Plaudit had the distinction of reflecting glory on two breed registries: the American Quarter Horse Association and the Palomino Horse Breeders of America.
The palomino stallion was by the Thoroughbred stallion King Plaudit, a son of 1898 Kentucky Derby winner Plaudit. Foaled July 8, 1930, the colt got his golden color from his dam, Colorado Queen. The mare was by the influential stallion Old Nick, a son of American Quarter Horse foundation sire Old Fred.
Standing 15 hands and weighing a little more than 1,000 pounds, Plaudit was a beautiful golden color, with a white mane and tail, deep shoulders, short fox ears and kind eyes. He had white on three legs – the right front to the fetlock, the right rear to the pastern and the left rear about two-thirds up to the hock.
Bred by Tom Mills of Meeker, Colorado, Plaudit was purchased at 3 months of age by Coke T. Roberds of Colorado, an astute horseman and American Quarter Horse Hall of Famer who owned foundation sires Peter McCue and Old Fred. Roberds and Mills were friends, and Roberds had stopped by Mills’ ranch to visit, when he saw the colt and liked him so well that he bought him on the spot for $250, a huge sum in the Great Depression.
When Plaudit was a yearling, another of Roberds’ friends and fellow Hall of Famer took a liking to the colt. J. Warren Shoemaker of Watrous, New Mexico, had always been partial to the palomino color, and when it was on such a good individual, he could not resist the temptation to buy.
Shoemaker used Plaudit for several years and then sold him to Waite Phillips, who used Plaudit as both a breeding stallion and working ranch horse. Plaudit was sold and passed through several more owners until his last, Leon Harms of Sandia Park, New Mexico.
Plaudit sired horses that were successful in the show pen and on the track. His most famous was Question Mark, who in a half-mile race at Trinidad, Colorado, popped the sesamoid in his left front foot but ran on heart to defeat world champion Shue Fly and the nearly unbeatable Joe Lewis.
Another well-known son of Plaudit was Hank Wiescamp’s Scooter W, and the stallion’s blood today runs in many of the horses in the Skipper W line. Plaudit’s daughters and granddaughters were much sought after and put the stallion among the very best and most influential broodmare sires.
Plaudit was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2015.
Biography updated as of March 2015.