Pichirilo - was born in 1952 and sired by Depth Charge who was born in 1941, one year after Three Bars and Leo. Pichirilo's dam was by Equestrian who also was the sire of Top Deck. Leo Winters, who was Attorney General of Oklahoma, bought Pichirilo in Mexico and stood him at his Broken Arrow breeding farm. Depth Charge had spent some time in Mexico before living his last years in the USA also near Tulsa.
It was winter when this photo was taken and not good weather or hair for photos. They had to get some photo for the major promotional effort for breeding season ads. Leo Winters had me fly to Tulsa and had a room for me at the Historic Mayo Hotel. Pichirilo had never allowed a good photo to be taken.
Leo was a quality guy, so I always enjoyed visiting with him. He owned properties all over including the huge Alaskan Livestock Company on the big Kodiak island of southern Alaska, in the center of the Japanese wind current. He told me of the problem they had with their cattle and bears -- not good.
Pichirilo was a little nervous, but not anything dangerous compared to other race horses that had never been disciplined to stand still. For a TB he took a good front end angle -- most won't. Some said his progeny were ding-bats to handle on the track, but fast if you could get them pointed in the right direction. To me he was just a normal horse who was more interested in the future breeding season than taking photos, like most stallions.
Author: Darol Dickinson