Oklahoma: Euroears' first-year goal is 100 mares

As a Grade 1 winner with brilliant speed and more than $1 million in earnings, Euroears could have retired to stud in Kentucky, the Thoroughbred breeding capital of the world. But with his owners, Jim and Marilyn Helzer, in the stallion business, too, Euroears will launch his breeding career in Oklahoma at their JEH Stallion Station in Wynnewood.

An 8-year-old son of Langfuhr, he is the highest-profile newcomer to the state, and he will be available to both Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse mares in a practice often seen in the Southwest.

“I want to give him a shot here,” Jim Helzer said. “I’ve already got 40 head booked to him. That’s a very good start. The large majority at this point are Thoroughbreds.”

Helzer said the goal for Euroears, based on the pace of bookings, is to breed more than 100 mares this season. He expects about 70 percent of the mares will be Thoroughbreds, and 30 percent will be Quarter Horses. The speed Euroears displayed during his career is a draw for both breeds. So is his sprinter’s build. 

“We’ve got a lot of people in the Quarter Horse world who have been watching this horse several years now, since he started running as a 3-year-old,” Helzer said. “He set some tremendously good fractions. I know a lot of horses set some really good fractions, but he set some really good fractions against some damn good horses. That makes a lot of difference.”

Euroears won the Grade 1 Bing Crosby in July over eventual Eclipse Award winner Amazombie, who won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint in November. Other highlights of Euroears’s career included a win in the Grade 2 Palos Verdes at Santa Anita last January and a runner-up finish in the Group 1 Golden Shaheen in Dubai last March. Overall, he won 10 of 23 starts and $1,058,894, including the first six races of his career from July 2007 to March 2008. Euroears last raced Jan. 21, finishing fourth in the Palos Verdes.

“It was time to let him begin a new career,” Helzer said.

Euroears will have a $4,000 stud fee for Thoroughbred mares and a $2,500 fee for Quarter Horses. JEH Stallion Station also has other Thoroughbreds on the roster available to both breeds. Mr. Nightlinger’s book has been split about 60 percent Thoroughbred mares and 40 percent Quarter Horse mares over the last two years, Helzer said. And another offered to both breeds, Dance Master, is getting about 20 percent Quarter Horse mares, Helzer said.

The Helzers have long been steeped in both breeds and are well known in Quarter Horse circles for having raced Refrigerator, the multiple Grade 1 winner who until 2010 ranked as the highest-earning Quarter Horse of all-time. The couple’s JEH facility in Oklahoma sits on 82 acres in Wynnewood, Okla. They also have a stallion division in Texas.

Evansville Slew dead at 20

Oklahoma lost a marquee stallion Jan. 27 when Evansville Slew was euthanized because of complications from a bout with colic. He was 20. Evansville Slew had progeny earnings of $18.3 million at the time of his death, according to Diamond  G Ranch in Edmond, Okla.

Evansville Slew was purchased by the farm in 2006. He ranked as one of the state’s leading sires for years. His top runners included March Magic, a Grade 2 winner of more than $600,000, as well as Cowboy Stuff and Foxie’s Boy, who each earned more than $400,000. Evansville Slew even had a stakes winner on the final night of the Remington Park meet Dec. 10, when Evansville Storm won the $50,000 Jim Thorpe.

Evansville Slew was a son of Slew City Slew. He won 5 of 7 starts and earned $338,040. His biggest career win came in the Grade 2 Arlington-Washington Futurity at Arlington Park in 1994. He also won the $261,000 Remington Park Futurity. 

New to state for 2012

New stallions for 2012