KENNY CHAPMAN DIES

CYPRESS, CA. Sept. 1, 2011 - Kenneth L. "Kenny" Chapman, one of the nation’s top Quarter Horse jockeys in late 1950s and early 1960s, passed away on Monday, August 29. He was 80.

Born on January 11, 1931 in Charles City, Iowa, Chapman won 263 Quarter Horse races in his career at Los Alamitos. He was the leading rider with 22 wins at the Orange County track during the during the spring meet of 1957 and his top win that season came with Mr Bar None in the PCQHRA Futurity, a race that was renamed the Ed Burke Memorial Futurity in 1970. Chapman also piloted Mr Bar None and the great champion Pokey Bar to wins in the PCQHRA Breeders Derby in1958 and 1962, respectively. Chapman and Pokey Bar also joined forces to win the third ever running of the then $202,425 All American Futurity in 1961 and the Los Alamitos Invitational Championship in 1962. This year marks the 50-yearanniversary of Pokey Bar’s victory in the All American.

A winner of 14 stakes races in his Los Alamitos career, Chapman also took home the Inaugural Handicap, now called the Kaweah Bar Handicap, with Back Stretchin 1964 and PCQHRA Futurity with Rapid Volley in 1965. Kenny was also a leading rider at La Mesa Park in Raton, New Mexico and Centennial Park in Denver, Colorado.

After enjoying a 19-year career on the saddle, Chapman saddled the winners of 283 Quarter Horse races at Los Alamitos. Chapman trained horses for 10 years after he retired from the saddle. In the late 1970s, he took time off from training to work on several different breeding farms. He returned to training horses in the early 1990s with horses like Her First Cin, a finalist for the 1993California Sires Cup Futurity.

When he quit riding in the late 1960s, he spent 10 years training, but quit in the late1970s and worked on breeding farms throughout the West, preparing horses for racing careers. Chapman also helped introduce several top current horsemen to the sport. Charles Treece, the all-time leading Thoroughbred trainer at Los Alamitos, credits Chapman for helping him acquire his first race horse. Treece, who was only 14-years-old at the time, learned to ride on that horse – a mare named Central Park – and two years later he would receive his jockey license. Following his retirement from training, Chapman remained a supporting member of the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association.

Kenny Chapman is survived by his wife Margaret, ex-wife Jane, Kenny and Jane’s son, David, two grandchildren and three great grandchildren. A celebration of life in the memory of Kenny Chapman is being planned. More information will be available in the near future. For more info, please call 714-820-2690.