Tribute To A Champion - Ducks Dux

This article is from the July 2020 Horse Deals magazine.

Cutting is the equestrian disciple in which training and talent are most clearly shown. The rider drops the reins and the horse gets to work. Watching the best is thrilling and the intense look on the horse’s face is priceless. And there was none better than 2011 NCHA Futurity winner, Ducks Dux. Bred by the late John Brekelmans, inducted into the NCHA Non Pro Hall of fame in 2007, Dux is the Australian NCHA Highest Money Earning Cutting Horse with over $220,000 in earnings and was inducted into the NCHA Horse Hall of Fame in 2013. This is her tribute.

Sadly the highly regarded cutting horse breeder, John Brekelmans died in July 2019, but his legacy as the founder of one of the great female cutting lines will live on for many, many years. And for a horseman, there could be no better legacy. The story of Ducks Dux begins when a young city boy, John headed for the bush. Not having a horse for a local campdraft competition, an Aboriginal stockman suggested he ride “Old” Duck. A plainer mare would have been hard to find, but she had the essential attributes necessary for success; “attitude, heart, desire, cattle sense and strong bone”. John was so impressed with the mare that he bought her, did her the kindness of changing her name to Cold Duck and not “Old” and that’s how a station run in became the matriarch of one of the cutting industries most talked about bloodlines. You can just imagine any stallion owner or semen importer looking a bit askance at the unprepossessing Cold Duck, but she produced Doc’s Duckling (2004 NCHA Heritage Horse Hall of Fame) by Doc T Bar that is now recognised as one of the leading dams of Australian performance horses. She produced five foals to Docs Freckle Oak, one of which, Oaks Fancy Duckling, John rode to second place in the Futurity 30 odd years ago.

We are getting closer to Dux. Fancy Duckling had Dashing Duckling by Docs Spinafex that in turn was mated to three-time US AQHA World Champion Cutting Horse, Sophisticated Catt to produce Dux that was foaled in November 2007. The all-important choice of a name was helped by John’s daughter, Alana, declared Dux of her school in Rockhampton, so Ducks Dux it was. The filly was training so well that John decided to put US-based New Zealand Cutting professional, Clint Allen on her in the 2011 Futurity at Tamworth. Dux won with a record score of 152. John stepped aboard the following year to win the prestigious Non Pro Derby. And she kept on winning, and unlike her great, great grandmother, Dux is the very picture of a modern cutting horse, especially when facing a cow, she has a beautiful, intelligent face, full of determination. “She’s the full package,” said John in an interview some years ago, “she’s tough, a real workhorse and loves her job. She reads a cow very well, has a huge stop and is very agile.”

“John was still competing her in 2016,” says John’s partner and veterinarian, Margit Nezold. “She contracted a lung infection that year and it took her seven months to get over it and John felt it was time to retire her from competition. She lost a foal after being naturally bred and we then decided to not to let her have a foal and to keep flushing the embryos. John brought her back into work and rode her last year at Tamworth and said she was just starting to come good again after her illness and John died not long after that.

“Dux has an attitude and she is allowed to have an attitude because she has been so successful. She can be cranky with other horses and sometimes with other people, but show her a cow and she is all attention. She has produced nine foals and most recently two fillies, one by One Stylish Pepto and the other by the Australian Stock Horse, Hazelwood Conman and they are fantastic. A filly by the US stallion Boon Too Suen, Suen Too Duck, is probably the most athletic horse she has produced so far. She was to have been John’s Futurity horse this year and he was very excited about her.

“She is quite small and a very good doer. All her foals are quite small as well, which works well cutting, but we have sold a lot of horses to people wanting to campdraft and they want them bigger. They want the cutting ability in the camp and a bit of size to gallop around the gates. For that reason I really like the Hazelwood Conman (Elliots Creek Cadet and Warrenbri Romeo breeding) crosses. Breks Duck Yeah by Conman is probably the best stallion Dux has produced and he is being campaigned by Pete Comiskey and we are very excited about that.

“John’s daughter Alana and I will keep her and she is retired from competition now, as we don’t want to see anyone else ride her. We will keep breeding under the name of Breklemans’ Duck Horses. Dux is a mighty legacy and a demonstration of the bloodlines John established.”

Article: Anna Sharpley

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