Page 24 - 30 March 2012

AQHA
HALL OF FAME 2011
IndIgo IllusIon
Courtesy AQHA
astriking mare of impeccable breeding and near-flawless conformation, Indigo Illusion kicked off her career as a track record-setting champion and ended it as the dam of black-type sprinters who earned more than a half-million dollars on the racetrack.
“I don’t really know how to describe her,” said her owner, former AQHA President Jerry Windham of College Station, Texas. “She was one of those once-in-a-lifetime mares, just a truly great horse. ‘Indigo’ had some really nice babies and was the matriarch of our family of horses.”
Bred by William Carter and Allen Baitzor of Clovis, California, and foaled in 1981, the dark brown filly was by Beduino-TB out of the Duplicate Copy mare Copy Capri. Windham bought her for $7,000 at the Pacific Coast QHRA yearling sale.
On Aug. 13, 1983, Indigo Illusion ran what then was the fastest quarter mile ever
by a 2-year-old anywhere. It also was the second-fastest quarter mile by any horse at Los Alamitos, bested only by Dash For Cash’s :21.17 track mark.
The occasion was the Faberge Special Effort Futurity, which was the last leg of the West Coast Triple Crown. At $853,380, the Faberge final drew a great field, including two other Beduinos, Grade 1 winner Tolltac, who scratched; and Grade 3 winner Check The Charts. Eventual world champion Dashs Dream was in the gate, and leaving as the favorite was Dash For Cash Futurity-G1 win- ner Face In The Crowd.
No problem.
“The filly went to the gate really cool,” explained Robert Bard, who rode Indigo Illusion for trainer Bruce Jackson. “She was one of the only ones that never got a wet hair on her. Even as hot as it was, she stayed cool and calm.”
The champion freshman filly that year, Indigo Illusion sprinted the distance in :21.26. The filly that season won nine of 13 races while earning $476,890, but was a force to be reckoned with her entire career.
Retired to the broodmare pasture after fin- ishing third in the December 1985 Las Damas
Handicap-G1, Indigo Illusion produced 19 foals, 13 of which went to the track. Ten of them returned as winners, including Grade 1 Kansas and Graham Farms futurities winner Magic Dozen by Easy Dozen; Graham Farms Derby-G2 winner Illusive Feature by Truckle Feature; Manor Downs Derby-G2 winner First Place Dash by First Down Dash; and the Streakin Six colt Streakin Sixes, who lit the board in the Grade 1 Heritage Place Futurity and Texas Classic Derby. Indigo Illusion’s babies put $562,510 in the pockets of their connections.
With 17 wins, three seconds and four thirds from 30 career races, Indigo Illusion scored
in six stakes, including the Grade 1 Rainbow Derby and Vessels Maturity. She placed second in two others, and was third in four, includ- ing the Champion of Champions-G1, where she showed in 1984 and lit the board in 1985. From July 1983 through July 1984, Indigo Illusion came home in front in 13 consecutive races. Setting three track records while record- ing seven speed indexes in excess of 100—her best the 110 from
the Faberge—the
Illusion was no
mirage.
earners, just ahead of champions Town Policy, Moon Lark and First Down Dash. She died on Nov. 10, 2007, at age 26.
“I remember her with a lot of pride,” Windham said. “She was awfully special. To us, Indigo was always a champion...every single day.”
Jerry Windham accepts Indigo Illusion’s Hall of Fame plaque from outgoing AQHA President Peter J. Cofrancesco III.
22 SPEEDHORSE, March 30, 2012
“I’ve always thought she knew she was special, but she was not a pet,” Windham said. “Even here at the ranch, she was just like she was when she was racing—she didn’t mind people handling her, but when she was through with you. She just wanted to be left alone.”
Indigo Illusion finished her life still among the top 60 all-time leading
Indigo Illusion
speedhorse Files the american Quarter horse Journal