Discipline Racing Grandsire Yellow Jacket Maternal grandsire Booger Red Breed American Quarter Horse | Sire Cowboy P-12 Dam Lady Luck Foaled 1937 Sex Mare | |
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Shue Fly (1937–1963) was a Quarter Horse mare who was one of the dominant racehorses on the racetrack during the 1940s.
Life
Shue Fly was registered with the American Quarter Horse Association (or AQHA) as number 717. She was a chestnut mare, foaled in 1937 and bred by Lloyd Miller of Chamita, New Mexico. She was owned by the Hepler Brothers of Carlsbad, New Mexico at the time she was registered. Her sire was Cowboy P-12, and she was out of Lady Luck by Booger Red by Rancocas, a Thoroughbred. The second dam was an unnamed Thoroughbred mare. Through her sire, she descended from Yellow Jacket and Peter McCue twice. Her dam was a descendant of Iroquois, the first American bred Thoroughbred to win a major race in England. Some early reports had her dam as a mare named Nancy M who was by Jack McCue (a son of Peter McCue) and out of Fanny by Jack McCue. However, the Hepler brothers, who raced and then used Shue Fly as a broodmare, investigated her background and came to the conclusion that she was out of Lady Luck.
During Shue Fly's racing career she was named the World Champion Quarter Running Horse for 1941–1942, for 1942–1943, and for 1943–1944. The official AQHA records show her starting six times, with two wins and a top speed rating of AAA. However, the 1946 Yearbook of the American Quarter Racing Association (or AQRA) states that she had won ten of eleven starts. Her very first race was when she was three, and had just been broke to ride, when she went up against Question Mark in a half mile race. She finished second, but it was a good finish for a green-broke mare. Next, in December 1941, she was matched against Clabber at the distance of a quarter mile, and won, setting a track record in the process. In the 1942 Championship race, she went to her knees coming out of the starting gate, but managed to get up and finish first by a nose, beating Clabber, Nobodies Friend and Joe Tom.
As a broodmare, Shue Fly produced three foals that earned a Race Register of Merit, including Royal Charge. She died in 1963.
Shue Fly was inducted into the AQHA Hall of Fame in 2005.