By Ty Wyant

First Down Dash was a world champion as a 3-year-old and he now sits atop the lists of leading sires of money earners, leading sires of winners and leading sires of stakes winners.

His offspring have earned more than $90 million (about $20 million ahead of the No. 2 sire Corona Cartel), his foals include nearly 1,500 winners and about 260 of them are stakes winners.

Exceptional lifetime totals indicate there are winners of elite stakes races that help build those totals. That is the case with First Down Dash. He sired six winners of the All American Futurity (G1) and another six foals that won the Champion of Champions (G1). His All American Futurity winners are No Secrets Here, Falling In Loveagain, Corona Cash, A Classic Dash, Dash Thru Traffic and Royal Quick Dash. His offspring that won the Champion of Champions are Dashing Folly, A Ransom, The Down Side, Cash For Kas and the full brothers Ocean Runaway and Wave Carver.

If numbers speak, then First Down Dash’s statistics shout that he is No. 1.

First Down Dash had the breeding and the race record to become the all-time leading sire.

An member of the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame, First Down Dash’s sire line is also filled with Hall of Famers. His sire Dash For Cash, grandsire Rocket Wrangler, great-grandsire Rocket Bar (TB) and great-great-grandsire Three Bars (TB) are all enshrined in the AQHA Hall of Fame.

First Down Dash’s female family is loaded with black type. His dam, First Prize Rose, by Gallant Jet, produced seven foals with six winners.

A full sister to First Down Dash, First Prize Dash, was a winner and then became an AQHA Dam of Distinction and broodmare of the year. She is the dam of stakes winners First Prize Leesa, First Carolina, First Prize Robin, Fast First Prize, Heza Fast Dash and First Prize Doc.

Second dam Rose Bug, by Lady Bug’s Moon, produced winner Dashin Rosie by Dash For Cash. She is the dam of broodmare of the year and stakes-placed runner Run The Dash, the dam of world champion and Champion of Champions winner Blues Girl Too.

Those horses are only a sample of the stakes winners in First Down Dash’s immediate family.

First Down Dash was purchased for $97,000 as a yearling at the 1985 Phillips Ranch Sale. That sale was held during the summer at the Frisco, Texas, ranch that was the home of Dash For Cash.

The colt was purchased by Millie Vessels and was an immediate success on the track.

As a 2-year-old, First Down Dash was at the top of his division with wins in the Kindergarten Futurity (G1) and the Dash For Cash Futurity (G1).

As a 3-year-old, he won the Champion of Champions (G1), Los Alamitos Derby (G1), QHBC Championship Classic (G1) and the Dash For Cash Derby (G1). He was named world champion and retired to stud to stand at Vessels Stallion Farm, his home for the remainder of his life.

First Down Dash did it all and his incredible legacy will live on for a multitude of generations.

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