Match Race
 

46,
I know that Max Hirsch trained Indulto in NY. Who trained him in CA and for the match race, in particular? Was it Frankel? Do you happen to remember the date? Sounds like you may be as big a PackRat as I am!

Frankel prepared the Q-horse that day in the match race which was in the 1970-72 period. They only went a quarter mile so it was all in favor of the smaller horse.

The Q-horse won the race on the break (Chirawiri) and the great T-bred sprinter was closing, but it was over.

Funny thing is that Frankle convinced the Q-horse people to try a T-bred at 870 yds vs. a Q-horse and wound up winning BOTH match races.

I still remember the "race"
It was kind of a joke actually
I can't remember who trainerd Indulto, wish I could
But the race was at 440 yards as 46 indicated
And as terrific a sprinter Indulto was, he wasn't gifted with blazing early speed. He was at an impossible disadvantage at 440. If I remember correctly, Bobby Adair may have ridden Chariwari. The quarter horse, which I believe Vessels ( founder/owner of Los Alamitos ) owned, won as easily as any horse could, with the rider looking back.

If anyone would ever remember every detail of the race, a q-horse writee named Richard Chamberlain would. He writes for the AQHA ( quarter horse ) magazines

I'm trying to recall the other big test of a q-horse and t-bred that occured at Hollywood in the late 40's....one of the entrants had Truckle in the name.

Now you're really testing my memory

As best I can remember, it was Fair Truckle ( TB ) vs Barbara B ( quarter )
I think it took place in 1947? at Hollywood Park

Fair Truckle was thought to be unbeatalbe but in a big milestone win for quater horse racing, Barbara B edged out the tbred

The writer I mentioned in my previous post ( Richard Chamberlain ) wrote a story for the AQHA racing magazine years ago but I can't locate it
In quater horse circles, this has always been heralded as a huge win

Fair Truckle was a very prominent speed sire in CA all through the 50s and into the 60s. Match races were popular in the early 70s, not just the QH matches. I remember seeing Typecast beat Convenience and Chris Evert beat Miss Musket at Hollywood. I guess the interest died down after the Ruffian disaster.

the latter was a bust as something happened to Miss Musket, but the former was great...Have a few exacta tickets (can you imagine betting an exacta in a match race??) and the program from that day as Jerry Lambert took Convenience right to the front and Shoe could NEVER quite catch her for $250,000 winner take all.

Come Six versus Beduino
 

Another notable quarter horse/thoroughbred match race took place in Mexico City in 1974, when Come Six, the shortline champion two- and three-year-old and aged gelding, hooked up with a Mexico-foaled thoroughbred grey named Beduino. After Beduino defeated Chariwari in a post-Indulto, south-of-the-border grudge match, owner Justo Fernandez declared his ash-hued runner the world's fastest horse, and issued a challenge to any and all quarter-horse owners to prove otherwise. Fernandez sent jockey Ronnie Banks in search of a worthy rival, and Banks came up with one of the best in Come Six.

Though I don't believe anything like an official chart of the Come Six-Beduino showdown exists, eyewitnesses attest that Come Six, under regular rider Luke Myles, rocketed out of the gate and quickly put a length and a half of daylight between himself and Beduino. But Beduino quickly collared his rival, and by the end of the 440-yard race, the thoroughbred had turned it into a laugher, drawing away to win by a length.

Shortly after taking the measure of Come Six, Beduino was brought to the States to prepare for a match against world champion Charger Bar. Though that event never came off, Beduino caught the eye of Los Alamitos president Frank Vessels, Jr., who quickly sized up the Mexican flash as an outstanding stallion prospect. Vessels's judgment was vindicated--and then some--in such Beduino offspring as Tolltac and Chicks Beduino.

Great thread for me, found some quarter horse types lurking around. Thanks to all that have posted

Falconridge: Great recall of names, etc regarding prolific sire Beduino. Among other things when you remind me of Come Six / Luke Myles, puts me to mind of Kaweah Bar who almost beat the winning Come Six in the 1972 Champion of Champions. Even in losing and well past his prime, the charismatic palomino ran great that day

another add Beduino:
His legend in Mexico was huge when brought here and the match race against the rock solid Charger Bar never came off. ( I still remember the Ed Allred owned mare as one of the toughest to beat ever, seldom winning by much, always under James Dryer, but almost always prevailing by a short margin. Probably somewhere in my top 10 alltime q's - maybe with Dash for Cash, Go Man Go, Easy Jet, First Down Dash, etc )
But Beduino did run and win a match race here. I for the life of me can't recall the name of the Viloet Leak owned filly he beat but she was a very good horse, short of a real superstar tho. I was told by good authority and believe it 100% that the result of that match race was predetermined and desgined to promote Beduino as a sire. Beduino went on to be an extremely influential sire

the Palimino freight train
 

Only horse I EVER saw that could buck ONCE out of the gate and still win at 440 yds. Only Bobbie Adair could handle him and it took four people and a place FAR from the others to saddle him.

