6.10.2012:: Spooks Gotta Whiz – NRBC Winning Run Is No Fluke

By Larri Jo Starkey – June AQHA Journal

In 2010, Spooks Gotta Whiz put himself in the record books with his win at the National Reining Horse Association Futurity.

In April, the 2007 bay stallion added to his record by capturing the open title at the National Reining Breeders Classic for owner Michell Kimball of Encinitas, California.

But then, Spooks Gotta Whiz should be good. He comes from an excellent family line, says his breeder, AQHA Professional Horseman Clint Haverty of Krum, Texas.

Spooks Gotta Whiz is by Spooks Gotta Gun and out of Clint’s homebred mare Prettywhizprettydoes.

“That’s a real nice nick there,” Clint says. “(Spooks Gotta Gun) is a really strong producer, and he’s proven it by his breeding to these Topsail Whiz mares I have.”

In the early 2000s, Haverty Ranch was heavily vested in the Topsail Whiz bloodline with the stallion Who Whiz It, a full brother to Prettywhizprettydoes.

A client challenged Clint to find a young stallion that would complement the Whiz mares, and the search led him to trainer Robbie Schroeder, then in Gainesville, Texas, who had a promising prospect in training.

Clint, a member of the National Reining Horse Association Hall of Fame, had ridden Colonels Smoking Gun to a reserve championship in the 1996 NRHA Futurity, and Spooks Gotta Gun is out of the same dam, Katie Gun.

Clint tried Spooks Gotta Gun three times before making up his mind. Finally, the deal was made with the stallion’s owner and breeder, Eric Storey of Henagar, Alabama, and Spooks Gotta Gun headed to Krum.

“I was always a little snakebit with ‘Spook,’ ” Clint says. “At the NRHA Futurity his 3-year-old year, he had a wonnderful first go and all he had to do was cruise to make it to the finals. On the way to show him in the second go-round, I stopped at a gas station to get a cup of coffee and came out two minutes later – my truck and a lot of my stuff had been stolen! The morning just sort of went downhill from there. We had a huge overspin in our pattern and for an hour, they kept announcing and changing our score, but I think we missed the open finals by half a point.”

Clint stood Spooks Gotta Gun at stud at different times for different owners, riding and putting in some training on the stallion now owned by Silver Spurs Equine of Cave Creek, Arizona.

“One of the first mares we bred him to was Prettywhizprettydoes,” Clint’s wife, Liz, remembers. “That initial crossing resulted in Spooks Gotta Whiz, affectionately known as ‘Baby Spooks.’ ”

Clint’s mare Prettywhizprettydoes, a 2002 bay mare by Topsail Whiz, is out of Blonde At The Bar by Hollywood Jac 86. On her bottom side, Blonde At The Bar is out of Billie Bar Flash by Flashy Star Bar.

“That’s really good old-time breeding,” Clint says. “Billie Bar Flash was a great producer, and I won quite a bit on her back in the 1980s in reining competition.”

Billie Bar Flash earned $10,713.46 in NRHA competition, while Blonde At The Bar racked up $13,991.03 in earnings, including an NRHA youth championship in 2000 with Clint and Liz’s son, Zane. Prettywhizprettydoes earned $20,296 in reining competition, much of it with Zane and Liz.

“She’s kind of a family horse,” Clint says. “She really took care of everybody.”

“Our horses are a big part of our family,” Liz adds quickly. “We have so much history with them.”

When then-owner Marlo Reimer of Colorado sold Spooks Gotta Gun to Duane Hicks of Marietta, Oklahoma, Duane wanted to purchase a colt to promote his new stallion. That colt was Spooks Gotta Whiz, headed for the record books.“Several people have been instrumental in riding this horse and training him,” Clint says, listing the work of the late John Slack, Tanya Jenkins, Jordan Larson and current trainer Shawn Flarida. “Everybody who’s had him has done a nice job with that horse. You can’t find any better trainers than the people who have ridden this horse.”

At the NRBC in April, Prettywhizprettydoes’ second foal, a full brother to Spooks Gotta Whiz, was first in the limited open. Spooks Gotta Run, a 2008 bay stallion, is owned by Michael Jeffcoat of Waurika, Oklahoma. Spooks Gotta Run’s earnings combined with Spooks Gotta Whiz’s earnings have unofficially pushed Prettywhizprettydoes’ offspring earnings to more than $300,000, though those records couldn’t be verified at press time.

Clint and Liz have watched every run that Spooks Gotta Whiz has made with pride and pleasure, debating how much the stallion resembles Prettywhizprettydoes and how much he resembles Spooks Gotta Gun. “I rode both of them and trained both of them,” Clint says. “I can see the similarities between him and Spooks Gotta Gun, and I can see the mare in him. It’s just cool watching.”

And now Clint has another one to watch: Spooksgottaprettyboy, a full brother to Spooks Gotta Whiz, is 2. The NRHA Futurity is just a year away.