CTBA Hall of Fame Inductees

Dr. Ed Allred, Indian Charlie, and Cee’s Tizzy will be inducted into the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association Hall of Fame

When Hollywood Park closed in 2013 and the California Thoroughbred racing industry needed more stabling, Dr. Ed Allred was there. When the Thoroughbred industry needed workers’ compensation help, Allred was there. And when pandemic restrictions threatened to derail the 2020 Fasig-Tipton California yearling sale, Allred was there.

Tough many know Allred from his incredible success in the Quarter Horse racing industry and his operation of Los Alamitos primarily as a Quarter Horse venue, he has been essential to the T oroughbred industry as well. He has stepped up numerous times with Los Alamitos’ facilities to help.

Allred also has bred and raced many successful California-bred Thoroughbreds. The California Thoroughbred Breeders Association, of which he is a member, is honoring Allred by inducting him into the CTBA Hall of Fame, not only for his accomplishments as an owner/breeder but also for his assistance to the entire industry.

Allred learned to love racing initially through visits to Santa Anita with his stepfather and grandmother. An early trip to Los Alamitos began his love of Quarter Horse racing, a sport where Allred has earned just about every accolade imaginable.

He has been the champion Quarter Horse breeder 13 times and champion owner six times. He raced 1971 world champion Charger Bar in partnership, and he bred champion Separatist. Allred is a member of the American Quarter Horse Association Hall of Fame, and he is Quarter Horse racing’s all-time leading owner and breeder.

Allred breeds Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds at his Rolling A Ranch in Atascadero. He once told this magazine that “I don’t breed out of California, ever.” His T oroughbred homebreds include the Unusual Heat mare Warmth, from whom he bred North County Guy, winner of the 2021 Unusual Heat Turf Classic Stakes Presented by City National Bank for owners Nancy Messineo and Bruce Sands.

Allred purchased a half-interest in Los Alamitos in 1990 with the help of close friend R.D. Hubbard, and Allred became the track’s sole owner in 1998. He built the track into one of the powerhouses of the Quarter Horse industry, home to the prestigious Champion of Champions (G1) and Los Alamitos $2 Million Futurity (G1).

When the need for stabling and racing arose through the demise of Hollywood Park, Allred not only stepped in with a plan for year-round stabling at Los Alamitos, he expanded the track to accommodate Thoroughbreds. Los Alamitos has a unique f exibility, able to host daytime T oroughbred races with a nearly onemile oval while still of ering the smaller f ve-furlong conf guration for nighttime Quarter Horse races.

Los Alamitos hosts year-round Quarter Horse racing, as well as two short Thoroughbreds meetings. Several Cal-bred stakes are of ered annually at Los Alamitos, including the King Glorious Stakes and Soviet Problem Stakes for 2-year-olds

© BENOIT PHOTO

Ed Allred, right, with trainer Art Sherman, after California Chrome’s Winter Challenge Stakes victory at Los Alamitos

TONY LEONARD SKIP DICKSTEIN Indian Charlie became an important stallion for the breed, following a brief but stellar career that included a third-place fnish in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, where he is shown pictured at right

in December, giving young horses a good opportunity just before they turn 3.

One of the frst Toroughbreds to take advantage of stabling at Los Alamitos was Cal-bred California Chrome. Art Sherman housed California Chrome at Los Alamitos for three years in between forays out of state. Te horse made his fnal California start and got the fnal victory of his career at Los Alamitos: the 2016 Winter Challenge Stakes.

When horses were unable to train at Santa Anita in 2019, Allred made sure that horses prepping for the Triple Crown could train at Los Al. Omaha Beach, Game Winner, and Cal-bred Galilean were able to train there during that time.

Allred conducts a major Quarter Horse sale at Los Alamitos every year, and so he extended that possibility to Fasig-Tipton when pandemic restrictions would not allow the 2020 yearling sale to be held at Fairplex. With very little lead time, the entire industry came together to put on that sale, topped by Cal-bred Finneus at $200,000.

