Few horses in any discipline ever reached the heights that Dont Look Twice did in the competition arena. The winningest cutting mare in history, she also was the National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) Open World Champion and an NCHA Open Horse of the Year.
The odds of Dont Look Twice repeating that success as a broodmare would seem unlikely. Many a great show mare racked up the championships but didn’t duplicate that success in her offspring. Dont Look Twice, however, is not one of those mares. She has a family legacy to uphold.
Recently, the 2005 daughter of High Brow Cat and out of Tapt Twice (by Dual Pep) earned millionaire dam status when her progeny earnings reached $1,032,218. Her 12 money-earning performers in the EquiStat database won an average of $86,018.
The achievement thrills her owners Bobby and Lori Gale, whose Gale Force Quarter Horses in 2021 bought Dont Look Twice, her dam and other mares from former owner Waco Bend Ranch.
“It’s very exciting. It’s kind of overwhelming to be blessed with this kind of horse,” said Lori Gale, who had cheered for the mare when she was campaigned for former owner Waco Bend. “She’s all around everything that you could ever want.”
For Bobby Gale, the opportunity to help the mare’s trainer, Phil Rapp, and his wife, Mary Ann, continue the legacy of a mare line the Rapp family’s been nurturing since Phil was a teenager is particularly meaningful. Phil Rapp bred and showed Dont Look Twice, rode many of her offspring and stands her son, Dont Stopp Believin.
“That means so much,” he said. “And, Dont Look Twice, Lori and I are so proud to own, but I know Mary Ann [Rapp] has always loved that horse. So, it’s really kind of just a real fun thing to us to watch and be part of.”
Stellar Show Career
Running through all of Don’t Look Twice’s career wins would be an exhaustive effort. The mare showed from coast to coast, and is a rare competitor who won major titles in cutting aged events and went on to win many major titles during a long and productive weekend event career.
The mare began to show audiences what she was capable of as a 4-year-old, when she won Derby Open championships at the Augusta Futurity, Bonanza Cutting, West Texas Futurity and Pacific Coast cutting Horse Association Futurity shows. She also was the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) World Champion Senior Cutting Horse and was Reserve Champion at the NCHA Summer Spectacular Derby Open.
Don’t Look Twice continued to find success as a 5-year-old and 6-year-old, banking $145,305 and $227,294 in those years, respectively. She entered the weekend showing phase of her career — once cutting horses are 7 years old, they are no longer eligible for aged events —with more than $666,717 in earnings to that point. Over the course of the next five years, Don’t Look Twice earned another $183,911, the National Cutting Horse Association Open World Championship and the NCHA Finals Open World Championship. She retired with total lifetime earnings of $850,628.
Dont Look Twice’s Leading Offspring
Dont Look Twice’s leading earner is NCHA Super Stakes Derby Open Co-Champion Dont Stopp Believin, a son of Dual Rey who won more than $463,794 during his career. The NCHA Hall of Fame horse was ridden during his career by multiple members of the Rapp family, including EquiStat Elite $10 Million Rider Phil Rapp in the Open; EquiStat Elite $5 Million Rider Mary Ann Rapp in the Non-Pro and their son, Ryan Rapp, in the Youth. He was the 2018 AQHA Senior Cutting Reserve Champion.
Now a breeding stallion, Dont Stopp Believin is an EquiStat Elite $2 Million Sire, with offspring earnings of more than $2.1 million recorded in the database.
Dont Look Twice’s second-leading earner is one of her youngest, Dont Look For Troubl. The 2018 son of Meteles Cat went on a tear during his 4-year-old season, winning Derby Open championships at The Cattlemen’s Derby and the Abilene Spectacular, and earning Reserve Open titles at The Ike and in the Cutting Stakes at the Pacific Coast Cutting Horse Association Futurity. His earnings currently stand at $166,572.
The great mare’s top three money earners are rounded out by Dontt Happen Twice, a 2014 mare by Woody Be Tuff. She earned $91,069 during her cutting career, topped by Abilene Spectacular Derby Open Reserve Championship and the Cotton Stakes 5/6-Year-Old Non-Pro Championship.
When Dont Look Twice began her broodmare career, she was the latest in a line of productive, high-caliber show mares in her maternal family affiliated with the Rapp family.
Latest in a Long Line of Mares
It started back when Rapp, whose family continued to care for Dont Look Twice for the Gales, was a 14-year-old freshman in high school in his native state of California. His father, Jerry, bought him Tapeppyoka Peppy, a 1980 daughter of Doc’s Oak and out of Senorita Peppy (by Mr San Peppy) bred by SJ Agnew, of Vancouver, Washington.
The mare would go on to earn $181,069 —twice helping Rapp make the top 10 in the year-end NCHA Non-Pro World Championship standings — and foaling the earners of more than $568,484.
Tappeyoka Peppy’s daughter, Tap O Lena (by Doc O’Lena) earned $502,145 and foaled the winners of more than $655,015 and her granddaughter Tapt Twice (by Dual Pep) earned $285,226 and produced the earners of more than $1.7 million — including Dont Look Twice (by High Brow Cat).
“When I retired [Tapeppyoka Peppy], we bred her to Doc O’Lena and our first colt that she had was Tap O Lena. And you know, Tap O Lena and she’s still to this day my favorite horse. She was she was just a special special horse of course being out of my my mare that I’d had such success with and then to get her, she was just a wonderful horse,” Rapp said. “And then of course we’ve bred Tap O Lena had got Tapt Twice and all that Tapt Twice did, and then Dont Look Twice came from that.
“And now, what I’m hoping is to get a daughter or two of Dont Look Twice to continue that that lineage on as we as we move forward.”
So far, daughters of Dont Look Twice have foaled the earners of $396,686.
The Future of Dont Look Twice’s Legacy
Dont Look Twice isn’t done yet. Now 19, she’s carrying an offspring by NCHA Open Horse of the Year Third Edge. It will be the second foal she’s carried herself, with the other being Dont Look For Troubl. She has several foals that haven’t reached show age yet, including offspring from Once In A Blu Boon, Rollz Royce, Dual Reyish and Hottish.
The plan is for the Gales’s son, Robbie, to ride a Hashtags gelding out of Dont Look Twice in this year’s NCHA Futurity.
Although Gale Force Quarter Horses initially sold some of Dont Look Twice’s offspring after buying her and other mares from Waco Bend Ranch, Bobby Gale says their focus has shifted. Rather than sell her offspring, the plan now is to keep them and put them in training with Rapp.
“I think I think Phil Rapp’s got a lot left in the tank and he just needs the right horse, and we’re not going to take a Dont Look Twice out from under him,” Bobby Gale said. “He’s gonna get an opportunity [to ride them] and I’m just excited to get to be there to see it happen.”
For Bobby Gale, as much as it’s a gift to be associated with a horse like Dont Look Twice — the friendship with the Rapp family means just as much.
“They’ve done so much for us by sharing their family and experiences and stuff like that,” he said. “I think we get more out of the friendship than we do out of the horse part of it. I mean, they they’re really close friends to us.”
