Pichirilo was foaled in 1952. He was bred by Oliver Jones in Kentucky. Pichirilo was by Depth Charge, one of the few Thoroughbreds to have been inducted into the AQHA Hall of Fame. Depth Charge was by Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner, Bold Venture. He stood at the Kentucky division of the King Ranch and was later moved to Texas where he sired numerous Quarter Horse racehorses, including stakes winners Johnny Dial, Super Charge, Tiny Charger, Dividend and Miss Queenie. Painted Ocean, the dam of Pichirilo, was an unraced daughter of Equestrian, the sire of Top Deck. Painted Ocean produced three Jockey Club registered foals. According to Equineline, Goliad, a full brother to Pichirilo, made 47 starts, and Talybont, a half-siter, made 45 starts. All three of Painted Ocean’s recorded foals were winners.
Pichirilo probably sold to Mexico as a yearling. He was owned by the Guerrero Brothers of Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico. As a two-year-old, Pichirilo made eleven official starts and won two races. While racing at Hipodromo in Mexico City, Pichirilo obliterated the world record for 550 yards. The previous world record, which had been equaled by the great Woven Web on the same track, was 0:27.2 seconds. Pichirilo ran the distance in 0:26.6 seconds. His record stood for at least fifteen years. The young speedster continued racing until he was three years old, but unfortunately, he severed his right thigh in a starting gate accident. He retired from racing with an official record of fifteen starts, two wins, two seconds and three thirds, with just $1,407 in earnings.
Pichirilo’s first registered foals were born in Mexico. Matamoros, a bay Thoroughbred stallion by Pichirilo, was foaled in 1959. Matamoros was registered with the Mexican Jockey Club. He had bulldog conformation and speed. Matamoros was purchased by Dr. H. T. Martinez to stand in Hebbronville, Texas. Dr. Martinez also brought Pichirilo to Hebbronville, although the older stallion was still owned by the Guerrero Brothers.
Word spread quickly that Pichirilo was in Texas. Leo Winters first heard about Pichirilo a few months before he was elected the ninth Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma. Winters had a remarkable life story, so it is worth telling here. He was born on November 7th, 1922, in Hooker, Oklahoma, to German immigrants. He did not learn to speak English until he entered grammar school. Winters developed a love for horses and agriculture as a child. He jockeyed his first racehorse when he was sixteen years old. Winters attended Panhandle State University but left college to serve in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. He was a B-17 and B-29 pilot for five years. After the war, he remained stationed in Alaska preparing for a counterattack against the Soviet Union.
While in Alaska, Winters began leasing a ranch on Sitkinak Island, a small island in the Trinity Group of the Kodiak Archipelago. The ranch covered 142 square miles. Winters and the ranch foreman, Jim Davis, managed large herds of sheep and cattle. When Winters returned to Oklahoma to finish his education, he continued to make yearly visits to the island ranch. One year, Winters and Bob Grove, an attorney from Oklahoma City, hired a tramp steamer to bring 784 sheep, along with cattle, dogs and cats to the island. The ship was nicknamed “Leo’s Ark.”
Winters eventually earned a bachelor’s degree from Panhandle State and a law degree from the University of Oklahoma. While in college, he established an undefeated record in debate and public speaking. In 1954, Winters took a job as the Assistant Secretary for the Oklahoma State Election Board. Six months later, he took over the secretary’s position. It was around that time that he began breeding Quarter Horse racehorses. One of the best Quarter Horse starters to come out of his program was Miss Top Flame, a brown mare by Top Deck. She won 24 races including the Oklahoma Derby, Chicago Quarter Horse Derby and All Distance Championship Series. Miss Top Flame became the foundation mare of Winters’ breeding program.
In September of 1962, Winters took a break from his campaign for Lieutenant Governor to attend the Ruidoso Sale. While Winters and his friend Charles Longacre, a racehorse trainer from Oklahoma, were at the sale, they learned about the impressive Thoroughbred stallions Dr. Martinez was standing in Texas. Winters, Longacre and their wives drove from Ruidoso, New Mexico to Hebbronville, Texas to see Pichirilo and Matamoros. Winters was especially interested in Pichirilo, perhaps because of his close relation to Top Deck. Dr. Matinez introduced Winters to the Guerrero Brothers, the owners of Pichirilo. After speaking with the Guerreros over the phone, Winters decided to drive 400 miles to Torreon, Mexico. Winters entered a contract with the Guerreros to lease Pichirilo for five years for $2,000 per year with the option to buy him for $15,000.
