The $3.2 million NCHA Super Stakes, in progress through April 20 at Will Rogers Coliseum, is the performance world’s richest event limited to progeny of nominated sires. The list is not exclusive; it includes 125 stallions. But there are a few whose offspring have dominated the finals of major events for the past five years or more.

High Brow Cat has been the leading cutting sire for five years. But Dual Rey, whose first crop of performers debuted in 2002, occupies the number two spot, followed by his sire Dual Pep. In fact, of 21 horses that qualified for the Super Stakes Classic Non-Pro Finals, four were sired by Dual Rey, two by Dual Pep, and three were out of Dual Pep daughters.

In 2003, I interviewed Lloyd Cox, who rode Dual Rey and has shown many of his sons and daughters to prominence. Here’s what Cox had to say about Dual Rey as a performer and a sire:

Dual Rey was a lot like his mother (Nurse Rey). They kind of understood how to work a cow – how to make it set up and work for you. That’s something you can’t train into them. They have to understand a cow enough to be able to do it themselves. Dual Rey could run and stop and hold a tough cow. But he had so much “draw” that you could cut a tough cow and ultimately you ended up right in the middle (of the pen) bringing that cow to you. That’s hard to get in a horse.

When we retired him from showing and started breeding him, everybody wondered what the Dual Reys were going to be like. I told them, “I don’t know, but I sure hope they’re good because I’m probably going to have to ride quite a few.” And they’ve turned out better than anyone could have hoped.

The best thing about them, anytime you’re promoting a stud, you can advertise and get good mares to them, but when trainers start riding them, their viewpoints on the babies are what’s really going to make them. When trainers start talking and saying good things about them, it really makes a lot of difference for a stud. Trainers are going to have their customers buy more of them or breed their mares to the horse. That helps promote a stud more than anything, until the babies start showing. Word-of-mouth is very good publicity.

Dual Rey was pretty short-backed and kind of coupled up and so everybody was thinking about breeding a stretchier mare, like Playboy or Merada mares, for more length. But that’s what I’ve found really funny. They’ve bred a lot of different kinds of mares to him and it just doesn’t seem to matter. That really says something for a stud, when you can breed just about any kind of mare to him and get results.

Cox qualified for the Super Stakes Open Classic Finals, to be held on Tuesday night, April 8, on Halreycious, while Phil Rapp and Darren Simpkins will show Dual Rey offspring Tootsie Rey and Treymendous, respectively.

For NCHA Super Stakes updates, schedule and webcasting: www.nchacutting.com