Qualified by winning the Refrigerator Handicap

What a year it has been for Country Chicks Man, the winner of the Grade 1 Refrigerator Handicap and Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie's Horse of the Meeting and Champion Older Male for the recently concluded 2006 Fall Meeting of Champions for Quarter Horses. It took Country Chicks Man just one race to make a lasting impression at Lone Star Park, as his Refrigerator victory was his only outing of the year there. But he won that race in grand style, leading every step of the way en route to 1 1/2 length victory. The son of Chicks Beduino defeated a field that included MBNA America Challenge Championship winner This Snow Is Cold and Vessels Maturity runner-up Get Down Perry. Previously, Country Chicks Man won the Eastex Handicap and Leo Handicap and was second to SLM Snowman in the Remington Park Invitational Championship. It used to be that Country Chicks Man would explode out of the gate before losing his wings in the final 100 yards. That's no longer the case Mullins explained. "I changed his training a little bit just to improve his last 50 or 60 yards. That's made a big difference. He used to open up early but then they would catch him at the end. That doesn't happen anymore." In preparation for the Champion of Champions, Mullins gave Country Chicks Man a drill under the lights on Saturday, November 25. The Oklahoma-bred red horse responded with a solid :18.10 drill. "We wanted to see how he would fit the track and he seemed to like it. He worked great and he came back super. His soundness is one of his strong points. If they outrun us they outrun us but I know that he will not beat himself. He runs his race every trip no matter what." Jacky Martin will ride Country Chicks Man in place of G.R. Carter, who has opted to ride Be A Bono in the Champion of Champions. Martin rode Country Chicks Man to a third place finish in last year's Refrigerator Handicap while also piloting him to victory in the Burnett Handicap. "G.R. told me that he was committed to Be A Bono and I totally understand that," he said. "When the money is on the line Jacky is as good as there is in the game. He's ridden Country Chicks Man before so he knows him well." Country Chicks Man is out of the late broodmare Country Zevi. "She never got a lot of respect as a broodmare, " Mullins said. "Everything she had ran well and stayed sound. She was only 17 when she died. The baby that she was carrying kicked her and ruptured a uterus artery. She bled internally and we could not revive her or the baby." This year alone Country Zevi has been represented on the track by the talented 3-year-old gelding Sm Country Cowboy, the Oklahoma high point leader in his division, the 4-year-old mare Eyesa Country Miss, the Texas high point leader in her division, and of course Country Chicks Man. She also had the stakes winner Little Country Miss and the Paint Horse stallion Country Quick Dash. "She was so good to me," Mullins added. "I bought her as a weanling for $7,500 and everyone thought I was crazy. She made $8,800 in her first race and then made the finals to six stakes races. She had five daughters and I still have every one of them." Country Chicks Man's sire is Chicks Beduino, who is one of the all-time great Quarter Horse stallions of all time. Chicks Beduino is the sire of was a champion race horse and is champion sire. He was euthanized in September 2003, at the age of 19, due to kidney failure. Chicks Beduino sired 2002 Champion of Champions winner Whosleavingwho.

First things first, "Sparky" is Sparky Mullins' real name. "I was born with it," said the owner, trainer and breeder of Champion of Champions contender Country Chicks Man. "Everybody is always asking me if that's just a nickname and even people that I've known all my life still wonder about my name." So now that that's clear, what about those hot-pink silks that the super talented Country Chicks Man has carried to stakes victories in five out of his last seven starts? "That started out as a dare," said Mullins, who has MBA degree from Northeastern State University in Oklahoma. "My wife Denise bought me a pink shirt and dared me to wear it. I was having fun with her and told her that I was man enough to wear pink and I did. I took it even farther than that when we got our hot pink silks. I think they're unique. You just don't see many silks of that color. It makes it easy for me to spot my horses when they race, plus I now own about 40 pink shirts. Our friends wear pink to the races. We have fun with it." Mullins, who retired from the Veteran Administration in Oklahoma in 1996, became involved in horse racing after finding the home of his dreams. "The bank was going to repossess a ranch in Wagoner, Oklahoma and they needed someone to live there it until they could find a buyer," Mullins said. "I loved the place so much that I ended up buying it in 1984. I started racing horses in 1987. My first horse was Miss Rocket Zevi, who ended up a stakes winner. I've had several Zevi horses since then and every one worked out." Born in Texas, raised Oklahoma, Sparky has been married to his wife Denise for 33 years. They have four children. "They take care of ranch while I'm gone," Mullins said. "I was still in college when I met my wife. She was in high school. She asked me out first," he recalled with a smile. Among their children, the Mullins have twin sons. "One of the twins works for me. His name is Jeff Mullins, just like the Thoroughbred trainer."