“I have to begin by thanking Doc Allred and the team and the staf at Los Alamitos,” said Boyd Browning, president and chief executive ofcer of Fasig-Tipton, after the sale, “because without their cooperation and efort and willingness to pitch in and help out the Toroughbred industry, this sale would not have taken place.” —Orlando Gutierrez and Tracy Gantz

Indian Charlie made the most out of the time he had. Although both his racing career and years as a stallion were cut short, his accomplishments at each job quickly rose to great heights, leading to his 2022 induction into the CTBA Hall of Fame.

Hal Earnhardt, an Arizona native who changed racing history by supporting a young trainer named Bob Bafert when Bafert was conditioning Quarter Horses and then switched to Toroughbreds, bred Indian Charlie in California out of Soviet Sojourn. Hal and Patti Earnhardt had raced the Leo Castelli mare to multiple graded stakes victories. Hal Earnhardt sent Soviet Sojourn to the court of fourtime grade 1 winner In Excess, who was co-owned at that time by another of Baffert’s Arizona connections, Mike Pegram.

Te result was a bay horse that Earnhardt named after the popular and humorous racing news-sheet Indian Charlie, the nom de plume of its founder, Ed Musselman. Given to Bafert to train, Indian Charlie tipped his hand in his frst career start, made Aug. 3, 1997, at Del Mar, when the 2-year-old streaked to a 12-length victory over seven rivals going 51⁄2 furlongs.

Indian Charlie returned to the races the following February, and the results were equally as impressive. Traveling seven furlongs over a wet/fast Santa Anita racetrack in allowance company, Indian Charlie won by nine lengths in a snappy 1:21.95. Tree weeks later, he tried two turns for the frst time, and took a one-mile allowance contest by 21⁄2 lengths in 1:35.02.

Racing for the partnership of Hal Earnhardt III and the John R. Gaines Racing Stable, Indian Charlie was deemed ready for grade 1 company. On April 4, 1998, he faced six foes in the Santa Anita Derby (G1). Sitting second for nearly a mile, Indian Charlie was pulled out by jockey Gary Stevens and rocketed to the lead past the quarter pole, safely holding of stablemate Real Quiet late to score by 21⁄4 lengths.

Real Quiet turned the tables in the Kentucky Derby (G1) a month later, in which Indian Charlie fnished third. Training up to the Haskell Invitational (G1), Indian Charlie pulled a suspensory and was retired to stud. He won four of his fve starts and earned $616,120.

Kentucky Gov. Brereton Jones had the foresight to make the deal to bring Indian Charlie to his Airdrie Stud near Midway, Ky., to stand. Te horse’s impact was nearly immediate. Five-time grade 1 winner Indian Blessing was named champion 2-year-old flly and then champion female sprinter on her way to earning nearly $3 million. Another daughter, Fleet Indian, was a two-time grade 1-winning millionaire and was named champion older female. Indian Charlie sired Canadian champions Roxy Gap and Indian Apple Is.

But he will be most readily remembered as a sire for Uncle Mo, a millionaire and

champion 2-year-old after winning the 2010 Grey Goose Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1). Uncle Mo has proved to be a potent stallion and an invaluable outcross. He is the sire of 2016 Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist. His sons fll top stallion barns across the United States.

Said Bret Jones, who runs Airdrie Stud with his father, “As brilliant as Indian Charlie was on the racetrack, his greatest legacy will be the contributions he’s made to the breed through his years at stud. He made the very rare transition from good sire to top sire to truly important sire. Trough his brilliant son Uncle Mo and the tremendous success he’s had as a broodmare sire, Indian Charlie’s name will appear on important pedigree pages for many generations to come. It’s a legacy born of his own incredible talents, and we will always be grateful to have been blessed with him at Airdrie.”

Indian Charlie died after battling cancer in late 2011.

—Lenny Shulman

If all Cee’s Tizzy did was sire Tiznow, he would be a worthy Hall of Fame member. But the stallion, who stood his entire career in California before his death in 2015 at age 28, did so much more.

Cee’s Tizzy sired 40 stakes winners throughout his illustrious breeding career, including Eclipse Award and California-bred champions Tiznow and Gourmet Girl. Budroyale and Cost of Freedom were also Cal-bred champs, and all four earned at least $1 million, their earnings together totaling in excess of $11.5 million.

