Word: ranches
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Monkey performed so well at siring a new breed that now all the cattle on the ranch are descended from him. The Santa Gertrudis breed, which is now widely sought wherever there is year-round grass feeding, has one great moneymaking virtue: it is hardier and grows heavier on grass feeding than any other...
Horseplay. With the same sure breeding hand, Bob went to work on the ranch's cow ponies. There were both thoroughbreds and mustangs with-legend has it-a strain of blood from one of Jesse James's fastest horses. The story goes that James stopped at the ranch one day and found his horse so much admired that he gave it to the ranch...
...breed the thoroughbreds with quarter horses, a Texas type famed for its speed for a quarter-mile. Bob selected Old Sorrel, a horse with the speed and nimbleness he wanted, and used him as he had Monkey. Colts were carefully culled; only the best were kept on the ranch. (Once, 1,200 mares that didn't come up to Kleberg's standards were driven into Mexico and given away.) Out of this selective evolution came the famed King Ranch quarter horses. Though they are primarily working cow ponies, one of them was good enough recently to sell...
This same interest in breeding got Kleberg interested in horse racing. He thought more thoroughbred blood would improve his ranch horses. He came back from the race tracks at Louisville and Saratoga with two carloads of thoroughbreds, and put them to "improving the breed." His horses turned out to have bigger chests and heavier forelegs than Kentucky breeders liked. They also ran faster than Kentuckians liked. The King Ranch's Assault won the triple crown-the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont...
...never quite forgiven himself for losing another King Ranch horse, Stymie. His trainer, Max Hirsch, entered Stymie in a $1,500 claiming race. Wily Horseman Hirsch Jacobs, who had correctly sized up Stymie's potential worth, claimed him. Stymie has since won $816,060 for Jacobs. The cream-and-brown King Ranch racing colors have won all but a few of the nation's major racing classics, including the Santa Anita Derby, the Preakness, the Belmont Stakes, the Saratoga Special, a score of others. Trainer Hirsch summed up what Kleberg was trying to do: "Either Assault or Stymie...