poor old Kaweah Bar: last saw him running in high claimers at the night time Winter meet at Bay Meadows. You could smell the linament 50 ft away but he still held his head high. I remember yelling at some fool who was bad mouthing him. "Have you ever been a champion? Have you ever been on top?" was my line to this idiot. Folks in the know in that crowd started to take up his defense as well.

I have the win photo the last time he won the Los Alamitos championship. The old gelding had fallen in love with a 12 year old and he wouldn't train unless she was around. She is in the win photo planting a big smooch on his nose!

After his 11 year old season he was sold to people in Utah and broke a leg in a loading accident. Probably for the best as I don't think this one would have had a good retirement.

To this teenager of the 60's, Kaweah Bar remains a great memory. I still remember his peers like Top Rockette, Go Derussa Go, Dividends Bar among others. He was the biggest crowd favorite / draw I've ever seen. Perhaps Town Policy about 10 years later was close.
His demise was pathetic and an indictment of a greedy non-caring owner. I met George Chittick once and first thought it a thrill to meet the palominos owner. He impressed me as a jerk. He confimed that by selling him to the cutters ( chariot races ). As "46" mentioned, he died on the way to his new career.

Olympia versus Stella Moore
 

Nearly as celebrated as the Fair Truckle-Barbara B. match was the race that pitted Olympia, Fred W. Hooper's crack three-year-old thoroughbred, against Stella Moore, a four-year-old quarter-horse mare whose displays of raw speed had already elevated her to legendary status in New Mexico and west Texas. The 440-yard contest took place early in 1949, in south Florida.

Stella's backers were so convinced of her invincibility over her pet distance that ranches were mortgaged to raise the stakes the Southwest contingent wagered on her. Yet the race transpired in a manner that prefigured the Valiant Pete-Griswold match staged at Santa Anita just a few years ago: the thoroughbred was the hare, and the quarter-horse the hound. Olympia took the early lead, with Stella whittling it down with every stride in the final yards. The stocky mare came within inches of catching the cat-like colt, but Olympia maintained his ever-decreasing advantage until the pair passed the photo-finish camera, which rendered the verdict that the Hooper charge had prevailed by a nose.

On-line accounts--or even mentions--of this match are surprisingly scarce. I pass along here what I read many years ago (late 1960's, perhaps?) in a book on the genesis, evolution, and romance (in the broadest use of that term) of the American Quarter Horse. Unfortunately, I do not recall the name of the author or publisher of that volume--though I promise I'll get to work on repairing those gaps.

Speed and the Quarter Horse perhaps?...I have it

Indulto
 

Indulto was trained by my father WJ "Buddy" Hirsch who was Max Hirsch's son. A trainer named John Popalardo claimed him from my father for $50K when he was like 8 or 9 years old and it was Poplalardo who had him when the match race was run.

My two favorite match races took place on the California Fairs. One in the South at Fairplex which used to be called Pomona.

The other at the Big Fresno Fair which used to be called the Big Fresno Fair.

The Fairplex race was between two mules. BLACK RUBY with Jim Burns in the saddle vs TAZ piloted by the immortal Cowboy Jack Kaenel.

RUBY, as she almost always did, defeated TAZ by a long ear.

They would meet again soon after at Los Alamitos with the same result. RUBY got the $$$

At Fresno it was a thoroughbred vs an appaloosa at I think but am not positive 1000 yards.

The TB was GREY MOON RUNNER. Not the one recently campaigned by Jeff Bonde and others. This GREY MOON RUNNER was trained by Walter Greenman. Not sure who rode. It might have been Russell Baze.

The appy was UNDERCOVER WILLIE trained by Don Collins. Also not sure who rode him. Ross Allardyce keeps popping into my mind. Maybe he was on one of them. Or maybe Marty Hamilton

Ross and Marty were winning a ton of races on the on the Fairs at that time. As was Cheryl White (RIP), look up her story some time. Here I did it for ya.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/28/s...d734bd1ab9f35b

Cheryl was also legendary for the time a cocky apprentice named Martin Pedroza Jr came to Fresno. After an incident in a race. She kicked his butt all over the jocks room. True story!

The race was over in two jumps. UNDERCOVER WILLIE was like a jack rabbit out of the gate. Opened up at once and never looked back.