| |
|
Mittie Stephens |
| |
The earliest member of this family to have produce recorded
in the American Stud Book (Appendix, Volume 7), Mittie
Stephens was owned by Chas. Haley, who bred or acquired her
while living near Dallas, Texas and brought her to Sweetwater,
Texas around 1880. The sires Grey Ariel, Chieftain, and Dan
Secres (Joe Chalmers - Mary Cook, by Old Printer), are recorded
by Sanders Bruce only in Mittie Stephens's tail female pedigree.
By date and place Shiloh Jr.'s dam, Old Puss, was probably sired
by Freedom (ch c 1838 Emancipation* - Mare, by Wilkes's
Madison). The only grey (named or sired by) Ariel recorded by
Bruce between 1800 and 1850 was the noted racing mare Ariel (gr
f 1822 American Eclipse - Mare, by Financier - Empress, by
Baronet*), thus the stallion Grey Ariel remains a mystery.
The appendices to the American Stud Book were begun
by Sanders D Bruce as a means of recording the produce of mares
with flaws in their pedigrees. The Jockey Club ceased
publication of the appendix registry after the appearance of
Volume 7 of the American Stud Book, but continued to
issue foal registration certificates remarked “for racing
purposes only” to horses lacking the “five uncontaminated
Thoroughbred crosses” required by Rule 38 for publication in the
main body of the American Stud Book. The foals of
appendix mares were eligible for the main body of the ASB if
they met the five cross requirement. Only fifteen of Mittie’s
descendants foaled after 1898 were deemed to have met that
requirement. The fact that full siblings Tex Anna and Smithy
Kane were regarded differently, the latter being entered in the
main body of the ASB whereas the former was not, suggests
confusion in regard to interpretation of the five cross rule. |
| |
|
Booger Red |
| |
| Known as the west coast Pony Express at two and three,
Booger Red was bred by J F Newman. He was first raced and
trained by Turner Breedlove and then acquired early in 1910 by
Allen Pinkerton, who raced him as a "Galloway" due to his
diminutive size (14.2 h). Retired to stud 1911, he proved a
popular sire of polo ponies and successful competitor in east
coast horse shows. He returned to the track in 1914 where again
he proved a durable and reliable winner in the claiming and
allowance ranks. Sold to David Bryant Turner of Colorado around
1918, he covered there until 1927. He has numerous progeny
recorded in the Half-Bred Stud Book. Racing and American Quarter
Horse Association records credit him as the sire of Lady Luck,
dam of the great quarter race mare Shue Fly. |
| |
| Pan Zareta |
| |
Bred by James F Newman she was foaled in 1910 on the Newman
Ranch near Sweetwater, Texas, where she was broken to saddle and
prepped on the 6 furlong ranch racetrack. Trained by Harter S
Newman (son of J F), Pan Zareta spent the first four of her six
racing seasons on the Newman's preferred circuit, the western
United States and Canada, and the border town of Juarez, Mexico.
She made her first start on January 7, 1912 in a 3 furlong race
at Terrazas Park, Juarez, and broke her maiden there on January
14, 1912, at 3.5f, winning $550. She would win several stakes
races and regularly set records at Terrazas, including a NWR of
:57.2 for 5f in her come-from-behind win in the 1915 match race
with Joe Blair, who was carrying 10 fewer pounds. At and after
maturity, she carried imposts of up to 146 pounds, sometimes
spotting her competition in excess of 30 pounds. Her preferred
distance was 5 to 6f, but she won easily at 8f in allowance
company.
In 1916, during final settlement of the estate
of J F Newman (1849-1914) Pan Zareta was sold to E F Colton for
$10,000. Colton took her east in the spring of 1917, probably
somewhat to the dissatisfaction of leading sprinter Top O' Th'
Morning's connections. Track records there too proved
susceptible to her matchless speed. She set a new track record
1:05.6 for 5.5f at Jamaica. Prior to December of 1917 Pan Zareta
was sold to T J Marrone. She is rumoured to have made an
unsuccessful visit to the breeding shed, but that has not been
confirmed. She died of pneumonia on January 19, 1918, shortly
after being shipped to Fair Grounds from Kentucky. She was
buried in the Fair Grounds infield. Her lifetime record
151-76-31-21 is a testament to extraordinary talent and a
durability unequalled by any other mare of record. Pan Zareta
was inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame
1972, the Fair Grounds Racing Hall of Fame 1971, and the Texas
Race Horse Hall of Fame in 1999. |
| |
|
Calisse |
| |
Calisse, a nearly forgotten full sister to Pan Zareta, had
the same blinding early speed and come-n'-git-me running style.
Bred by J F Newman, owned by B A Trammel and trained by J P
Polk, Calisse proved an extremely precocious filly, breaking her
maiden in her debut, the 3 furlong Santa Clara Stakes for
fillies at Juarez, Mexico, on January 5. Five days later, in a
Juarez allowance race, she "won cantering", beating eight other
colts & fillies by five lengths. She followed that with another
front-running win over colts at Juarez on January 17th, setting
a North American record of :39 2/5 for 3.5 furlongs despite
having "won easing up".
Over the next few months she made
thirteen more starts, often in stakes races and against colts,
only missing the board once in a race where she had a rough
trip. After her sixteenth start, a win in Latonia's Clipsetta
Stakes on June 17th, she temporarily vanished from the scene,
then reappeared in November under changed ownership (that of her
breeder, J F Newman), running first at the Texas State Fair and
then back at Juarez. She raced ten more times that year, but was
a shadow of her former self, barely able to pick up checks in
cheap allowance and claiming races. Her last race that year was
a selling race on December 27th, where she finished third of
five, having "led, then quit badly".
Calisse's decline
continued in 1912, in which she managed only one win from
thirteen starts, a 6 furlong selling race at Laurel. By then she
had changed hands again, to W H Dupee. The following year,
Calisse only started four times, and her only placing was a win
in a 5 furlong allowance race at Minoru Park in Vancouver, BC.
Her early talent apparently left enough of an impression on
future Hall of Fame trainer Ben Jones to breed Calisse to Waldo,
by whom she produced a 1918 ch filly, Marguerite Wood, whom
Jones sold privately to Frank Fornay 14 Mar 1920. He in turn
sold her at auction in Lexington 03 Mar 1923. Neither Marguerite
Wood nor her filly by Harpenden* distinguished themselves on the
track. |
| |
| Ima Frank |
| |
| She ran away with her rider prior to the start of the
Arizona Handicap (JAM, 16 May 1919), fully circling the track
before finally being pulled up in an unused chute. Having
cleared her pipes, Ima proceeded to set the pace for the actual
race, yielding only in the final half-furlong to Startling who
won by a neck, but had to set a ntr to do so. She was sold to G
L Goodacre for $3,900 at Saratoga on August 21, 1920 and
auctioned at Havre de Grace in April of 1922 to J R Skinker for
a small fraction of that amount. |
| |
| © Christine Matthes, Judy Baugh & KL Jones |
| |
|
| |
|
