Remembering AQHA Legendary Sire Slick By Design
As the QH industry mourns the loss of Slick By Design, aka “Slick,” we learn of his incredible legacy. According to AQHA, “his progeny have earned nearly $11 million across barrel racing, roping, pole bending and racing, with 2,200+ AQHA-registered foals, and multiple world champions.”
Image courtesy of AQHA.
Slick By Design, the No. 8 all-time leading barrel-horse sire, was humanely euthanized October 2, 2025, due to complications from laminitis, his owners, Highpoint Performance Horses, said. He was laid to rest on the Highpoint property in Pilot Point, Texas, in between American Quarter Horse Hall of Famer Acadamosby Award and Rods Last Ladybug, an AQHA world champion barrel horse and world champion producer.
“‘Slick’ changed our lives and the lives of so many that he touched. Slick put us on the map in the barrel horse world and allowed us to travel places and meet amazing people that we never would have met,” Highpoint posted on social media. “Thank you, Slick, for the ride of a lifetime, you will be terribly missed.”
Slick By Design was a striking black 2007 stallion by Designer Red out of Dreams Of Blue by Dream On Dancer. He was bred by Allene Tatom of Conroe, Texas.
Watch Slick by Design in the 2012 Jr. Barrel Racing Finals – AQHA World Championship Show
Slick holds the record for the fastest time, 13.48 seconds, ever run by a stallion at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, which he qualified for three times. He also has the fourth-fastest NFR time overall, out of more than 4,350 runs from more than 29 years, according to the Highpoint website. Slick was the 2012 AQHA junior barrel racing world champion.
In his 4-year-old year, he won more than $47,000 in futurities, and according to QData, his lifetime earnings totaled more than $626,000, in a time before lucrative incentives were available. In 2013, he was the AQHA-Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association of the Year reserve barrel horse of the year.
As a sire, Slick is No. 3 on both QData’s 2024 and 2025 leading barrel-horse sire lists.
Photo taken of Slick by Gordon Downey at Sun N Surf in California, 2014.
His progeny earnings, according to QData, are just shy of $11 million. Barrel-racing earnings account for $10,758,213, while Slick’s rope-horse babies have earned $136,644. He has $19,011 in progeny pole-bending earnings, and he has one race-winning foal that earned $2,830.
Slick has sired 2,237 AQHA-registered foals with 823 AQHA points, four AQHA world championships and eight reserve world championships.
His top-earning progeny, according to QData, are Slicks Lil Amigo, Fiesta By Design, Slick Lane Ta Fame, Slick N Black and Slick Swingin.
