A.F. Stanley Jr., one of First Down Dash’s breeders, made the $96,000 bid and asked for the horse to be returned to the auctioneer because he thought there had been a higher offer.

Whatever happened, First Down Dash was led back to the ring and when Vessels went to $97,000, that ended the bidding.

First Down Dash has earned slightly more than $700,000, which unofficially makes him the second-highest colt earner ever sired by Dash for Cash, who has sired many more top fillies than colts.

First Down Dash has been favored--at even money or considerably less--in all six of the races on his winning streak, which includes the Los Alamitos Derby, the Dash for Cash Derby and the Hollywood Invitational.

The last time First Down Dash lost was a second-place finish, a half-length behind Will Be Easy, at Los Alamitos in April. In the only poor performance of his career, he tossed his head at the start and then ran eighth in the Hollywood Juvenile Handicap in July of 1986.

Otherwise, there have been only 1’s next to his name. Millie Vessels couldn’t have picked a better horse for her debut in the buying end of the business.