Kennewick’s Meneelys hope for more success from horse Heza Dasha Fire

Kennewick’s Don and Kathy Meneely didn’t get much chance to sit down and catch their breath at last month’s American Quarter Horse Association awards ceremony in Oklahoma City.

They and their horses Heza Dasha Fire and Ima Fearless Hero ran off with much of the hardware.

Heza Dasha Fire, the older half brother of Ima Fearless Hero, was the star of the show. He was honored as the champion 3-year-old, champion 3-year-old gelding and the World Champion Racing American Quarter Horse after going 5-for-5 in his 2015 campaign at Southern California track Los Alamitos.

Ima Fearless Hero, the winner of the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity, was named the AQHA champion 2-year-old gelding. Their mother, Dasha Freda, was a Dam of Distinction for producing two foals among last year’s top 10 money earners. And the Meneelys’ S-Quarter K LLC was recognized as the AQHA champion breeder.

“It was nuts,” Don Meneely said. “People kept saying, ‘You guys should stay up here.’ It was almost surreal.”

Heza Dasha Fire also was named an AQHA Supreme Race Horse after bringing in $500,000 or more in career earnings and winning at least two open Grade 1 stakes races and 10 races overall. He will try for another victory Sunday night at Los Alamitos.

In the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Winter Championship, he will take on fellow racing heavyweight Moonist.

Heza Dasha Fire beat Moonist, the AQHA’s top aged champion and aged gelding, in December’s $600,000 Champion of Champions. But Moonist avenged his loss Jan. 24, in the first of two trials for the $139,700 Los Alamitos Winter Championship.

The Winter Championship is a qualifier for the Champion of Champions. Regardless of what Heza Dasha Fire does Sunday night, he will join his brother, who is healing from arthroscopic surgery to remove chips from his knees, for some well-deserved time off. They have a combined career record of 17 wins in 21 starts.

“They can be in their own little pasture and just enjoy some sunshine and green grass, which I wish I had up here right now,” said Don Meneely, who plans to travel to California on Sunday morning to watch Heza Dasha Fire’s race.

The outlook is good for Ima Fearless Hero’s recovery. The Meneelys stopped running him after they learned about the chips.

“We took him out right away,” Kathy Meneely said. “The surgeon who did it said his prognosis was that he’d come back 100 percent because there was no damage in there.”

While Heza Dasha Fire and Ima Fearless Hero rest up until early spring, two more Meneely horses could be getting warmed up for success at Los Alamitos.

Heza Famous Dasher and Sheza Famous Chick, 2-year-olds who are unrelated to Heza Dasha Fire and Ima Fearless Hero, might run in the Bobby Adair Kindergarten Futurity in May. If they skip that one, the Ed Burke Million Futurity — won by Heza Dasha Fire when he was 2 — is on the schedule the following month.

The Meneelys are taking a wait-and-see approach with the pair, who have the same father (One Famous Eagle), as they are training and adjusting to the track.

“Everything kind of starts over for them, so we’ll see,” Don Meneely said. “You never know if they can run or they can’t run.”

The success of Heza Dasha Fire and Ima Fearless Hero might have just as much — or more — to do with luck as it does with their genes, Don Meneely says.

The former Kennewick High School boys basketball coach uses a hoops analogy to make his point.

“You can breed Michael Jordan to Cheryl Miller and get a piano player,” he said. “We’ve all seen brothers where one is a great athlete and one isn’t. DNA does funny things sometimes, and there’s no guarantees.”

One thing’s for sure: Heza Dasha Fire and Ima Fearless Hero are a dynamite duo. And they have the awards to prove it.

“It was pretty great,” Kathy Meneely said of their dominance at the AQHA ceremony. “It’s kind of the culmination or the peak of what we’ve been working for for a lot of years. It was very nice that a small-time outfit could produce the kind of horses that did that. It helps all the other small-time breeders be able to say, ‘I can do that, too.’ ”

This story was originally published February 13, 2016 at 4:47 PM with the headline "Kennewick’s Meneelys hope for more success from horse Heza Dasha Fire."