1976
January 24 – Starting her final two races, reigning world champion Easy Date finishes fourth to champion Wanta Go in the Z. Wayne Griffin Director’s Stakes and seventh to Fleet N’ Fickle in the Las Damas Handicap. A 4-year-old mare by Easy Jet, Walter Merrick’s Easy Date is the first All American Futurity winner to be sired by an All American winner, and she retires with 22 wins, including nine in stakes, from 29 starts, for earnings of $849,710.
1978
January 18 – Azudash, the first registered offspring of Dash For Cash, is foaled. Bred by the Tom L. Burnett Cattle Co. of Fort Worth, the colt out of the Azure Te (TB) mare Hot Kiss will become a stakes-placed earner of $41,052 and sire two stakes winners.
1979
The Seminole Tribe this year will open the first high-stakes bingo parlor in Florida, paving the way for Indian casinos across the nation.
January 1 -- Dash For Cash’s first foals are yearlings.
January 25 – Starting his first race as a 3-year-old, All American Futurity winner Moon Lark wins his trial to the February 3 El Primero del Ano Derby. The colt by Top Moon races for Paul, James and Sam Howard of Oklahoma and Texas.
January 27 – Reigning world champion Miss Thermolark finishes in a dead-heat third with Jennifer Jet in the Las Damas Handicap. Prissy Gold Digger wins, with Medley Glass second. A 4-year-old mare by Thermos (TB), Miss Thermolark races for her breeder, Ronny Schliep of Sallisaw, Oklahoma.
1980
January 8 – Starting his first race in what will be a world-championship season, Terrell Quarter Horses Inc.’s Super Sound Charge wins a 550-yard allowance at Los Alamitos Race Course. Finishing fourth is Dickeys Fireman, who won the 1979 All American Derby and competed in Mr Doty Bar’s Champion of Champions.
1981
January 23 – Request A Bid, Surf Bug and Top Intent finish in a triple dead heat at Los Alamitos.
1982
January 3 – Destiny Drummer wins the San Quenton Handicap at Portland Meadows, tying the record of 14 consecutive wins set by world champion Josie’s Bar in 1953-54.
January 18 – Denim N Diamonds defeats Sgt Pepper Feature by a nose in the Horsemen’s QHRA Championship at Los Alamitos. The 5-year-old mare by Timeto Thinkrich races for R.D. Hubbard.
1983
AQHA institutes its system for grading stakes.
The Mescalero Apache tribe this year will open a bingo parlor near Ruidoso Downs.
January 18 – Starting her first race of what will be a world-championship season, odds-on favorite Dashingly finishes second by a neck to 38-1 longshot Down South Jukin in the Las Damas Handicap (G2). Dashingly races for J.E. Jumonville Jr. of Ventress, Louisiana.
January 7 & 17 – Tom Neff’s homebred world champion Sgt Pepper Feature finishes third to The Black Alliance and Callmetiny in the Doc Severinsen Handicap, and Scott Lewis defeats the 5-year-old gelding by Truckle Feature in the Horsemen’s QHRA Championship (G1).
1984
January 7 – Making the final start of her career, former world champion Dashingly finishes second by half of a length to Windy Dash in the Las Damas Handicap (G2). A 5-year-old mare by Dash For Cash, Dashingly retires with 18 wins from 25 starts, including five stakes wins, and earnings of $1,754,323.
1985
California this year will legalize full-card simulcasting between the state’s northern tracks.
January 5 – Riding Higheasterjet for trainer Mike Robbins, world all-time leading jockey Bill Shoemaker scores with his first mount in an official Quarter Horse race, winning the Thoroughbred Jockey Invitational Handicap at Los Alamitos by three-quarters of a length over the stakes-winning Bunny Bidajett, ridden by Gary Stevens. Higheasterjet – a Pine’s Easter Jet gelding that is American Quarter Horse racing’s first millionaire -- is winning his 20th of 30 career races and retires with earnings of $1,633,035.
January 12 – Starting his first race in what will be a world-championship year, Cash Rate wins in allowance company at Los Alamitos. The 5-year-old gelding by Dash For Cash is owned by B.F. Phillips Jr. and Minnie Rhea Wood of Frisco, Texas.
