NCHA Futurity champion and record-breaker One Time Royalty stood out on paper before he ever entered the cutting arena.

That’s a statement that might be true for all 28 of the 2010 NCHA Futurity finalists, but only One Time Royalty can claim seven NCHA Futurity champions within the first three generations of his pedigree.

There are four champions behind One Time Royalty’s sire, One Time Pepto, and three behind his dam, Royal Serena Belle, who but for Playboy McCrae, would have also claimed a Futurity title.

Royal Serena Belle was reserve champion of the 1996 NCHA Futurity under Lloyd Cox, the man who showed One Time Royalty to his record-breaking victory. The two horses, Royal Serena Belle and One Time Royalty, are not only blaze-faced look-a-likes, but according to Cox, they also have similar working styles.

The blazes and the style were inherited from Royal Serena Belle’s dam, Jazabell Quixote, and Jazabell Quixote’s dam, Bill’s Jazabell, both owned, trained, and shown by former Florida dairyman and non-pro competitor Spencer Harden.

“A lot of good trainers don’t get the chance to ride the quality of horses that I ride,” Harden told me in 1993, when he ranked as the all-time leading breeder of NCHA Futurity money earners. “They might be a lot better trainer than I am … but no matter how hard you work, if you don’t have the right horse, you’re not going to get anything done.”

Bill’s Jazabell and Harden nearly got it done in 1973, when they placed third in both the NCHA Open Futurity, won by Doc’s Marmoset and Tom Lyons, and in the NCHA Non-Pro Futurity, won by Paul Crumpler and Doc Quixote.

It was Crumpler’s win, in fact, that inspired Harden to breed Bill’s Jazabell, a Cutter Bill daughter out of Royal Jazabell (by Royal King) to Doc Quixote. Jazabell Quixote was the result, the only foal that Bill’s Jazebell produced before her untimely death.

Jazabell Quixote and Harden won the 1982 NCHA Non-Pro Futurity, placed 11th in the Open Futurity, and went on to claim non-pro reserve championships in both the NCHA Super Stakes and the NCHA Derby.

In 1988 Harden was NCHA Futurity Non-Pro reserve champion on Jazabell Quixote’s daughter, Jazalena, by Smart Little Lena. In 1989, he won the NCHA Open Futurity and was reserve champion of the Non-Pro Futurity riding July Jazz, by Sons Doc out of Jazabell Quixote. The following year, he showed Docs All That Jazz, by Son Ofa Doc out of Jazabell Quixote, as reserve champion of the 1990 NCHA Non-Pro Futurity.

Jazabell Quixote’s first foal, Hickoryote, by Doc’s Hickory, had also carried Harden to place third in the 1987 NCHA Non-Pro Futurity and 10th in the Open Futurity. In 1992, NCHA Non-Pro Futurity finalists Mark Harden (Spencer’s son) and Gil Porter rode Jazabell Quixote embryo transfer foals Jazz Em Up and Jazzy Joe Lena.

Never has one mare’s offspring so dominated the NCHA Futurity.

“I think Bill’s Jazabell and Jazabell Quixote got their style from Royal King,” said Harden. “They worked close to the ground. A lot of horses drop their front end, but they would drop all over and they had a lot of look and shake and shiver to them.”

Gail Holmes, owner of Double Dove Ranch, purchased Royal Serena Belle from Harden as a yearling. In addition to One Time Royalty, owned and raised by Matthews Cutting Horses, Holmes has bred three substantial money earners, out of her: Treymendous, $65,858; Kit Wit, $54,273; and Royal Me Twice, $48,966.

My next post will feature One Time Soon, from the pedigree of One Time Royalty’s sire, One Time Pepto.