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Clabber was the only stallion to earn the title of World Champion between 1940 and 1949.
SPEEDLINES
by O. W. Cardwell, the last owner of the famous Little Joe who was the broodmare sire of Balmy L. The runner Little Joe Jr
was a son of Joe Bailey P-4, and he became a noted broodmare sire with daughters like Ariel Lady, dam of several ROM runners including Raza, the dam of Bull Rastus. War Chief was a son of Joe Hancock, and his owner was the Hepler Brothers who raced the great Shue Fly.
“Clabber was a veteran of the quarter tracks. At Eagle Pass he once ran and won two races in one day. He’d already done this a couple of times in Arizona under somewhat different circumstances. At Eagle Pass he
had to win the first quarter miler in 23.0
or better to qualify for running in the big race of the meet. He won the first race as specified and then came back and won the third, which was the big one, against the top runners of the time.
“He has officially been credited with a time of 22.8 for the quarter; at Moltaqua he set a track record going 350 yards in 18.4. He may not have been the fastest horse, but he was a real hard knocker who could do about everything a Quarter Horse is asked to. He got no pampering of any sort. More than a few of his races were run under an impost of 135 pounds, and he furnished competition at any distance.”
An added note: Moltaqua was better known as Hacienda Moltaqua and was the track that the first organized quarter races were run by the Southern Arizona Horse Breeders Association. This association later evolved into the American Quarter Racing Association that eventually became the racing department of the AQHA.
“Clabber was not invincible. He was beaten by such speedsters as Shue Fly, Joe Reed II, Red Man, Cyclone, and Arizona Girl. He never gave up and made it a horse race every inch of the way. It took a good
horse to beat him. It is told that he ran and won three quarter mile races on the same day in Texas, finishing each of them in 23 flat.
“He was still doing some running in 1944. He won two matched races from Painted Joe and, in the stallion race of that year, he ran a dead heat with Bartender in the extremely poor time of 24.2. This race told the story; he was through with the tracks. But he was not washed up by a long shot.”
Frank Vessels bought Clabber in 1944, and brought him to California. As the
story goes, Vessels saw Clabber run and he reported the following story. “They were using Clabber as a stock horse, roping cattle and riding in fairs and doing various other things on cattle ranches. He would stand
in the gate and since he had been a roping horse, they would run a rope from the rear alongside one side and through the reins in the bit and back on the opposite side to the rear in order to hold him straight in the gate. When the gate would break, they’d hold onto one end of the rope and pull it out of the bridle reins.”
He continued, “When I was there, something happened, and they did not pull the rope. He ran the quarter of a mile with the rope standing straight out in the back and won the race.”
This is the race that Nelson Nye reports in his book Speed And The Quarter Horse that won him his world championship. Nye recounted the story this way, “...He and War Chief a (Hancock bred horse) each packed 135 pounds. Third horse in the race was Little Joe Jr., carried an impost of 130. Clabber, to quote the official statement, ‘was bad in the gate and it took two men to hold him there with a rope through the bit. When the flag was dropped, he lunged and jerked the rope away from the handlers, throwing himself off balance so that he was virtually left at the post. But he recovered himself and
won the race with the rope still streaming from the bridle.’ This start was from an open gate set back of line—time taken from the flag. Because of this type start, the time of :22 2/5 cannot be considered as a record.”
The pedigree of Clabber aids the persona of this horse. His sire was My Texas Dandy, a very fast horse that couldn’t win a race. My Texas Dandy was bred by C. F. Meyers of Ellenger, Texas. He owned the mare Sadie M, a daughter of Little Dick. Little Dick was sired by Sleepy Dick by Little Rondo
by Sykes Rondo, and his dam was Flora by Pilgrim. Sadie M was out of a mare named Nellie by Panmure. Sadie M was described in the National Quarter Horse Breeders Association magazine The Quarter Horse article “The Story of My Texas Dandy” from October 1948 as a mare that “could run a fast five-eighths.”
Meyers took Sadie M to be bred to Porte Drapeau, who was believed to be imported from France. But his breeder was Jack Joel, an English mining magnet with mines in South Africa, and the family was the owner of the Diamond Mining Company in South Africa. The records show that Porte Drapeau was imported to the United States as a yearling, and he was unraced.
The sire of Porte Drapeau was Sunstar, a horse owned and bred by Joel. Sunstar won The English Derby in 1911 for Joel. Sunstar was sired by Sundridge by Amphion and out of Sierra by Springfield. Sundridge won the July Cup, an important 6-furlong race three times and his broodmare sire Springfield won it twice. The dam of Sunstar was Doris by Loved One. The dam of Porte Drapeau was Bright Cherry by Ayrshire by Hampton and Bright Cherry’s dam was Cerisette by Galopin.
In 1925 Porte Drapeau was owned by Dr. A. I. Clark of Schulenberg, Texas, and my AQHA Stud Book Shows that My Texas Dandy was bred by Dr. Harvey Clark of
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