No One Fights Alone represents hope, family and a fighting spirit.

© Gene Wilson & Associates

Q-RACING—OCTOBER 19, 2021— No one fights alone.

It’s a powerful message for everyone battling cancer, as well as their family and loved ones supporting them, and it is a slogan to help inspire and to raise awareness against the disease.

It’s also the message carried by Whitaker Farms LLC’s homebred mare No One Fights Alone, herself an embodiment of the will to live, and the representation of a proud family legacy traveling to the Downs at Albuquerque for the prestigious Bank of America Challenge Championships.

The Whitaker family are longtime horsemen involved in breeding and racing for generations. Brothers Cass and Travis now operate their fifth-generation beef cattle ranch based in Malta, Idaho, and raise their own children in that close-knit family lifestyle. Cass and his wife, Amber, have two kids, while Travis and his wife, Jennifer, have six kids.

They are honoring the traditions of their parents, Denny and Cleta, who made raising and racing horses a lifestyle. They had a tight bond and enjoyed 53 years of marriage before, sadly, Cleta passed after battling multiple myeloma cancer.

Their broodmare Bac N The Saddle, a winning homebred daughter of Splash Bac, had given them a sorrel filly by Jesse James Jr in the spring of 2017, but died from colic shortly after foaling. They raised the orphan filly, and Denny gave the baby a special name in honor of his wife: No One Fights Alone.

Denny, too, has since sadly passed, but his sons – and his racehorses – are continuing the cause.

“The name says it all,” Cass said of what the mare represents to them.

“It’s kind of a family deal,” he continued. “My buddy (Scott Warr), a kid I grew up right down the street from, we live out in rural Idaho, he’s the one training her. The kid riding her (Clay Teeter), his nephew grew up right there in the same town, and I coached football. It’s a family deal from a little small town. She’s a special one.”

Being an orphan, it took No One Fights Alone some time to fully develop, but she has always shown talent, with a race win during her freshman year. She has really blossomed as a 4-year-old, lighting the board in seven of eight races so far this year, including a gate-to-wire allowance win at Wyoming Downs. She qualified to the Q-Racing Video Distaff Challenge Championship (G1) through the Q-Racing Video Pocatello Distaff Challenge, where she lit the board with a game effort.

Denny bred not only No One Fights Alone, but also her dam, Bac N The Saddle, and in his own name bred 35 winners from 63 starters, including three stakes winners and two stakes-placed runners. He had a close relationship with Mac and Janis Spencer Murray from when they were in their nearby Utah location and continued via shipped semen even when they relocated to Veguita, New Mexico, hence crossing to Jesse James Jr, who has sired the earners of more than $20 million.

Now No One Fights Alone will carry their colors on the big stage of the Bank of America Challenge Championships, in the $100,000-est. Q-Racing Video Distaff Challenge Championship (G1), and a message that means a great deal to many people.

“The whole family is proud of her,” Cass said. “There’s a lot more added to it than just racing. A homebred orphan, a family deal, in a Grade 1 race. It doesn’t happen very often, and we might be in a little over our head, but she’s one that will give you everything she’s got every time. And nobody’s bothered to tell her she’s in tough.”

Look for complete coverage of the Bank of America Challenge Championships at AQHA's website and on racing social media. If you can't attend the races live at The Downs at Albuquerque on October 23, watch on Q-Racing Video (subscription required)!