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Daniel J. Agnew
(1945-
, Inducted 2007)
Though being honored for accomplish- ments
since 1970, Dan Agnew’s family has been prominent on the Washington
Thoroughbred racing and breeding scene for three generations.
His grandfather, Sam A. Agnew, started with
trotters on the fair circuit, but by the 1950s, Dan’s father, S. J.
“Jay,” was racing Thoroughbreds successfully at Longacres and
Playfair and had established T9O Farm near Centralia. Dan’s Thoroughbred
namesake, Mr. Dan A. (foaled in 1956) was a stakes winner at three and four
while running for Dan’s parents.
Born in
October 1945, Dan would graduate from law school at Willamette University in
1970 and assume the leadership of the family business, which included prominent
lumber dealings, in 1980 after the death of his father.
As a young man, Dan was on hand when the T9O colors
were carried by Terlago in the 1970 Kentucky Derby. Thirteen years later he
would be back at Churchill Downs’ hallowed grounds to see his Desert Wine
finish second to Sunny’s Halo in the 109th running of the May classic and
then be runner-up in the Preakness Stakes (G1). The son of Damascus was to
become racing’s 50th millionaire.
During the
1980s, T9O Farm, renamed DanDar Farm in 1984, would stand some of the
preeminent Washington stallions of the era, including four-time leading
Washington sire Staff Writer and other top stallions, such as Captain
Courageous, Just the Time, Drouilly (Fr) and Peterhof.
Dan bred, or co-bred, Washington champions
Tortellini Roma (1987 two-year-old filly), T. D. Passer (1989 three-year-old
colt) and Grade 1 star Delicate Vine. The daughter of Knights Choice was
Washing- ton’s horse of the year in 1986 and was ranked second of her sex
on the national Experimental Free Handicap at two. Among his
non-Washington-bred stakes winners are group one winners Alydar’s Best and
Flamenco Wave.
Other top runners racing in the
Agnew silks include Sunset Handicap (G1) winner Kings Island (Ire), Spinster
Stakes (G1) winner Top Corsage, 1992 Longacres Derby winner Star Recruit,
two-time Belle Roberts Stakes winner Silk Chiffon and, more recently, Fortunate
Event, who finished second in the Emerald Distaff Handicap on August 19.
A second generation WTBA president, Dan has been a
member of the WTBA board of directors since 1980 and was at its helm for 15
years. In 2006, the WTBA honored Dan with its most prestigious honor, the S. J.
Agnew Special Achievement Award.
Dan currently
lives in Vancouver, Washington, with his wife Kim. |
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Jerre Paxton
(Northwest Farms)
(1938- , Inducted 2003)
Jerre Paxton’s Northwest Farms/Yakima
Stallion Station has dominated Washington racing and breeding circles for over
two decades. He was the leading breeder by earnings in Washington for 12
consecutive years (1984-95). Paxton set new earnings records for a breeder in
1990, 1992 and again in 1994. He established a new record for number of stakes
winners in one year with eight in 1992. Paxton’s Yakima farm has bred 12
Washington champions. Originally operating as the Yakima Stallion Station,
Paxton stood 1982-1986 leading Washington sire Drum Fire there and later his
1991 leading son Knights Choice. By the time of Knights Choice’s reign,
the farm had been renamed Northwest Farms. Northwest Farms has sold the WTBA
Summer Yearling Sale topper 12 times (co-1979, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1991, 1992,
1995, 1997, 1999 and 2000-02). Among the farm’s many exceptional matrons
were Washington broodmares of the year Yang (1978) and Pamlisa’s Delight
(1984). Click here for expanded profile. |
Guy and Barbara Roberts (Guy Bar Farm)
(Guy 1928- ; Inducted 2005)
Married for over 50 years, and
stalwarts of the local breeding industry for over 30 of those, Guy and Barbara
Roberts reside in Sunnyside, also home to their Thoroughbred nursery, Guy Bar
Farm. An apple and produce grower/distributor, Guy Roberts bred his first
winner in 1968 (Fleet Yetta), his first stakes winner in 1971 (Vitation) and
first went over the $100,000 yearly earnings mark as a breeder first in 1981.
