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HERO'S STORY
Heza Hero was foaled in Abilene, Texas on February 11, 1996 and owned by Anton Kubacak. According to Anton, he was kept a stallion because of his confirmation and color as well as his laid back disposition. When he came of age, Hero was sent to John Tally, a notable race horse trainer in West Texas. According to Tally, out of 40 racing prospects in his barn at the time, Hero showed the most promise, and was looking forward to racing him. During his training, Hero stepped on a jagged rock in the paddock area and crushed the bottom of his front left foot. It appeared to heal fine, so he resumed training. In his first race at Manor Downs near Austin, Texas in March 1998, Hero stumbled coming out of the gate and was unable to recover well enough to place. In his second race at Retama Park in San Antonio, Texas Hero broke well and stayed with an evenly matched field but still failed to place that day. In June of 1998 at Retama Park, Hero broke well but was unable to overtake the lead horse for the win, but did manage to take second. Following the race, Hero showed lameness in the front left foot and it was apparent at that time that the earlier foot injury had not completely healed. Hero was taken home and given 2 years off. While he was off, he sired 2 colts one of which was Heza Reporter AKA "Raider" who is now a 1D winning barrel horse owned and trained by Regenia Booth in Wills Point, Texas. Appearing healed and under a different trainer (RL Marcom Jr), Hero was entered to race at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas in November of 2000 where he took the first and only win of his racing career. Hero started late from the gate but came from behind to edged out the win. Hero was lame following the race and it was apparent that the earlier foot injury was going to continue to handicap Hero's racing career.
In his last 4 races at Sunland Park in 2000 and 2001, Hero continued to pull up never being able to finish a race at a sprint. Once again, Kubacak took Hero off the track to make one last attempt to heal his foot. He stood Hero at stud in 2001 where he sired a calf horse money earner named Heza Planet who later took Jeremy Davidson to the 2006 High Plains Junior Rodeo Finals in Clovis, New Mexico. After Hero's trainer reported no change in Hero's earlier foot injury, Kubacak sold Heza Hero to Jim Rathjen in Lubbock, Texas who stood him at stud for a couple of years before selling him to a West Texas match racer at the end of 2004. Earlier in 2004, Cori and I purchased a mare named Sheza Takin The Cash AKA "Missy" from Jim Rathjen. We had actually driven up to Lubbock to look at a different mare, but Missy caught Cori's eye. After a bit of discussion, Cori told me "you buy whatever mare you want, but that mare (Missy) will be in the trailer when we leave." I wasn't going to argue; Cori had spoken. At the time, Missy was in foal to a black horse there on Jim's property that we had never heard of (yep, it was Hero). Anyway, we didn't really give it much thought after that, but my orders were clear; we came home with Missy. On February 20, 2005 Missy foaled a sorrel stud colt we later named Cash Packin Jet AKA "Petie." From the moment he hit the ground, Petie was a special colt; amazing us every day with his athletics, his antics, his softness, his curiosity, his boldness, and his insatiable desire to be around people rather than his own kind.
He was born with a mature confidence we had yet to see in a young colt. As Petie grew, he continued to amaze us with his willingness and trainability. You never had to spend much time with Petie trying to teach him something. All you really ever had to do was show him. He was a joy to be around and a joy to work with. Initially, we just wanted to clone Petie and since we had Missy, we thought we would give it a shot (not cloning but breeding back to Hero). When I called Jim to find out if he still had Hero, he told me he had sold him to some match racers near Pecos, Texas. When he asked them if they would be willing to breed him, they said no; that they were racing him on the brush tracks. One day late in 2005, I asked Cori if she had the chance to buy Heza Hero, would she. She answered fairly quickly, "duh, yes I would buy him." So, I called Jim and asked him if the match racers he sold Hero to would be willing to sell him. He said that he didn't know for sure, but he could find out and get back. Our timing was right. Hero's owners were in need of cash, so we bought Hero, sight unseen. We met Jim and Hero in OKC during the BBR finals. Hero still had his toe grabbers on from racing the week before. He was slicked back, cut up and lean for racing; he looked like a bullet. He was calm natured and intimidating all at the same time; very mysterious. We didn't really know him. When we got him back to the farm, he took a couple of days to settle into his new surroundings. By weeks end, we were still a little confused about who Petie got his athleticism, good looks, confidence, and soft temperament from; Hero, or Missy. So that year, we bred him to our other mares. By the Spring of 2007, we were convinced. While we gave a lot of credit to the mares, we felt certain that Hero would pass his traits on to his sons and daughters no matter what mare he was bred to. This was proven once again after we purchased a 7YO son of Hero (Heza Reporter) we also found match racing in West Texas. After only 6 months on the pattern, Heza Reporter AKA "Raider" was placing in the 1D in the tough East Texas barrel racing arenas that many pros call their practice pen. The rest is history.
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