FORT WORTH—The American Paint Horse Association (APHA) announced the names of 16 Paint Horses and their owners who will receive distinguished racing awards during the association’s upcoming Workshop and Board of Directors meeting slated for May 31-June 2, in Irving, Texas. APHA’s racing committee, comprising 17 members, voted for outstanding Paint Horses in several categories and named them as World Champions and Champions in specific age groups.

Karen Utecht, APHA racing coordinator, said the horses and their performances in 2000 highlighted an outstanding year for Paint racing. These award-winning horses are also helping to popularize the breed in racing circles, she said.

“Interest in Paint Horse racing is increasing at a fast pace throughout the country,” said Utecht, citing statistics to back her claim.

Paint racing has shown a steady increase since 1966, when the APHA officially recognized the sport. That year, 17 starters ran for $1,290. In 1999, 503 starters competed in 367 APHA-recognized races for purses exceeding $2 million. Last year, 553 starters had competed in 531 races for a gross purse of nearly $2.7 million. Compared to only three years ago, the number of Paint starters at tracks across the country has increased 67 percent.

The award-winning World Champions and Champions making a major impact in 2000 include:

Horse: Illegally Smashed
Awards: World Champion Running Paint Horse
Champion Running Paint 2-Year-Old
Champion Running Paint 2-Year-Old Gelding
Owner and Breeder: Oyana Wilson, Muskogee, Okla.
Trainer: J.D. Anderson, Tahlequah, Okla.

Owner Oyana Wilson gelded Illegally Smashed as a yearling and put him with J. D. Anderson, her trainer since 1989. Anderson unveiled the youngster last April at Remington Park in Oklahoma City, and Illegally Smashed finished second twice. Fifth in an allowance race at Fair Meadows, Illegally Smashed clicked when he moved to Blue Ribbon Downs in Sallisaw, Okla., and partnered with a new jockey, Douglas Brinlee.

That combination proved unbeatable for the rest of the year. Illegally Smashed and Brinlee won seven consecutive races at Blue Ribbon from August through November, including the Lorelei, APHA National Championship and Paint the Town Futurities. Illegally Smashed ended the year with earnings of $24,891 and was voted the World Champion Running Paint as well as the Champion 2-Year-Old Running Paint.

His dam, meanwhile, was to foal this year to Royal Quick Flash, the 1998 World Champion Running Paint, which means that Wilson may soon have another talented Paint runner to unleash.

Horse: TTs Ladybug
Awards: Champion Running Paint 3-Year-Old
Champion Running Paint 3-Year-Old Mare
Owner: Kenneth Winters, Ada, Okla.
Breeder: Chris Reamy, Celeste, Texas
Trainer: Lewis Wartchow, Fitzhugh, Okla.

Trainer Lewis Wartchow says that TTs Ladybug is a “super breaker,” which helped her win three of eight races during 2000 for owner Kenneth Winters of Ada, Okla.

At 3 last year, the bay tobiano filly had to face males throughout the season. She beat them in the Oklahoma Horsemen’s Association Paint and Appaloosa Derby at Fair Meadows, and she finished second in the PSBA Derby and Tulsa Derby. TTs Ladybug even shipped to California for her final start, the Masterpiece Paint Horse Derby, and finished fourth. She earned $25,951 in 2000, bringing her lifetime total to $57,693.

Chris Reamy of Celeste, Texas, bred TTs Ladybug by crossing the Quarter Horse mare Lady Crisp with Paint World Champion Treasured Too. Lady Crisp has since produced two full brothers, the 1998 sorrel solid gelding Rodeo Pete and the 1999 bay tobiano colt Go Treasured Go.

Horse: Izzy Legal
Awards: Champion Running Paint Aged Horse
Champion Running Paint Aged Gelding
Owner and Breeder: Oyana Wilson, Muskogee, Okla.
Trainer: J.D. Anderson, Tahlequah, Okla.