The couple has led all breeders within the state borders seven times (1996-98,
2001-2004), ranked second five times and held the third position four times
since 1988. For those keeping score, that’s a one-two-three position in 16
of the last 17 years. Other career highlights include: breeding Washington
champions Funboy (1972), Cocktails Anyone (1997 and 1998), Court’s in
Session (2004), all graded stakes performers, and being breeders of five
statebreds to win over $230,000 each: Funboy ($478,180), Peter’s Pond
($248,082), Cocktails Anyone ($242,545), Court’s in Session ($238,945) and
Court Shenanigans ($230,378). Guy Bar Farm has stood several prominent
Washington sires and was home to three-time leading Washington sire Table Run
during his career at stud. Roberts is also past-president of the Washington
Thoroughbred Breeders Association, has served on dozens of the
organization’s committees and remains active on the board of trustees
today. Click here for expanded profile. |
Wilbur and Marianne Stadelman
(Wilbur 1905-1984, Marianne d. 1997, Inducted 2009)
One of two sons of prominent Oregon businessman and politician Peter J. Stadelman, J. Wilbur Stadelman was born in 1905 in The Dalles, Oregon.
In 1930, Wilbur and his brother George purchased their father’s Stadelman Ice Company, founded in 1898, and renamed the now Yakima-based Stadelman Fruit Company, which still exists today. Wilbur was said to have shipped more than 50-million boxes of cherries in his lifetime.
Wilbur and his first wife Florence got into Thoroughbred racing in the late 1950s. Their first runner of note was Doctrinaire, who they had claimed for $20,000 at Del Mar, and who would shortly thereafter win the 1960 Longacres Mile by 3 1/4 lengths.
The Yakima couple soon acquired their first broodmares, and while the first runner they bred was unplaced in 1962, the following year they would have two horses (Concession and Merry Mixture) win four races and place 11 more times, to earn $8,307, and their Systematic would finish third in the 1963 Mile. That year would also mark the death of Florence.
Stadelman, along with A. J. Penney, was one of the “movers and shakers” who founded the Yakima Valley Turf Club and was the Yakima track’s first president in 1961.
In 1966, Stadelman had his second Mile winner in *Aurelius II, and the Argentine import would later become a successful sire in Washington.
A. J. Penney’s son Jim would train Stadelman’s Luck Amuck to win the 1966 Mary Broderick Memorial and also Stadelman’s first homebred stakes winner, 1971 Mary Broderick winner Hot Feet, the first foal out of future broodmare of the year Hold Hands. By the time 1973 rolled around, Stadelman had remarried and Hold Hands’ second foal, Whatawaytogo, had won a division of the Yakima Derby in his and Marianne’s colors.
The Stadelmans had their third Broderick Memorial winner in 1976 when Hold Hands’ fourth foal, a filly by *Aurelius II, won the race. Any Time Girl, who had finished third in the Hollywood Lassie Stakes (G2) prior to her trip to Longacres, next won the Debutante Stakes at Bay Meadows by six lengths. Sent to Santa Anita for the $100,000 Oak Leaf Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile Grade 2 event, Any Time Girl emerged victorious by the closest of margins, but only after the filly bolted to the outside rail, “running sideways as much as forward.” Only the photo finish camera could tell for sure that the Washington-bred had become the state’s first graded stakes winner. She finished her campaign with a second in the Bay Meadows Lassie Stakes and was ranked the fifth highest weighted two-year-old filly in the nation, as well as Washington horse of the year. She came back the following year to place in three California stakes.
As good as she was, her half-sister Table Hands, also a Stadelman homebred, would eclipse her record in 1979. In her five starts at two, the daughter of Table Run never lost, including a 4 1/2-length win in the Hollywood Lassie Stakes (G2). She was sold to Peter Brant and Joe Allen for a reported $500,000 and recorded a six-length tally in the Del Mar Debutante Stakes (G2) for her new owners. On the year-end Experimental Free Handicap, only champion Smart Angle was weighted above the Washington horse of the year (120 to 119). Table Hands would win the Santa Ynez Stakes (G3) at three.
The Stadelmans would later breed and race stakes winners Aurelius Crown and Table Sean before Wilbur’s death in 1984. That was the same year Got You Runnin, a filly bred by Marianne, would become the first Washington-bred to compete in a Breeders’ Cup championship race, en route to being named state champion two-year-old filly, and Hold Hand’s final champion, 1989 Washington sprint champion Crystal Run, was born.
Marianne, who died in 1997, also bred 1990 state champion A Little Bit Tipsy to bring the total of Stadelman-bred champions to five and this with less than 50 runners bred total.
The Stadelmans were among the top 20 breeders on ten occasions and finished in third place in 1976 and 1979. |
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