Te Lucy Ruspoli Racing Stable bred Cee’s Tizzy, a son of Relaunch—Tizly, by Lyphard, in Kentucky. Cee’s Tizzy already had some California roots, though, because his second dam, Chilean-bred Tizna, had wowed Southern California fans with her weight-carrying ability. Tizna successfully toted 132 pounds when she won the 1976 San Gorgonio Handicap at Santa Anita. Her other stakes victories included two wins in the Santa Margarita Invitational Handicap (G1).

Paul Webber of the Curragh Bloodstock Agency bought Cee’s Tizzy for $72,000 as a yearling for Cecilia Straub-Rubens. John Russell trained the blazingly fast colt, who won at six furlongs in 1:07 4⁄5 and at a mile in 1:33 2⁄5 within 13 days at Del Mar in 1990.

Tat led to the 1990 Super Derby (G1) at Louisiana Downs, where Cee’s Tizzy fnished third despite sufering a carpal fracture in the race that ended his racing career.

Straub-Rubens retired Cee’s Tizzy to stud at Lakeview Toroughbred Farm in California. Keeping him in the state was a boon to the entire California Toroughbred industry, as well as Straub-Rubens. She bred her mare Cee’s Song to Cee’s Tizzy several times, with nine of the mare’s 13 starters by the stallion and fve of her nine winners by him. Tose included Tiznow, Budroyale, and Tizbud.

Tiznow, the only two-time winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), was twice Cal-bred Horse of the Year and the national Horse of the Year in 2000. Budroyale, the 1999 Cal-bred Horse of the Year, won seven stakes, fve of them graded and one the 1998 California Cup Classic. Five years later Tizbud also won the Cal Cup Classic.

Budroyale was a gelding, but Tiznow and Tizbud both went on to become excellent sires. Tiznow, pensioned in Kentucky in late 2020, sired such runners as Eclipse Award winner Folklore, grade 1 winners Well Armed and Colonel John, and 2008 Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Da’ Tara. Tizbud has sired Cal-bred champion Tiz Flirtatious, bred and raced by Straub-Rubens’ daughter Pam Ziebarth, and Cal-bred millionaire Soi Phet.

Straub-Rubens, who died in 2000, bred Tiznow, Budroyale, and Tizbud, but she wasn’t the only one to get top runners from Cee’s Tizzy. Carl and Olivia Cannata of Lakeview bred Gourmet Girl, a daughter of Cee’s Tizzy out of the Welsh Pageant mare Rhondaling. Racing most of her career for Gary Tanaka, Gourmet Girl won three grade 1 races, the 2001 Vanity Handicap and Apple Blossom Handicap and the 1999 Milady Breeders’ Cup Handicap. She was voted the 2001 national champion older mare and Cal-bred older female.

Cee’s Tizzy moved to John Harris’ Harris Farms in 1994, where he spent the rest of his days. Harris Farms bred the Moscow Ballet mare Freedom Dance to Cee’s Tizzy to get Cost of Freedom, and raced him early in his career. Cost of Freedom won fve stakes when owned by Gary and Cecil Barber and trained by John Sadler.

Straub-Rubens bred Cee’s Elegance, a 1997 daughter of Cee’s Tizzy—Elegant Beauty, by Norclife. Cee’s Elegance broke her maiden in 2000 before Straub-Rubens passed away, and the flly raced most of her career for Straub-Rubens’ heirs. Cee’s Elegance was voted the Cal-bred champion older female of 2003, when she won the A Gleam Invitational Handicap (G2). She ultimately earned $744,039. —Tracy Gantz

Owned by Californian Cecilia Straub-Rubens, Cee’s Tizzy stood his entire stud career in the Golden State

RON MESAROS

When the need for stabling and racing arose through the demise of Hollywood Park, Allred not only stepped in with a plan for year-round stabling at Los Alamitos, he expanded the track to accommodate Toroughbreds. Los Alamitos has a unique fexibility, able to host daytime Toroughbred races with a nearly onemile oval while still ofering the smaller fve-furlong confguration for nighttime Quarter Horse races.