January 14 – Starting her first race as reigning world champion, Joe Kirk Fulton’s homebred Dash For Cash mare Dashs Dream defeats Rise N High, Indigo Illusion and a star-studded field in the Horsemen’s QHRA Championship (G1) at Los Alamitos.
1986
January 13 – Starting his first race as world champion, Cash Rate defeats Movin West and Prissy Fein in the Horsemen’s QHRA Championship (G1).
1987
The U.S. Supreme Court this year will uphold the right of California’s Cabazon tribe to open an off-track betting parlor.
California will legalize simulcasting between the state’s southern tracks.
A bill to designate the Pacific Coast QHRA will be introduced in the California General Assembly, where it will fail to pass.
January 1 – Less than two weeks after finishing second to champion Sir Alibi in the Horsemen’s QHRA Championship (G1), former world champion Cash Rate dies of colitis X at a veterinary clinic near Los Alamitos Race Course. The 7-year-old gelding by Dash For Cash in his career started 27 races, for 16 wins, including 11 in stakes, and earnings of $537,803.
1988
January 1 – The Quarter Racing Journal begins publication. The first cover of what now is The American Quarter Horse Racing Journal features First Down Dash winning the 16th running of the Champion of Champions (G1).
The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act is signed into law this year, and tribes begin opening or expanding casinos around the country.
Minnesota this year institutes a state lottery.
Los Alamitos this year begins sending simulcast signals to California fairs and out of state.
R.D. Hubbard this year buys Ruidoso Downs.
1989
January 20 -- Dash For Kacie, the first registered offspring of First Down Dash, is foaled. Bred by Darrell Hare of Denver, Colorado, the gelding out of the Pie In The Sky mare Crickets Pie grows up to win two of 20 races, place third in the Front Range Derby at Arapahoe Park and earn $12,053.
1990
Ed Allred this year will buy half interest in Los Alamitos Race Course.
January 20 & 27 – Refrigerator breaks his maiden in the trials for the Poor Boy Futurity (R) at Ross Meadows, with Super Sound Bug second. Bred by Sonny Vaughn and racing for Delton Dean, the Rare Jet gelding then finishes second to Super Sound Bug in the final.
1991
Bay Meadows conducts its final Quarter Horse season, although the sprinters continue racing in the San Mateo Fair meet at the track near San Francisco.
Pompano Park in Florida this year conducts its final Quarter Horse season.
1992
AQHA begins blood-typing of racehorses, and prohibits the racing of 2-year-olds prior to March 1.
1993
AQHA establishes the MBNA America® Racing Challenge program.
1994
California this year begins allowing full-card simulcasting between all tracks in the state.
1995
AQHA begins using DNA to verify parentage of racehorses.
1996
Oklahoma this year will approve full-card simulcasting.
January 13 – Racing for a $6,250 tag, SLM Big Daddy wins by a nose at Trinity Meadows in Texas. The 4-year-old gelding by Daddy Hold On races for his breeders, Steve and Lindsey Mitchell of Brownwood, Texas.
1997
New York OTBs this year will begin taking Quarter Horse simulcasts from Los Alamitos and Turf Paradise.
New Mexico this year will pass legislation allowing video slot machines at racetracks.
1998
Ed Allred this year will complete his takeover of Los Alamitos Race Course.
2001
January 12 – Whosleavingwho finishes second in the Anaheim Handicap, a nose behind Simply Silver Sage. A 3-year-old gelding by Chicks Beduino, Whosleavingwho races for ranchers Jim Geiler of Fort Sumner, New Mexico, and Kim Kessinger of Akron, Colorado.
2005
January 8 – Racing for the Jay Parsons Estate, Mini Rock defeats Grade 1 winner Prima LD by a neck in the Charger Bar Handicap (G1).
January 29 – Going 870 yards, Joan Dale Hubbard’s Prankster CF romps by six lengths in the Moonshiner ’Cap (G3).
2006
January 7 – Texas Chatterbox defeats champion Apollitical Time by a head in the Charger Bar Handicap (G1) at Los Alamitos. A 5-year-old daughter of Vital Sign, Texas Chatterbox is a homebred racing for William Orr Jr. of Sweeny, Texas, while the 4-year-old Apollo (TB) mare Apollitical Time is owned by Juan Alberto Lizarraga Tirado of Colton, California.