Page 36 - Speedhorse February 2020

SPEEDLINES
Wayne Charlton is the breeder behind the family of runners that traces to Annahi TB, the taproot mare in the pedigree of 2019 World Champion He Looks Hot. This line produced La Ree Bar, the dam of Charger Bar (pictured here with Wayne), and La Ree’s Rocket, the fourth dam of He Looks Hot.
THE TAPROOT OF THE FAMILY
I see Annahi TB as the taproot mare for this mare line. A closer look of Annahi TB gives us some interesting information and the heart displayed by He Looks Hot during his struggle with colic and then his persistence on the track.
Wayne Charlton recalled why he bought Annahi TB. “I was just starting out and a friend of mine ran a few horses and I knew a little bit about her sire High Step,” he said. “I bought her sight unseen for $125.00. Didn’t even see the mare, I just bought her off the High Step breeding.”
He then added, “I ran her a little bit with Quarter Horses and she had speed. I won a race with her at a little Quarter Horse show one time, but she never ran on a recognized racetrack.”
Annahi TB was a 1944 chestnut mare bred by S. Grant Young. Her sire, High Step, won two races in five starts and earned a modest $1,600. High Step is by the great source of speed High Time, the winner of one race in seven starts. High Time’s win came in the Hudson Stakes where he set a New Track Record at Aqueduct going five furlongs in :58 2/5. The only other time he placed in the top three in a race was a third in the Great American Stakes.
High Time proved to be a very fast horse, but couldn’t carry his speed over a distance.
A look at his pedigree will tell us where his speed came from. His sire is Ultimus by Commando by Domino. The dam of Ultimus is Running Stream by Domino. The dam of High Time is Noonday by Domino. This makes High Time a great source of speed with an intense inbreeding to Domino shown by a 3x3x2 breeding pattern to this stallion.
Although High Time was not a proven runner, he became noted as a sire for his outstanding 2 year olds. High Time was the leading sire, or tied as the leading sire, of two- year-old winners for four years. He was the leading sire overall of money earners in 1928 and was in the top 20 on the leading sire list 12 times in his breeding career. High Time sired 289 foals, including 37 stakes winners with 164 of his foals winners at the age of two.
The dam of High Step is High Born Lady, an imported mare with no American race record. She is by The White Knight and out of Lady Echline by Cyllene.
The dam of Annahi is Verda Ann. Foaled in 1938, Verda Ann was unplaced in two starts and is by American Smile by American Flag by Man O’War. American Flag is out of Lady Comfey, an imported mare by Roi Herode, who is the sire of The
Tetrarch, another significant source of speed. The Tetrarch is found in the pedigree of Nasrullah. Lena Valenti TB, the second dam of Easy Jet, is by Gray Dream by Gino by Tetratema by The Tetrarch. The dam of Verda Ann is Anita M. by Sir Martin. Her dam is Mozel by Martinet. Anita M. was third in the Lexington Club Handicap and had 57 starts with nine wins, two seconds and eight thirds.
The next step for Charlton was to breed Annahi and he picked a stallion named Tinky Poo. He explained why he bred to
this particular horse, “A friend of mine, Al Stewart, had him at that time in Brigham City, Utah. He set up a match race with him and I went out to watch it and I just liked the classy look of him. I didn’t know anything about the breeding, nothing else. I just liked the look of the horse. A classy lookin’ little sucker. He was a really nice looking horse.”
Tinky Poo was a ‘classy looking’ horse that earned 25 halter points with four performance points. He was an AQHA Champion and a ROM racehorse with the old AA rating. He started in 22 races with four wins, three seconds and one third and lifetime earnings of $2,445.
Charlton took Tinky Ann, the product
of Annahi and Tinky Poo, to the racetrack where she earned a racing ROM in 1955. She
34 SPEEDHORSE, February 2020