Year In Review Dedications Announced
Wednesday, January 29, 2003
Christy Parsons and Bob Funkhouser just announced the dedications for the upcoming edition of the Year In Review. The 2002 edition will be the 10th anniversary of the hardbound book which has recorded the history of the show horse industry from coast to coast.
Bill and Mary Jane Sledge of Pidgeon Roost Farm are this year’s honorees for the owners. Mary Jane Sledge has spent most of her lifetime owning and showing world class American Saddlebreds. Last year her daughter, Phillipa Sledge, won the Amateur Three-Gaited World’s Grand Championship with Yes It’s True and the Ladies Three-Gaited World’s Grand Championship with Lady Periana.
For the first time co-trainers will be honored with a dedication. Merrill Murray and Debbie Foley were selected for the tremendous year they had which included getting S.S. Genuine to the winner’s circle of the Five-Gaited World’s Grand Championship. Through Foley’s and Murray’s friendship and partnership, the David Nierenberg Trust entry wore the roses at Louisville and the UPHA/American Royal National Championships. Murray also won two of the three open gaited qualifiers at Louisville and Foley won the Junior Three-Gaited World’s Grand Championship.
When it came time to decide upon a horse dedication the three-year-old sensation An Heir About Her jumped right out. A world’s champion as a two-year-old and then this year a winner at Rock Creek, Lexington, and the National Three-Year-Old Three-Gaited Futurity before coming back with Chris Reiser to win the Three-Gaited World’s Grand Championship, An Heir About Her is the only three-year-old since Forest Song with Garland Bradshaw in 1966 to win the World’s Grand Championship. She is owned by Steve Hanes.
The 2002 edition of the Year In Review will be out in April. Deadline for participation in the book is the end of February. For more information contact Bob Funkhouser at (508)528-1124 or [email protected].
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