Page 57 - June 2021

SPEEDLINES
against Shue Fly and was reportedly beaten only by a head.
Blackwell traded with Alonzo for Revenue, who was out of Tick Tac. We will let Nye quoting Mrs. (Lucille) Blackwell about how they got the mare Tick Tac. She reported, “After the meet (El Paso) we went out to
the Indian Reservation and traded Revenue back to John for half interest in Tick Tac
and another Jack Dempsey mare named Red Wing, and we bought two fillies, both by the same little horse called Teddy. John seemed very interested in building up his stock of horses. We too had become interested in a breeding program, which was the main point behind the half-interest deal. We were to take the two mares and breed them to a good stallion and share in the foals.” They would later buy out Alonzo’s share of the mare.
The Blackwells registered Tick Tac as Blackwells Tick Tac and her son Revenue became Revenue Barnes by Teddy. Teddy was believed to be sired by Billy Dick by Billy
by Columbus by Silver Dick. The dam of Teddy is Big Enough by Big Boy, the sire of Jack Dempsey. Miss Revenue, the filly that the Blackwell’s bought with Blackwell’s Tick Tac, was a full sister to Revenue Barnes. They were bred by John Alonzo.
Blackwell’s Tick Tac was bred by Lou Kirk and purchased by John Alonzo. She was sired by Jack Dempsey and out of Miss Dock Harrington by Ross Jack and out of Ribbon by Last Chance. Mrs. Blackwell reported that Ribbon is out of Juanita, a mare that Lou Kirk had ridden as a jockey.
Blackwell’s Tick Tac has no race record, but she is the dam of nine foals with the AQHA recognizing six of them. The first three foals were Revenue Barnes, Miss Revenue and Income. Revenue Barnes and Miss Revenue were sired by Teddy and both of these horses were registered by Blackwell. Revenue Barnes earned his ROM with an
A rating on the track. The sire of Income
is unknown and was never registered. The next foal out of Blackwell’s Tick Tac was Legal Tender B and this horse earned her ROM with a AAA rating. She was also stakes placed with a second in the 1951 New Mexico Breeders’ Derby. She had 89 starts with 14 wins, 12 seconds and 17 thirds earning $12,898. The produce record for Legal Tender B shows 15 foals/starters with eight ROM and one stakes placed runner
in Hardmoon, who was third in the 1967 Yakima Meadows Futurity.
Currency Bee, the next foal out of Blackwell’s Tick Tac, was AAA/ROM and stakes placed in the Pleasanton Allowance and
Blackwell’s Tick Tac with Gold Note as a yearling.
Mame Taylor was successfully raced but had no official starts. The Kirks have reported that she had 40 starts with 29 wins, six seconds and four thirds. She raced against and beat horses like Shiprock and Hoover. She was pitted against World Champion Shue Fly and Joe Tom, a son
of Joe Hancock, in her last race, but was bumped so hard that she came out of the race with a shoulder injury and never raced again.
Kirk bred Mame Taylor to Cowboy P-12 to produce Hard Twist in 1942. Hard Twist worked his way to the top of Quarter Horse racing when he hit the track. He made 33 starts with 14 wins, seven seconds and two thirds to earn $6,319. He won races like the Del Rio Sweepstakes, Barbra B Handicap, Santa Catlina Stakes and Santa Cruz Stakes. He set and equalled several track records and he earned the 1946 and 1951 Champion Stallion titles.
Hard Twist was first raced by Lou Kirk and then purchased by Wayne Brand as a two year old and he raced him until he won his first Champion Stallion title. Brand sold the horse to Lewis Blackwell, who retired Hard Twist to stand at stud. But when he didn’t get a lot of mares to his court, he sent him back to the track to win his second Champion Stallion title.
It is at this point we will bring in
John Alonzo as well as Lewis Blackwell to finish our story. The main source for the information on these two individuals will begin with Nelson Nye in his book The Complete Quarter Horse in a biography of a mare named Blackwell’s Tick Tac. Blackwell was not only a race enthusiast, but a horse trader. He was also getting an interest
in breeding, as we saw with Hard Twist. Blackwell traded with Jim Shirley for a horse named Revenue that had some success at a race meet in El Paso. He even raced
“John seemed very interested in building up his stock of horses. We too had become interested in a breeding program, which was the main point behind the half- interest deal. We were to take the two mares and breed them to a good stallion and share in the foals.” - Lucille Blackwell
SPEEDHORSE June 2021 55
Speedhorse Archives