An earner of $732,436, Jls Mr Bigtime won the Louisiana QHBA Futurity (RG1), won Delta Downs Louisiana Breeders’ Derby (RG2), second in All American Futurity (G1), second in Lee Berwick Memorial Louisiana Bred Futurity (RG1)and was fourth in Rainbow Derby (G1). Last year’s champion freshman gelding has finished off the board only twice in his career.

John Soileau’s JLS-Speed Horse Ranch of Opelousas, Louisiana, has sent out the earners of more than $2.4 million. JLS-Speed Horse Ranch has bred 136 winners from 1,110 starters, with earnings of more than $2.8 million. Their runners include champion JLS Mr Bigtime, Restricted Grade 2 winner Get It Reb, and Ms Pilot Point, who would go on to produce 2010 All American Futurity winner Mr Piloto.

John Soileau Jr. is part of the family operation. He says, “I think our whole family realizes how fortunate we are and how hard it is to actually qualify, to have a shot. We’re not taking anything for granted, just going out there (to Ruidoso) and enjoying it. Everything (all the connections have) worked for culminates on that weekend, a lifetime of work comes together.”

Their Derby horse has a big personality that makes him fun to watch and be around.

“He’s so intelligent. If people holler his name, he’ll want to stop and look at them,” John Jr. says. And although he isn’t difficult with anybody, he does choose who he prefers to work with. “He picks his friends. He picks the people he wants to get close to. Certain people, he just really attaches himself to over the years.”

JLS-Speed Horse Ranch also bred All American Futurity qualifier Tee Cos, and the horse was raised in Opelousas, Louisiana, as was JLS Mr Bigtime.

John Soileau Jr. says, “It’s something about the grass right here in this little bitty pack of land in southwest Louisiana.” He notes that Go Man Go’s dam, Lightfoot Sis, was raised in Ville Platte, Louisiana “not a half mile” from their farm.

Bigtime Favorite (2002, Chicks Beduino-Ms Dashin Bigtime by First Down Dash) is a stakes winner and Grade 1-placed earner of $324,020 with a race record of 19-4-7-1. The sophomore sire is represented by champion JLS Mr Bigtime, stakes winners Bigtime Cat and Big Firstdown Effort, and 31 other winners and the earners of more than $1.8 million from 84 starters. With progeny earnings of $624,404 to date this year, Bigtime Favorite currently is the 29th-ranked sire of money earners in 2011.

The Osceola Warrior mare Psalmist was bred by Carl Guillory Jr., and she earned $53,795 on the track. JLS Mr Bigtime is her first foal. She is out of the unraced First Down Dash mare First Down Story and is a half sister to stakes-placed runner Perry Story (by Mr Jess Perry, $51,048).