As much as owner Oyana Wilson enjoyed Illegally Smashed’s year, she will always have a soft spot in her heart for his older brother, Izzy Legal. The gelding began racing at 2 in 1996 and has just about rewritten the record book. Though at age 6 in 2000 he tapered off a bit, he still accomplished enough to win the Champion Aged Running Paint title and become the first Paint ever to win titles in four years.

He won his first World Championship at 2, when he captured seven of 10 starts. The next year he added the 3-year-old title and a second World Championship with eight wins in 12 races.

An injury cut short Izzy Legal’s 4-year-old season after just three races. Wilson brought him home to her farm to recuperate for a year, and when he returned at age 5 in 1999, he picked up right where he left off, winning an allowance prep and then the Cowboy Hall of Fame Handicap at Remington. In 11 starts during 1999, Izzy Legal won six races, an unprecedented third World Championship and his first of two Aged titles.

His long racing career has taken its toll on Izzy Legal’s ankles, and as a result he didn’t win as many races during 2000. But he still managed four victories in 11 starts, and with 27 career wins, he surpassed Bud Jet as the lifetime leading Paint by wins. He has earned a total of $159,878.

Horse: Miss Super Dee
Awards: World Champion Running Breeding Stock Paint Horse
Champion Running Breeding Stock Paint Aged Horse
Champion Running Breeding Stock Paint Aged Mare
Owner: John T. L. Jones Jr. Interests Ltd., Lexington, Ky.
Breeder: Vaughn Cook, Fort Collins, Colo.
Trainer: Lewis Wartchow, Fitzhugh, Okla.

John T. L. Jones Jr., of Lexington, Ky., bought Miss Super Dee as a yearling at the 1997 Heritage Place Sale in Oklahoma City. She is by Quarter Horse sire Super De Kas, an earner of $276,999 and a son of Thoroughbred stakes winner Coup De Kas. Miss

Super Dee’s dam, Miss Murray, is by Treasured and was stakes-placed herself on the track.

Miss Super Dee started only six times last year, but she made each outing count. She won her first three races, including the Heart of Oklahoma Maturity at Remington, and then finished second in the Spots N Dots Paint and Appaloosa Stakes at Fair Meadows. She added a victory at Blue Ribbon and closed out the season with a second to Dashers Moon Bar in the Olympia Joe Lone Star Paint and Appaloosa Handicap.

With $30,640 in earnings last year, Miss Super Dee brought her lifetime total to $90,921.

Horse: Fever
Awards: Champion Running Breeding Stock Paint 2-Year-Old
Champion Running Breeding Stock Paint 2-Year-Old Mare
Owners: Laural J. Ranch, La Junta, Colo.
Breeder: Delois and Ray Graves, Duncan, Okla.
Trainer: James Kerr, La Junta, Colo.

Lorraine Reynolds and her fiance, Jim Kerr, bought Fever at the Heritage 1999 fall mixed sale as a yearling.

“I really like those Beduino bloodlines,” Kerr said. “We’ve had a lot of luck with them.”

A daughter of Aze Beduino, son of the Thoroughbred sire Beduino, Fever is out of Mexxus, a granddaughter of Beduino through her sire, Dr Beduino.

Owners Lorraine Reynolds and Jim Kerr’s luck held with the purchase of Fever, their first Paint. They run the Laural J Ranch in La Junta, Colorado, and Fever received her first lessons there.

She made her first start in a trial for the American Paint Classic at Remington, finishing second to Rene Too, who ultimately won the final. With so little racing experience, Fever finished seventh in the Classic, but she followed that effort with three straight wins at Arapahoe Park in Colorado.

Back in Oklahoma at Blue Ribbon, Fever qualified for the Pot O’ Gold Futurity with a good second in her trial. But bad racing luck ruined her chances in the Futurity when a horse to her inside came out and bothered her.

Fever atoned for that loss when she won her trial for the APHA Breeding Stock Futurity at Blue Ribbon and then came back to win the Futurity by three-quarters of a length. That gave her a record of five wins in nine starts for earnings of $36,408.

