Lainie and Ray Whitmire, of Whitmire Ranch, won the bidding war for promising barrel horse sire JL Dash Ta Heaven two weekends ago. The hammer dropped at $1.75 million for the Jud Little bred stallion, who is an NFR qualifier himself and producer of over $2.25 million in barrel horses.
Lanie Whitmire joined us on Western Sports Round-Up to talk about the purchase and her plans for JL Dash Ta Heaven’s breeding career moving forward.
“I let my husband bid,” she laughed. “They don’t want me bidding because I like them all. But it was exciting. I was glad to see our industry was doing so well.”
The Whitmire’s are thrilled to be adding this stallion’s speed to their breeding program.
“The majority of people love the fact that he’s so fast. His babies can make a mistake and still do really well,” she said. “They [his offspring] don’t have to make a perfect run to win a check, which is always nice if you’re a barrel racer. “
In terms of business, Lanie is looking forward to opening up his books to new mares - both national and international.
“I just think that there’s a lot of upside to having him. He hasn’t been bred to very many outside mares. Jud had an amazing program and he has built a wonderful legacy that he leaves behind, but he did not breed very many outside mares. So there’s a huge demand for those good mares that didn’t ever have the opportunity to breed to him [ JL Dash Ta Heaven].”
The Whitmire’s will be offering the stallion to the international market and are in the process of getting JL Dash Ta Heaven’s semen approved to ship to Brazil, Australia, Europe, and Italy
Watch the full interview above!
