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SPEEDLINES
Ted Wells Jr. trained horses such as...
Lena’s Bar, shown winning the Buttons And Bows Stakes at Albuquerque State Fair in 1958.
2-time Champion Savannah Jr, shown after winning the 1968 All American Futurity.
Azure Te was a sprinting Thoroughbred that
made 26 starts with 10 wins, seven seconds Money Lender is the leading and one third earning $119,022. money earner by Nashville.
try to arrange a visit with the owner. That failed and then Azure Te showed up in
the Fall Thoroughbred Sale at Pomona, California. Wells formed a group to bid on the horse when Pumphrey was out of pocket, and the horse ended up selling for $45,000 to G. G. Jamieson.
As the story goes, Wells and Pumphrey finally got to see the horse through Jamieson’s farm manager and his veterinarian since they had authorization to make a deal. They were able to work a deal to lease Azure Te with an option to buy. When Jamieson found out about it, he tried to talk Pumphrey out of
it, but they held to the deal and in February 1968 Azure Te was syndicated in the name
of the Estate of S. B. Burnett with the primary shareholders including Ted Wells, the Burnett Ranch, Jay Pumphrey and Anne Burnett Tandy.
Jay Pumphrey was a pedigree person. He had many ideas about the role of the pedigree as a tool to breed the next generation. So, what did Pumphrey see in the pedigree of Azure Te? Let’s take a look. The sire of Azure
Te was Nashville, a horse that raced 29 times with 12 wins, one second and one third, earning $90,895. He was a two-time stakes winner at sprint distances in the Lakes And Flowers Handicap, now named the Triple Bend Stakes which is a Grade 2 stakes race at 7-furlongs, and the Palos Verdes Handicap at 6-furlongs and now a Grade 2 stakes race.
Nashville became a popular sire with horses that won $3,636,519 including 16 stakes winners. His leading money earner was Money Lender, winner of 10 stakes races including the California Juvenile Stakes-G2, Norfolk Stakes-G2 and San Miguel Stakes-G3. Money Lender was bred by the famous jockey Johnny Longden. His second leading money earner was Ruken, winner of the Santa Anita Derby-G1 and the Del Mar Futurity-G1.
The sire of Nashville is Nasrullah, the Champion Two-Year-Old in England in 1942. He won two stakes that year in the Coventry Stakes and the Great Bradley Stakes. He came back at three to win the Chatteris Stakes, the Cavenham Stakes
and the Champion Stakes. He made 10 starts with five wins, one second and two thirds, earning $15,217. He was imported to the United States by a syndicate headed by Claiborne Farm in 1949. He became a leading sire of horses like Bold Ruler, the 1957 Horse of the Year; Delta, a multiple stakes winner of races like the Arlington Lassie Stakes; Fleet Nasrullah, a multiple stakes winner including the Hollywood Premiere Handicap; and Jaipur, a multiple stakes winner including the Belmont Stakes. Bold Ruler, Delta and Fleet Nasrullah were known for their speed: Bold Ruler was the 1958 Champion Sprinter, Delta set a New Track Record at Churchill Down going 6-furlongs in 1:09.3, and Fleet Nasrullah
Azure Te was bred by Mr. and Mrs. L. K. Shapiro of California, and they raced their home bred colt. He was sired by Nashville and out of Blue One by Count Fleet. The racing career for Azure Te ended with a bowed tendon.
Ted Wells tried to get in touch with Shapiro, but never did make contact. Then he had Reggie Cornell, a trainer for Shapiro,
Champion Nasrullah, the sire of
Nashville, became a leading
sire of horses like: 1957 Horse of the Year Bold Ruler.
42 SPEEDHORSE July 2021