Real Dish was foaled on May 19th, 1959, in California. She bred by Louis and Ida Shapiro, the breeders of Native Diver and Azure Te. Real Dish was by Royal Charger, a chestnut son of the great Nearco. Royal Charger was bred by Sir John Jarvis in Great Britain. He won six races including the Queen Anne Stakes, Challenge Stakes and Ayr Gold Cup. After Royal Charger retired from racing, he was purchased by the Irish National Stud. He later sold to George D. Widener Jr. and imported to Old Kenney Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. In his fifteen seasons at stud, Royal Charger sired more than fifty stakes winners including Turn-To, Happy Laughter, Gilles de Retz, Idun, Mongo, Royal Native, Royal Orbit and Sea Charger.
Cul de Sac, the dam of Real Dish, was by Requested, runner-up to Hall of Fame inductee Alsab in the 1942 Preakness Stakes. Requested sired nineteen stakes winners, including Miss Request, My Request, Eladio, Cerise Reine and Our Request. He also sired Rainy Season, a Quarter Horse stakes winner and new track record setter. Requested was highly influential in the Quarter Horse industry through his Thoroughbred sons Custus Rastus, Little Request and Suggested. His daughters, Cul de Sac among them, also influenced Quarter Horse bloodlines. Cul de Sac was stakes placed and had four foals. Her sons Solid Circle and Bercircle were race winners. Her daughter Quick Flirt produced six Thoroughbred foals, including Time n’ Place, the dam of Quarter Horse starters Shes Alpha, Billy Deehorn and Rule the Buck. Real Dish was her best producing daughter.
Real Dish was unraced. The Shapiros bred her as a four-year-old, but she lost the foal. When she was five, they bred her to Fleet Nashrullah. The resulting foal was a bay filly named Fast Dish. Fast Dish won the 1967 Del Mar Debutante Stakes and placed second in the 1969 Palomar Handicap. Her final race record was seven starts, five wins and two thirds with $62,305 in earnings. After Fast Dish retired from racing, the Shapiros added her to their broodmare band. She produced three foals, including race winners Bronx Bomber and Dandy Dish. Her son Landish sired Thoroughbred race winners Ballet Shoes and Happy Dish.
Real Dish’s second foal, Vanilla Wafer, was a full sister to Fast Dish. Vanilla Wafer was unraced. She produced six foals – Mode Waif, Kraker, Ginger Snapper, French Dish, Tickertape and Ver Vanilla. Most were unraced or unplaced. After Vanilla Wafer, Real Dish was barren for four years. In 1971, she produced her third foal, a chestnut filly by Windy Sands. The filly, named Picnic Problem, made 26 starts, won four races, and earned $29,778 on the track. Picnic Problem went on to produce just one Thoroughbred foal, a race winning mare named Fast Ant.
Over the next three years, Real Dish was not bred. During that time, she transferred ownership from the Shapiro Estate to Melvin Hatley in Oklahoma. Hatley then sold her to AQHA Hall of Fame breeder and trainer Walter Merrick. Merrick said that Real Dish was one of the best-made Thoroughbred mares he ever owned. In 1974, she was bred to Merrick’s legendary Quarter Horse stallion Easy Jet. The resulting foal, Real Easy Jet, was Real Dish’s best starter and one of Easy Jet’s most prolific sons.
Real Easy Jet was trained by Merrick. “He was a pure runner,” Merrick is quoted as saying in Wire to Wire: The Walter Merrick Story. “In fact, he could run so fast he’d scare you. But he was also temperamental. He won his trial heat in just about every stakes race we ever entered him in, but then he seldom seemed to give the same kind of effort in the finals. So he only won one futurity. If he’d had anything that was close to his daddy’s consistency as a runner, there’s no telling what he could have accomplished.”
Despite his inconsistency on the track, Real Easy Jet still had a successful career. He won the 1977 Oklahoma Futurity and placed second in the West Texas Futurity and Sun Country Futurity. He also placed third in the 1978 Kansas Derby and New Mexico State Fair Handicap. His final race record was 28 races, twelve wins, seven seconds and two thirds with $153,833 in earnings. He earned a Register of Merit and a Superior Race Horse award.
As a stallion, Real Easy Jet was really impressive. He sired 1,087 AQHA registered foals in twenty foal crops. His best starter, Real Moody, won nine races, including the Gr. 2 Black Gold Championship. Real Moody earned $434,920 on the track. Altogether, Real Easy Jet sired earners of $6,523,901. Among those were 555 Racing ROM earners, 496 race winners, 47 stakes winners, 26 Superior Race Award earners and two Regional Champions. His offspring also earned 285.0 points in the arena and sixteen Performance ROMs. Not included in those statistics are his Appaloosa offspring, among which Persnickety One won six races, including two futurities and one derby, and earned $53,252 on the track.
Although Real Dish changed ownership from Walter Merrick in Oklahoma to Sarah Henderson and Harriett Peckham in New Mexico, she only went to Easy Jet for the rest of her life. In 1967, she produced a sorrel colt named Real Ease by the champion stallion. Real Ease placed second in the 1978 Oklahoma Futurity and third in the Rocket Bar Futurity and Raton Futurity. He went on to sire 268 Quarter Horse foals in eight foal crops. His best starter, Burnell, won the Gr. 2 Texas Futurity and Gr. 3 Coors Distributors Derby. Burnell won sixteen of 30 starts and earned $559,123. Quarter Horse offspring of Real Ease earned a total of $1,374,042 on the track. They also earned 524.5 points in the arena.
Realist, Real Dish’s 1977 colt, unfortunately died as a yearling. She did not have a foal in 1978. In 1979, she produced a sorrel filly named Heaven Knows. Heaven Knows won one race and earned a Register of Merit. She has no Quarter Horse foals on record. Plum Easy, the next filly out of Real Dish, made nine starts but failed to win a race. Plum Easy produced Plum Featured, dam of race winners Dashes Dish and Jaded.
Real Dish produced her final foal, Crowned Royal, in 1981 when she was 22 years old. Crowned Royal made three starts, won one race, and earned $970 on the track. He went on to sire 115 Quarter Horse foals in seven foal crops. His offspring only earned $102,035 on the track. His best starter, Flamed Royal, won thirteen races and placed second in the 1992 Manor Downs Fillies and Mares Stakes. Crowned Royal sired earners of 186.5 points in the arena. His progeny also earned money in the National Reining Horse Association.
Real Dish’s three sons that survived to breeding age – Real Easy Jet, Real Ease and Crowned Royal – sired a combined total of 1,470 Quarter Horse foals that earned $7,999,978 on the track and 996.0 points in the arena. Counting their APHA and ApHC offspring increases their progeny earnings to over $8 million.
Real Dish was an incredible mare who had some incredible women in her life. It is worth noting that Sarah Henderson and Harriett Peckman partnered to breed Real Dish’s foal Plum Easy. Henderson was an owner or a partner in AQHA Hall of Fame members Miss Olene and Rocket Bar. She also had a hand in champion Little Blue Sheep, dam of distinction Etta Leo, sire Sparkling Native, Superior Race Horse Dream Rocket and stakes winner Goetta Miss. Henderson bred 55 foals on her own including stakes winners Comin Easy and Flamboyan. Peckman owned Buena Suerte Ranch. Her broodmare band, which at one time included Real Dish, famously produced Streakin Six and Pie In The Sky. Peckman was inducted into the AQHA Hall of Fame in 2006.
Sources: Equineline, Equibase, American Quarter Horse Association, Wire to Wire: The Walter Merrick Story, All Breed Database
The Western Thoroughbred 