EDMOND, OK—NOVEMBER 18, 2016—Mixer Ranch reported on Thursday their multiple stakes producing mare Stylish Sign died on Thursday at the family ranch near Edmond, Oklahoma. She was 20-years-old.

''We are very saddened by the loss of our great mare,'' Jill Mixer said. ''She was the matriarch of our breeding program.''

A daughter of Vital Sign, Stylish Sign compiled a (45) 4-5-3 race record and earned $28,306 over five years at the track.

''I first noticed her when she was a 3-year-old at Remington Park. At the time, Tim Williams, the current assistant Racing Secretary at Remington was training her, and I thought she was the most beautiful filly I had ever seen,'' Mixed said. She continued to follow the mare's racing career for the next year before getting the opportunity to take her in a $6,250 calming race at Lone Star Park.

''We claimed her and brought her home for a little rest. The day after returning home, I turned her out in a paddock beside our barn and my sons, Duke and Ryan Shults, who now train, were 11 years old. I sent one of them out to catch her and would you believe that 16.1 hand tall mare put her head down so he could halter her and lead her to the barn only one day off the racetrack,'' Mixed said.

''She was a gentle giant. Always willing to please and do whatever you asked of her. She has passed that trait onto her babies and we hear all the time how easy they are to break and how smart they are,'' she added.

''We raced her another year and then retired her for breeding. She showed us a lot of talent during that year, but unfortunately we did not get any black type on her,'' Mixed said.

Stylish Sign passed that talent on to her foals, making her mark in the breeding shed where she became one of Quarter Racing's ''blue hen'' mares.

She has produced 14 registered foals, 12 ROM and nine winners including Speedhorse Gold & Silver Cup Futurity(RG1) and Oklahoma Futurity(G2) winner First Painted Sign SI 104 ($284,911), Oklahoma Horsemen's Association Derby and Will Rogers AQHA Derby Challenge winner Second Painted Sign SI 102 ($102,604), 2015 Rainbow Futurity(G1) finalist Mr Pyc To You SI 95 (4 wins to 3, 2016 $50,610) and RG2 finalist Signs Zoomer SI 98 ($30,044), to name a few.

Through her daughter First Painted Sign, Stylish Sign is the granddam of the millionaire First Valiant Sign SI 99 ($1,020,344) who won the Texas Classic Derby(G1) last week at Lone Star Park and won the 2015 Ruidoso Futurity(G1). She also produced 2016 Remington Park Oklahoma-Bred Derby(RG3) winner A Tres Of Paint SI 98 ($509,184) and 2015 Hobbs America Derby(G3) winner Apollitical Sign SI 88 ($98,523).

Another daughter, the aforementioned Signs Zoomer, is the dam of A Ransom Handicap winner and G1-placed Wagon Tales SI 99 ($427,579), who was third in the All American Futurity(G1), and multiple stakes winner The Fiscal Cliff SI 99 (9 wins to 3, 2016 $306,388).

Stylish Sign is out of the First Down Dash mare Down Pillow, a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Easy Conversation SI 105 ($534,854).

Mixer Ranch owns Stylish Sign's multiple stakes winning son Second Painted Sign, whose first crop will hit the racetrack in 2017. The 7-year-old son of leading sire Pyc Paint Your Wagon stands at James Ranch near Wayne, Oklahoma for a fee of $1,200.

Stylish Sign produced her last two foals in 2016, a daughter of leading sire Corona Cartel and a Pyc Paint Your Wagon brother to stakes winners First Painted Sign and Second Painted Sign.

She was pensioned after producing her last two foals and is buried at the Mixer Ranch.

''My father-in-law, Orren Mixer would always stop by the ranch to look at our horses. When he saw Stylish Sign he would say ''I'm going to paint that mare someday'' but unfortunately he never got the chance. We lost Orren in the spring of 2008,'' Mixed said.

Orren Mixer was a renowned equine artist whose work graced the covers of Western Horseman, Quarter Horse Journal, Cattleman, and Oklahoma Today. In 1968, the American Quarter Horse Association commissioned Mixer to paint ''the ideal American Quarter Horse,''" and six other breed associations followed suit.