Pichirilo was finicky to say the least. He was hauled to Oklahoma in a stock truck because he could not be hauled in an enclosed trailer. By the time the truck arrived at Winters’ farm in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, the 1,280-pound stallion had smashed the stock racks, essentially turning the truck into a flatbed. Even after Pichirilo settled into his new home, it took two people to clean his stall and feed him. One person had to do the chores while the other held a pitchfork to keep the stallion from attacking!
Undeterred by the stallion’s aggressive behavior, Winters and Longacre, purchased Pichirilo from the Guerreros. They formed a corporation called the Alaskan Livestock Company and advertised the unruly stallion in the December 1962 issue of The Quarter Horse Journal, just one month after Winters won the election for Lieutenant Governor. The advertisement highlighted that Pichirilo held the world record at 550 yards and that he had won halter classes in Mexico. His temperament was not mentioned.
On September 2nd, 1963, Muchacho, a son of Pichirilo, won his first start in Nuevo Leon, Mexico by four lengths, running 250 yards in 13.6 seconds. He was just eighteen months old. Pichirilo’s first American foals were just a few months behind. Like his Mexican-bred foals, they were fast-maturing. Miss Pichirilo, Pichirilo Gal and Pichirilo Return, members of his 1962 foal crop, earned two-year-old racing ROMs. Pichirilo Boy, a sorrel stallion by Pichirilo and out of Miss Tacuba, by Midnight Charge, equaled a track record and set a new track record at the age of two. Pichirilo’s next foal crop included Roge’s Pichirilo, winner of the Delta Downs Futurity and Evangeline Laddie Stakes.
In 1964, the Alaskan Livestock Company introduced the $25,000 Pichirilo Futurity. The race was held at Centennial Downs in Littleton, Colorado. Only horses by Pichirilo were able to enter. Since most of his foals inherited his crazy disposition, the race was said to be a wild affair. The incentive attracted more mares to his books though. Pichirilo successfully covered more than fifty mares in 1964. One of those mares, Miss Jay Bar, a daughter of multiple stakes winner Jayhawker Bar, produced Pichirilo Jay, his best Quarter Horse starter. Pichirilo Jay won the Gulf State Futurity and the Centennial Handicap. He also set a new track record at Evangeline Downs for 350 yards in 17.880 seconds. Pichirilo Jay went on to sire 271 registered Quarter Horse foals.
Winters became the eleventh Oklahoma State Treasurer in 1967. By that time, he had moved Pichirilo to Future Farms in Lakeview, California. The stallion was fifteen years old and still ornery. His fertility decreased drastically a few years later. He only sired one registered Quarter Horse in 1969. By 1970, Winters had sold Pichirilo and the old stallion was in Louisiana. His last foal on record, Sue’s Charge, was a Thoroughbred mare born in 1977. In total, Pichirilo sired 247 registered foals. They included 64 race winners, 47 ROM-earners, 20 stakes finalists, four track record setters, two stakes winners, and one Superior Race Award winner. Sir Pichirilo, a brown gelding out of Georgie F, was his only Performance ROM earner.
Pichirilo Jay was his most successful son at stud. His other sons Danger Returns, Lone Survivor, Parr’s Pichirilo, Pichirilo Boy, Pichirilo Returns, Requested Boy, Roge’s Pichirilo, Senor Pichirilo and Zippity Zippity sired Quarter Horses and Paints. His daughters produced 191 Quarter Horse foals that earned $366,052 on the track. Free Mover and Marcella Jane, bay mares by Pichirilo, produced stakes winners Hasty Mover and Shes A Thought. Scat’s Hunch, a red roan mare by Mr Scat Man and out of Vanrillo, by Pichirilo, earned Performance ROMs in the Open and Youth divisions. Pichirilo has few living descendants, but he occasionally appears in the pedigrees of racing and barrel racing horses.
Winters was the Oklahoma State Treasurer for twenty years. During that time, he was also selected as an AQHA Director. He served on the AQHA Executive Committee and was elected president of the organization in 1988. He was inducted into the AQHA Hall of Fame in 1999 and passed away in 2005.
Sources: Equineline, Equibase, The American Quarter Horse Association, The Quarter Horse Journal, Dickinson Cattle Company
The Western Thoroughbred 