Dixie Poker Ace winning the 1991 Barksdale Stakes at Louisiana Downs.

Two time Accredited Louisiana Bred Champion Dixie Poker Ace was humanely euthanized on Monday, September 16 at Lora Pitre’s Peach Lane Farms in Opelousas. He was 32.

The bay gelded son of Patriotically, out of the Poker mare Hot Stripper, started 86 times in a race career that ran from ages two to nine with a record of 27-17-15. At one time, Dixie Poker Ace was the leading Louisiana Bred money earner. His lifetime earnings of $850,126 continue to keep him among the top all-time Louisiana bred runners, currently ranking him 14th.

He won a remarkble 18 stakes races including three consecutive runnings of the Louisiana Champions Day Turf Stakes (1991-93) and placed in an additional 21 stakes including a third place finish in the 1994 G3 Ark-La-Tex Handicap. The same year, he set a new course record at Fair Grounds running the approximate 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.00. In 2001, Fair Grounds initiated the Dixie Poker Ace Handicap in his honor.

In 1991 and 1992, he was voted Accredited Louisiana Bred Champion 4 Year Old & Upwards Male by the membership of the Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders Association.

By Patriotically, a half brother to multiple graded placed stakes winner Northerly, Dixie Poker Ace was bred in Louisiana by venerable horseman, the late John Franks.

Since his May 1996 retirement, Dixie Poker Ace lived a long and happy life turned out in the pastures of Peach Lane Farms where he was a beloved fixture. “It was a honor and privilege to be his caretaker for the 22 plus years he resided at my farm,” says Pitre. “It’s like losing a member of my family.”