Two of the most successful Western performance horse stallions in recent years are now the industry’s second and third EquiStat Elite $50 Million Sire.
Metallic Cat and Dual Rey recently saw their progeny amass more than $50 million in progeny earnings in the EquiStat database. As of Wednesday, April 20, Metallic Cat’s offspring had earned $50,894,095 and Dual Rey’s had compiled earnings of $50,815,102.
The only other stallion in the EquiStat database with offspring earnings of more than $50 million is Metallic Cat’s sire, all-time leading Western performance horse sire High Brow Cat.
“That’s some pretty good company to be in,” said Linda Holmes, owner and breeder of Dual Rey.
The $50 Million Sire status for Metallic Cat and Dual Rey includes money won in all of the disciplines tracked by EquiStat, including closed incentives not open to all horses. The earnings do not yet reflect money won at the recently completed National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) Super Stakes.
Metallic Cat
Born in 2005, Metallic Cat won the National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) Futurity Open Championship and the red roan stallion by High Brow Cat and out of Chers Shadow (by Peptoboonsmal) banked more than $637,711 before his retirement from cutting.
He was fast off the blocks in the breeding shed with his first foal crop, which reached futurity age in 2010. His offspring had won more than $14 million as of his purchase by current owner Bobby Patton in September, 2017, and continued to pile on the earnings in the years since.
Sons and daughters of the stallion bred by The Roan Rangers, of Weatherford, Texas, have earned more than $30 million since 2018: Metallic Cat crossed the $20 million mark in progeny earnings in 2018; exceeded $30 million in 2019 and hit the $40 million mark in January, 2021, before reaching $50 Million Sire status this spring.
Debbie Roberts, Patton’s representative, said Metallic Cat’s success as a sire comes from his ability to pass on his best traits – his mind, heart and athleticism – to his offspring.
“I’ve never run across a horse that has the heart that he has,” she said. “He loved competing. He loved to go out there and play with a cow. It was like it was a challenge for him and he loved it.”
Patton also was impressed by Metallic Cat‘s success.
“This horse never ceases to amaze me, and to be sitting second to the one and only High Brow Cat is an accomplishment in itself,” Patton said.
That rate of progeny earnings has many asking if Metallic Cat can catch High Brow Cat, the leading Western performance sire of all time. Though he died in 2019, High Brow Cat is still siring offspring through frozen semen and has $88.6 million in earnings – roughly $37.8 million more than Metallic Cat.
“Can it be done? I don’t know. Is it something we’re looking at? Of course, we’d be a fool not to,” she said. “But, High Brow Cat’s king, so that’s a pretty hefty goal. Only time is going to tell on that one.”
Regardless of whether or not Metallic Cat reaches his sire’s lofty numbers, Roberts said his team will continue to work hard so he can continue to achieve success as a stallion.
“We never want to take any of this for granted,” she said. “We always are out there cheering them on shaking people’s hands, meeting new people all the time and continuing to promote him and market him, because there’s not one day you can take any of this for granted.”
Metallic Cat‘s leading earners in EquiStat:
- NCHA Open World Champion Hashtags ($485,293, out of Dual Rey Tag x Dual Rey)
- Breeder’s Invitational Non-Pro Champion Catillac Reys ($469,029, out of Tootsie Rey x Dual Rey)
- NCHA Open Horse of the Year Metallic Rebel ($439,965, out of Sweet Abra x Abrakadabracre)
- Two-time AQHA Junior Cutting World Champion Meteles Cat ($437,016, out of Teles Lies x Lenas Telesis)
- NCHA Futurity Open Champion Stevie Rey Von ($420,559, out of Miss Ella Rey x Dual Rey)
Last year, Metallic Cat overtook Shining Spark to become the all-time leading sire in the National Reined Cow Horse Association. To date, he has sired the winners of more than $5.1 million in reined cow horse events – which includes events approved by the NRCHA as well as unapproved cow horse events.
Dual Rey
Linda Holmes hadn’t planned on keeping Dual Rey – her program has focused more on retaining mares – but ended up keeping the homebred colt when an unsightly injury to Dual Rey’s nose kept him out of a planned trip to the sale ring.
As Holmes said, the rest was history. The stallion by Dual Pep and out of Nurse Rey (by Wyoming Doc) was extremely intelligent, sensitive and very quick-footed.
“He was just a pretty spectacular individual right out of the gate,” she said.
In the show pen, Dual Rey and trainer Lloyd Cox tied for sixth in the NCHA Futurity Open and then won the following year’s 4-Year-Old Open at The Ike Derby. He retired with some $105,038 in earnings, according to EquiStat.
His offspring had earned more than $39 million at the time of his death in 2018, and have added another $11 million in the years since. He also has continued to sire foals after his death through a reserve of frozen semen, with 43 offspring born in 2019 and registered with the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), another 33 born in 2020 and 15 in 2020.
“From the ones I’ve already watched on the ground and in training, the youngest ones, I think there’s some really special ones still coming,” Holmes said of the stallion’s posthumous foals. “I don’t know if we’ve seen the heir to his throne yet or not.”
Dual Rey‘s leading earners are, according to EquiStat:
- NCHA Open World Champion Special Nu Baby ($486,156, out of Nu I Wood x Zack T Wood)
- NCHA Super Stakes Open Co-Champion Dont Stopp Believin ($463,794, out of Dont Look Twice x High Brow Cat)
- NCHA Futurity Open Champion Crey Zee ($448,151, out of Eazee E x High Brow Cat)
- 2021 NCHA Horse Hall of Fame inductee Reysin Kittens ($422,345, out of Kittens x High Brow Cat)
- NCHA Summer Spectacular 5/6-Year-Old Open Champion Duramax Dually ($414,513, out of That Catomine x High Brow Cat)
In addition to his success as a sire, Dual Rey also has made an impact on Western performance horse bloodlines through his daughters. Dual Rey mares have foaled the winners of more than $32.6 million, and are among the top crosses on several leading stallions in the industry, including Metallic Cat.
Dual Rey is buried at Holmes’s property in Colorado, where he lived out his final days.
Looking back, she said the $50 Million Sire was just a gift from God.
“I think he passed on all his best traits, and that’s the blessing you get sometimes if you get lucky enough,” she said. “And, I think he passed it on over and over again.”
