Page 102 - May 2018 Speedhorse

Talent Bar scored an upset victory in the second running of the Rainbow Futurity on
Aug. 15, 1966, defeating Little Bar Olene and Suki Tadre under 18-year-old jockey Johnny Cox.
up, and since we were going to have to drive home that night, I told Paul we might as well go home; we couldn’t buy a colt there at that sale. So we left, and right outside the tent they had a soda pop stand. While we were drinking a Coke, we just looked through the catalog, and about the second colt coming up was Talent Bar. I said, ‘Damn, that’s a good bred colt! Let’s go see what he looks like.’ We went back and sat down and he came in. They started bidding on him, and it went up to $2,500 real quick. I bid on him along and about $2,500, it slowed down, and the auctioneer stopped and made a darn speech, and somebody bid another $100. It got to $2,700 and I bid $2,800 on him.
The auctioneer started making another speech. When he did, I knew darn well he was going to get another bid, and we were already over our limit. I said to Paul, ‘Let’s go.’
“We got up and started out of that tent, and just as we got to the door, that auctioneer hollered, ‘Sold to that crippled man!’ That was me!
“Well, that was sure a surprise! We went back and paid for him, and we caught the boy that was leading him before they ever got back to the stall. We had our pink slip, and we just loaded him and pulled out for home. We got to the ranch at two or three o’clock in the morning and just turned him loose in the pen with feed and water. I didn’t sleep over two hours, and about daylight, I got ol’ Paul up and said, ‘Let’s go up there and see what we bought.’ I knew he
had four good legs because when they brought him into the sale ring, I saw his hocks and knees were right down on the ground, and he had tremendous gaskin muscles. But really and truly, we hadn’t looked him over.”
Well, P.C. and Paul wasted no time. P.C. saddled Talent Bar, drove him, and Paul climbed right on board, and father and son made a round through the pasture. Perner says, “Ol’ Talent never knew he wasn’t broke. We just went right on with him. His colts all have that type of disposition, too.
“Hoss Inman owned Royal Bar, Talent’s sire, and he had consigned the colt to the sale, but he wasn’t there. He was putting on a Labor Day Rodeo in the mid-west, which was lucky for me or I never would have bought the colt at that price.” Well, whatever will be, will be, they say. And Talent and the Perners were meant to be.
That winter, Talent Bar was used on the ranch. He saw sheep and long distances and learned how gullies and rough ground felt under his feet and how to carry weight on his back.
James Chapman was a native son of Ozona. He had worked on the area’s ranches before he had become interested in running horses. Talent Bar’s breeding was blueprint for a speedster,
so Chapman had a talk with Perner. P.C. sure wasn’t interested in sprinters, but James was quite convincing, and they worked out a deal. They would enter the colt in three futurities, at Del Rio, Sonora and Uvalde, halve the entry fees and split the winnings, so James took him to train.
At Del Rio, Talent Bar had the eleventh fastest time in the trials, but didn’t do good in the consolation race. Next, he won the futurity at Sonora real handy by equaling the colt record for 220 yards. His winnings entered him into the Uvalde race, and Talent made the finals.
It rained a flood, and the Perner entry drew
the outside in the starting gates. He crossed
the finish line third behind the winner, Fred Barrett’s Mr. Q. Bar. All in all, P.C. broke even in his first venture in the race horse business. That terminated his agreement with Chapman, and he was ready to once more cinch his stock saddle on ol’ Talent and get back to ranch work. Trainer and owner were back in Ozona, sitting at the Perners’ kitchen table, and James said, “Dang, I’d like to take that colt to Ruidoso!”
“What’s there to run him in?” P.C. asked.
“We can pay the penalty and still get him in the Rainbow. You pay the entry and I’ll train him and run him for a fourth of the winnings.”
Well, P.C. was hooked. He approached his banker, Paul, and made arrangements to borrow the money to enter the colt. Paul was to get his investment back, win or lose, but they planned to win so Paul could count on pocketing one- fourth of first place money.
Chapman borrowed a one-horse trailer,
and with ol’ Talent and his bed roll, headed for Ruidoso. When he got to the track, the only place available was with the pony horses in the shed row. Well, that was all right . . . there wasn’t
100 SPEEDHORSE, May 2018
LOOKING BACK - AN EXCERPT FROM JANUARY 1974 ISSUE