CTBA Member
PROFILE
LINDA TEMPLETON
a Toroughbred breeding es. She deeply loved them farm—Lovacres Ranch. all. California-bred Sweet inda Templeton “I’d asked him what he was Forever was in that group. thought she had done going to do with Te daughter it all. She owned a the acreage, and of Rio Verde cattle ranch, had a riding he said he raised was a winner in horse, and had been to the Toroughbreds,” 2006, and her rodeo and various cattle Templeton said. name is stamped shows. But when Torough“I asked what he on Templeton’s bred breeder Terry Lovingier did with them, license plate, asked her if she had ever and he said race which the owner been to the races, Templeton them. Tat’s has transferred admitted she hadn’t. when I had to from car to car “He said, ‘Get your purse; say I’d never over the years. Linda Templeton I’m taking you to a horse been.” Another mare race,’ ” Templeton recalled. By the end of Templeton had “I went, and I fell in love.” the year, Templeton owned great affection for was River Lovingier had purchased part of four horses with Kiss, by Awesome Gambler. Templeton’s cattle ranch in Lovingier, competing in the Te dark bay mare was sec2005 and converted it into name of Templeton Horsond in the grade 3 Sorrento Stakes in 2011 and multiple stakes-placed in 2012. “With her, you would say, ‘Give me a kiss!’ and she would kiss you,” Templeton recalled. “I just love them all, but I can’t own them all.” Lovingier’s trainer, Walther Solis, invited Templeton to Kentucky to attend a horse auction. “I’d been to heavy equipment auctions, cattle auctions, and farm auctions, but I’d never been to a horse auction,” Templeton said. She did not come home empty-handed. She was inspired by a yearling flly by Pollard’s Vision, which reminded her of Seabiscuit’s famous jockey, Red Pollard. Templeton went to just $1,700 to get the flly out of the winning Pine Bluff mare Pine Forest, naming her Linda’s Bluff. “I brought her back and raced her,” Templeton said. An incident in a trailer ended Linda’s Bluff’s career after two starts, but with LovingiLinda Templeton with Governor Goteven following the filly’s victory in the California Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association Stakes at Del Mar er standing some of CaliforBY EMILY SHIELDS
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF LINDA TEMPLETON
A NEW LIFE JOURNEY WITH HORSES
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CALIFORNIA THOROUGHBRED ❙ September 2020 ❙ www.ctba.com
