Easy Jet
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|
Breed | American Quarter Horse |
---|---|
Discipline | Racing |
Sire | Jet Deck |
Grandsire | Moon Deck |
Dam | Lena's Bar (TB) |
Maternal grandsire | Three Bars (TB) |
Sex | Stallion |
Foaled | 1967 |
Country | United States |
Color | Sorrel |
Breeder | Walter Merrick |
Record | |
38–27–7–2, AAAT speed rating | |
Earnings | |
$445,721.00 (approximately $2,748,800 as of 2017) | |
Major wins | |
1969 All American Futurity; All American Quarter Horse Congress Futurity; Kansas Futurity; Laddie Stakes; Rocky Mountain Quarter Horse Derby; Sunland Park Fall Futurity; Blue Ribbon Futurity; Columbus Triple Crown Futurity; Lubbock Downs Futurity; Raton Derby; Rocky Mountain Quarter Horse Futurity; Colorado Wonderland Handicap | |
Awards | |
1969 World Champion Quarter Running Horse, 1970 Champion Quarter Running Stallion | |
Honors | |
American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame | |
Last updated on: April 29, 2009. |
Easy Jet (1967–1992) was an American Quarter Horse foaled, or born, in 1967, and was one of only two horses to have been a member of the American Quarter Horse Association (or AQHA) Hall of Fame as well as being an offspring of members. Easy Jet won the 1969 All American Futurity, the highest race for Quarter Horse racehorses, and was named World Champion Quarter Race Horse in the same year. He earned the highest speed rating awarded at the time—AAAT. After winning 27 of his 38 races in two years of racing, he retired from the race track and became a breeding stallion.
As a sire, he was the first All American Futurity winner to sire an All American Futurity winner, and went on to sire three winners of that race, and nine Champion Quarter Running Horses. Ultimately, his ownership and breeding rights were split into 60 shares worth $500,000 each—a total of $30 million. By 1993, the year after his death, his foals had earned more than $25 million on the racetrack.
Longtime Quarter Horse breeder and racehorse owner Walter Merrick of Sayre, Oklahoma, bred Easy Jet from two future AQHA Hall of Fame members, Jet Deck and Thoroughbred mare Lena's Bar in 1967. His dam, or mother, Lena's Bar, had produced a small number of other offspring, but Easy Jet was her last; she died shortly after he was weaned, or removed from his mother's milk. Both of his parents were descended from Three Bars, who was the sire of Lena's Bar and the grandsire of Jet Deck's dam. Easy Jet is one of only two horses in the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame to have both parents in the Hall of Fame; his two grandsires, Moon Deck and Three Bars, are also in the Hall of Fame.
Easy Jet was of sorrel color, a light yellowish-red. When fully grown, he stood about 15.3 hands high (63 inches; 160 cm) and weighed about 1,300 pounds (590 kg). He had a large star and a stripe on his face.