First Down Dash
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.
