Page 53 - December 2015

Founding a Family
Tom and Margaret had their first child, Pam, in 1959. Over the next seven years, they added another daughter, Susie; a son, also named Thomas; and a daughter, Lisa, to their ranching family.
Sadly, they lost Pam in 1990. Susie now teaches school, and Thomas and Lisa work in the family business, with young Tom focused on the land development side in Denver, and Lisa helping her dad with the day-to-day business of Bradbury Land and Cattle, including selecting cattle and attending sales and some joint horse racing ventures. “Dad and I have been horse partners since I was in high school,” says Lisa. The father-and-daughter pair received their 25-year-breeder award from AQHA in 2015, while Tom received his own 50-year award.
Founding a Race Program
Tom was involved with horses in the course of growing up on his parents’ ranch, but early on his horse racing involvement was limited to watching the races at Centennial Race Track in Littleton. “When my dad bought three mares and one of them was a running mare, I talked him into letting me have her,” Tom says. “I bred her, but I didn’t have much success.
“Later on, we sold some of our horses and bought Three Queens (Three Bars–Queen O’Clubs, Piggin String),” he continues. “She’d won about $10,000 before we owned her. We hauled her to Oklahoma, bred her to Jet Deck, and got Miss Jet Queen in 1971. Miss Jet Queen was probably my first stakes winner, but the stakes weren’t big. She won her first start at Monte Vista and then the futurity at Grand Junction, the Skyline, the All Distance Handicap at Raton, and she ran second in the Kansas and Oklahoma derbies. She also won the Buttons And Bows Derby and ran second in the Bright Eyes.” The mare went on to earn a 27-9-12-1 record and $25,200 in two years on the track, and Tom was hooked on speed.
He then bought the 1974 filly Le Fleur at the All American Sale. “She was an Azure Te out of a Jet Deck mare,” says Tom. “She qualified for the Golden State Futurity with the fastest time and won the El Camino Futurity and another futurity out in Pomona. She sold at Heritage for $75,000, the highest price anyone had sold a horse for at auction.”
Tom’s next big horse was Dash For Speed, in whom he partnered with Fort Worth horseman Bob Blakeman.
Bradbury purchased Le Fleur at the All American Sale, shown here (#9) setting the fastest qualifying time
to the 1976 Golden State Futurity at Los Alamitos. Le Fleur sold at Heritage Place for $75,000 - the highest price for any horse sold at auction at that time.
Thomas Bradbury with daughter Lisa Beauprez and son Thomas Bradbury, Jr.
The 2-year-old Dash For Cash filly out of Mighty Deck daughter Mighty Speedy took the partners to the winner’s circle multiple times, including the 1988 Kansas, Rainbow and All American Derbies. “She was the only filly who ever won the Triple Crown at Ruidoso,” says Tom. “She won more than $1.2 million without winning or being in the
All American Futurity. That was unheard of at that time.” During her four-year racing career, Dash For Speed won seven Grade 1 stakes and accumulated a 31-22-4-2 record — a 71 percent win ratio.
Through the years, Tom and various partners owned and bred their fair share of winners and less-thans until another
of Tom’s outstanding runners came through the purchase
of Fancys First Affair, in whom Tom partnered with Kim Kessinger. The First Down Dash mare out of Streakin La Jolla daughter Party Girl Affair tallied a 7-4-0-1 record, including winning the La Primera Del Ano Derby at Los Alamitos, accumulating $102,745 before retiring to the breeding shed.
In 2009, Fancys First Affair produced another of Tom’s graded stakes winners: I Like The Odds, by Corona Cartel — also in partnership with Kim. The 2009 gelding ended his short career by winning the Los Alamitos $2 Million Futurity. Shortly after the win, he died from a spider bite and not long after that, Kim passed away. Tom continues in partnership with Kim’s wife, Lila.
Tom Bradbury co-owned with Bob Blakeman World Champion/6-time Champion Dash For Speed, shown returning after winning the 1989 All American Gold Cup, who won Ruidoso’s Triple Crown for three year olds in the 1988 Kansas, Rainbow and All American Derbies.
SPEEDHORSE, December 2015 51