SCOOP VESSELS KILLED IN PLANE CRASH

August 12, 2010 - Frank "Scoop" Vessels III was killed in a plane crash August 11.

Vessels, whose family founded the Los Alamitos Race Course, died in a plane crash Wednesday morning in eastern Oregon, Harney County (Oregon) sheriffs announced today.

Vessels, 58, of Bonsall, California, and Sam Bartley Cannell, 73, of Anderson, California, were killed when the plane plummeted to the ground after witnesses said they saw the plane breaking up coming out of the clouds and a section of the wing was torn off, Harney County sheriffs reported.

Vessels was flying the plane, officials said.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash, and officials said it usually takes about three to five days to wrap up their work.

The plane, a 1962 Aero Commander Model 500-B, had departed from Redding, California, and was making its way to Montana, Harney County officials said. The plane crashed near Oregon's historic Riddle Ranch, about 80 miles south of Burns.

Vessels was one of the leading figures in American Quarter Horse racing.

He was the grandson of Los Alamitos Race Course founder Frank Vessels Sr. His grandfather moved to Orange County in 1920 and, after 20 years of owning a construction company, built the racetrack on a 435-acre ranch. The track held its first Quarter Horse race in 1951, and the family owned and operated the track for 35 years.

Vessels' mother, Mildred, managed the track for many years before selling it.

A former AQHA president and a member of the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame, Vessels was the owner of Vessels Stallion Farm at Bonsall, California, which stands all-time leading sire First Down Dash. He was also an avid off-road racer and is a member of the Off Road Motorsports Hall of Fame. He competed as an open-class pickup truck driver in SCORE racing in the '80s and '90s and was a previous winner of the grueling off-road races the Baja 500 and the Baja 1000, the San Diego Union Tribune reported.

Vessels is survived by wife Bonnie and sons Bryan, Colt and Kash.

"To his wife, Bonnie, and their children, the Los Alamitos Race Course family sends its most heartfelt sentiments of sorrow," said Los Alamitos owner Dr. Ed Allred in a released statement. "We are in shock. The suddenness of this event has disturbed me deeply. When the news of his passing was confirmed, it devastated me. Scoop Vessels and I have been business partners and friends for a long time. I will always respect his love for racing and I had a great deal of admiration for the man that he grew up to be. He was a man of ideas and always looking forward to helping improve the sport of Quarter Horse racing.

"The passing of Scoop will be hard for Quarter Horse racing, not only in California, but also nationally, to overcome," he continued. "There could not be a person in this sport more significant in terms of ability, background and family heritage. Vessels Stallion Farm has been the dominant source of Quarter Horse racing bloodlines for many years and we depend on their racing stock. Above and beyond that, Scoop was devoted to this sport and the horses, not only Quarter Horses but Thoroughbreds as well. As a past president of the American Quarter Horse Association and the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association, Scoop spent his life working in the production and promotion of fine horses. We will have to dig deep to overcome, survive and thrive as a sport without him. It will be a difficult task. It's the biggest blow this industry could have suffered. We couldn't have lost anyone of more importance."

Photo and story credit go to AQHA.com and StallioneSearch.com.