As the son of AQHA Hall of Fame member Walter Merrick, Joe Merrick was a 12-year old during the legendary run of his fathers trainee in 1969, and has taken to writing the upcoming book that will give the account of those events in 1969 from the perspective of the pre-teenage adolescent. Merrick is in the finishing stages of authoring the book, and hasn't set a date for release as of yet.
The AQHA Hall of Fame runner and sire Easy Jet rattled out an epic two-year old campaign in 1969 that saw the son of Jet Deck score 22-victories from a lofty 26-starts as a two year-old. During that run in 1969, Easy Jet qualified, and claimed victories in the Blue Ribbon Futurity, Columbus Triple Crown Futurity, Lubbock Downs, Futurity, Laddie Stakes at Centennial Park, Rocky Mountain QHA Futurity, All American Congress Futurity, Sunland Park Fall Futurity, Kansas Futurity, and the All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs.