If anybody had any doubts about Docs Okie Quixote, the National Cutting Horse Futurity Association Futurity champion only months earlier, those were all erased when he followed it up with a convincing triumph at the Super Stakes in 1984.
And if that weren’t enough, he won the Derby later in the year to become the second horse to capture the Triple Crown, all three of the NCHA’s major aged events.
“He’s a much more mature horse than he was six months ago,” said trainer Joe Heim after the Super Stakes victory, which he won with a 222 in the finals. “He’s just the best I’ve ever had. He’s got everything — expression, style, athletic ability.”
Docs Okie Quixote, owned by Heim’s wife, Joice, was sired by Doc Quixote and was out of Jimmette Too, a daughter of Johnny Tivio by Poco Tivio. Joe Heim purchased Jimmette Too as a 5-year-old for Joice and because he owned a share of Doc Quixote, decided to breed the mare to the stallion.
Heim said Docs Okie Quixote was the best Futurity colt he ever had, and even though he felt he had a chance to win, he didn’t want to say anything because too many things can happen.
“You just know you have a great prospect and the opportunity,” he said. “The more experienced you are, you don’t go to win first place. You go to present a run [to the judges]. If it doesn’t work, you’ll be back.”
Then, after posting an impressive win at the Super Stakes, Heim said he didn’t feel added pressure going for No. 3 at the Derby.
“There may have been some doubters after the Futurity as to how good a horse he was, but I think after he won the Super Stakes, there weren’t any doubters,” he said.
In addition to his 222 at the Super Stakes, he posted a winning 219 at the Futurity and a 221.5 at the Derby.
Docs Okie Quixote ended his show career as one of the top earners ever in the cutting pen at $635,707 in lifetime earnings.
The story, as we know, ended in tragedy. The stallion died in 1986 from complications from colic surgery shortly after his first foal crop.
“It was a gift of life in an event you appreciate and always will remember,” Heim said later of the Triple Crown. “The chances of duplicating it are like lightning hitting in the same spot.”