Horse: Iaintscared
Awards: Champion Running Breeding Stock Paint 3-Year-Old
Champion Running Breeding Stock Paint 3-Year-Old Gelding
Owner: Caroline Sanders and R. Funk, Henryetta, Okla.
Breeder: Joe Vannatta, Odessa, Texas
Trainer: Gregg Sanders, Henryetta, Okla.

Iaintscared, the 1999 Champion Breeding Stock 2-Year-Old, added the 3-year-old title in 2000. Breeder Joe Vannatta campaigned Iaintscared in 1999, but Andra Meridyth campaigned him for the first part of 2000 and then Caroline and R. Funk Sanders of Henryetta, Okla., acquired him.

The sorrel gelding is by leading Quarter Horse sire Chicks Beduino and out of Shamrock Dasher, a granddaughter of Dash For Cash (AQHA) and a multiple stakes winner.

Iaintscared kicked off his season with a trial win at Blue Ribbon, followed by a narrow loss to Izzy Legal in the Red River Paint Maturity. He won three of his next four races, including the Tulsa Derby. Shipped to Texas, he finished seventh in the Olympia Joe and then went to California for the Masterpiece Derby, where he finished second to WR Rio. Iaintscared earned $28,617 in 2000 to bring his lifetime total to $59,458.

Other horses winning 2000 Champion titles included:

Horse: Verona
Award: Champion Running Paint 2-Year-Old Mare
Owner: Herbert Graham, Gardendale, Texas
Breeder: Herbert Graham, Gardendale, Texas
Trainer: Lewis Wartchow, Fitzhugh, Okla.

Horse: Real Easy Cash
Award: Champion Running Paint 2-Year-Old Stallion
Owner: Watercolors Racing, Cypress, Calif.
Breeder: Royse R Ranch, El Reno, Okla.
Trainer: Connie Hall, Cypress, Calif.

Horse: Country Quick Dash
Award: Champion Running Paint 3-Year-Old Stallion
Owner, Breeder, Trainer: Sparky J. Mullins, Wagoner, Okla.

Horse: A S Demon
Award: Champion Running Paint 3-Year-Old Gelding
Owners: Charles Trochta and Sammy Hester, Tulsa, Okla.
Breeder: M.C. Hopper, Kellyville, Okla.
Trainer: Sammy Hester, Tulsa, Okla.

Horse: Stockyards Kate
Award: Champion Running Paint Aged Mare
Owner: A & W Racing LLC, Tulsa, Okla.
Breeder: Joyce McLean, McAlester, Okla.
Trainer: Joe Blackburn, Tulsa, Okla.

Horse: Running Manic
Award: Champion Running Paint Aged Stallion
Owner and Breeder: Louis Bullard, Afton, Okla.
Trainer: Dennis Jones, Beggs, Okla.

Horse: Rene Too
Award: Champion Running Breeding Stock Paint 2-Year-Old Gelding
Owner: Scott Mills, Ada, Okla.
Breeder: Don D. Connally, DVM, Ada, Okla.
Trainer: John Purcell, Ada, Okla.

Horse: Spotless Dash
Award: Champion Running Breeding Stock Paint 3-Year-Old Stallion
Owner: Sherry Bristow, Shawnee, Okla.
Breeder: Robert E. Gentry, Shawnee, Okla.
Trainer: Alford Bristow, Shawnee, Okla.

Horse: Respectully Judy
Award: Champion Running Breeding Stock Paint 3-Year-Old Mare
Owner: Howard B. Shane, Garryowen, Mont.
Breeder: Henry Bowlan or Robert Adams, Tecumseh, Okla.
Trainer: Kenny Shane, Garryowen, Mont.

Horse: Jiven Judy
Award: Champion Running Breeding Stock Aged Gelding
Owner: Chris Smith, Stanfield, North Carolina
Breeder: Henry Bowlan, Tecumseh, Okla.
Trainer: Hubert Blankenship, Sallisaw, Okla.