Smart Little Uno, 1992 NCHA Open Super Stakes champion and sire of the earners of more than $1.6 million, had to be euthanized on August 22, at Strawn Valley Ranch, Strawn, TX.

Bred, trained, and shown by Tom Lyons, Smart Little Uno was one of three full siblings sired by Smart Little Lena produced in 1988 out of Doc’s Marmoset via the then relatively new embryo transfer technique. Lyons, who had shown Doc’s Marmoset, by Doc Bar, to win the NCHA Open Futurity (1974), the NCHA Open Derby and the NCHA World Championship (1981), said that he thought Smart Little Uno, by Smart Little Lena, was “as good a young horse” as he had ever ridden. The stallion’s 1988 full siblings, Smart Little Dos and Smart Little Tres, won the Will Rogers Futurity and the Pacific Coast Futurity, respectively.

Smart Little Uno was so named because he was a cryptorchid, but he sired 355 foals in 13 crops, including 130 performers with average earnings of more than $12,000. His top money earners included Barbies Little Uno, with $74,104, and Uno Ito, with $73,568.

Doc’s Marmoset, Smart Little Uno’s dam, was a full sister to Doc’s Oak, one of cutting’s second-generation foundation sires, who was also owned and shown by Lyons.

“He was a lot prettier horse than Marmoset or Oak,” said Lyons of Smart Little Uno. “He didn’t have the strength that the old mare (Doc’s Marmoset) had, but he was that kind of stopper and he had the Smart Little Lena quickness.

“And he was always scared of cattle,” he added. “His dad was the same way and so was his mom. I think that’s what makes some of those real good horses. They really care about those cattle, and when a cow turns and looks at them, they want to get away from them. Of course, they’ve got to have athletic ability, too.”

Lyons, also rode Miss Silver Pistol, 1986 Super Stakes reserve champion and dam of top cutting sires Playgun and Smart Little Pistol, and said that she also was “scared to death of cattle.”

Photo of Smart Little Uno by Sally Harrison