Last Saturday, Rose Mary Chandler’s homebred I Am Jane Dough was a game winner in the $50,000 Tomball Distaff at Sam Houston Race Park. It was the first stakes win for the 4-year-old filly, trained by Danny Pish and ridden to victory by Sam Houston Race Park’s leading jockey Deshawn Parker.
Chandler, who resides in Luling, Texas, was not able to make it to Houston, but shared her fascinating history about the naming of her stakes-winning daughter of My Golden Song.
“I Am Jane Dough didn’t come in this world running forward,” said Chandler. “She was a breach baby. We got a call from Elgin Veterinarian Clinic around midnight, April 2nd, 2011, saying Strawberry Smile was having problems and it would be costly. Of course we said to do whatever possible to save the mare, and if possible, the baby, too. After many exhausting hours, Jane Wallace from Elgin Vet called to say all was okay and we had a baby elephant horse! Jane had been with the doctor all night working and is a dear friend and horse woman. Because of the cost of the bill, ‘Dough’ came to my mind. I had to include Jane in her name, and it all came together.”
Chandler has bred some exceptional Texas champions. Skip a Smile was honored as 2011 Texas Horse of the Year and won eight stakes, including the $50,000 Texas Hall of Fame at Retama Park and the $50,000 Richard King at Sam Houston Race Park.
Chandler and her husband, Wendell, give high praise to Strawberry Smile, the dam of both I Am Jane Dough and Skip a Smile.
“Strawberry Smile is the sweetest mare in the world,” acknowledges Chandler. “She had breeding problems so Wendell and I decided to give her permanent retirement on our ranch in the Golden Manor section. She really thinks she’s ‘people’ and enjoys a sandwich and beer every once in a while just for fun and show.”
In addition to her Thoroughbred stakes winners, Chandler also bred and owned Acorn, a multiple graded stakes Quarter Horse champion. He is part of a prestigious group of racehorses reunited in retirement.
“Skip A Smile is truly enjoying free running in the big pastures at our ranch,” she explained about the Texas-bred gelding by Skip Away who banked nearly $500,000 in his career. “He is joined by his constant companion, Cowboy Sam, a small horse who was his loyal friend and stable mate, all through his racing career. Skip A Smile has two other retired buddies with him and the four enjoy endless hours of frolicking. One of his companions is Acorn, the 2010 Quarter Horse Champion 3-Year-Old Gelding and the 2011 Texas Champion Aged Gelding. The foursome is rounded out with Lydia’s Last Step, who was a Texas Thoroughbred stakes winner. All three were foaled in 2007, raised together, and played as weanlings and yearlings. They thoroughly enjoy being back together again.”
As for I Am Jane Dough, Chandler expects her to return to the Connally Turf Course on February 28 to compete in the $50,000 Jersey Lilly Stakes. — by Martha Claussen