Page 90 - July 2020

LOOKING BACK
Again, time passed and no word. Jay
tracked Caldwell down at the Tattersalls sale
in Kentucky to reaffirm his seriousness about buying Azure Te. He and Ted planned to attend the California Midwinter Sale and hoped some arrangement could be made by then. Word finally came back from Caldwell that Mr. G. G. Jamieson, Azure Te’s new owner, would be in Australia, but that he had arranged for his ranch manager, “Deacon” Hobbs, and veterinarian, Dr. Bill Linfoot, to show the horse. They would have the authority to act on Mr. Jamieson’s behalf, but Caldwell was not encouraging about the prospects of making any deal.
In California Jay and Ted met with Tom Caldwell and his partner Vic Heerman, who is as good a student of Thoroughbred pedigrees
as anyone on the West Coast. Caldwell and Heerman agreed that Azure Te’s sire, Nashville, was, at the time, the outstanding Thoroughbred sire in California, particularly for the type of horse Pumphrey was seeking. The following day Ted and Jay drove to Desi Arnaz’s ranch and found Nashville to be every bit the horse they had imagined. He was a stakes winner
of $90,895 and a sire of stakes winners. He
was a very fast horse from a line of fast horses, *Nasrullah by Nearco. The *Nasrullah line produced such outstanding horses as Indian Hemp, Zip Pocket, Bold Ruler, What Luck
and Fleet Nasrullah. Jay and Ted were further impressed by the fact that, as a two year old, Nashville had outrun Bold Ruler at six furlongs by 1 1/4 lengths at Belmont. Anxious to pursue the purpose of their trip, they passed up a chance to look at Azure Te’s mother, Blue One, but Jay saw her two years later at Flag Is Up Farms and, although she was a Thoroughbred, she appeared to Jay to be “a grand big Quarter mare.”
The following day Ted and Jay caught a plane to Oakland, rented a car and on a cool December morning drove into Rancho Del Charro at Pleasanton. They were greeted by Hobbs and Dr. Linfoot and after exchanging amenities Jay got his first look at Azure Te. As the horse paraded and played around the walking ring, Jay thought to himself that this horse was just what he’d been looking for.
Negotiations began. Bill Linfoot told Jay and Ted that Mr. Jamieson was getting on in years and really wanted to breed a Kentucky Derby winner; and that the only reason he encouraged Mr. Jamieson to enter into any negotiations on Azure Te was because Linfoot felt that horse
was bred too much for speed to sire the type
of horse Jamieson wanted. After a good deal of discussion, Dr. Linfoot said they would lease the horse for X dollars with an option to buy at the end of the lease for so many more dollars. Negotiations continued with Jay and Ted unsuccessfully attempting to get the price of the lease lowered. Finally, Jay took Ted aside and
Azure Te wins at Hollywood Park.
said, “I’m going to try one more time, but I’m going to trade just the way he wants to trade, ‘cause I don’t think there’s going to be another way and I’m not leaving here without that horse.” Ted agreed and while both begrudged giving as much profit as the seller wanted,
they made a deal. The only regrets about the agreement came to light when Jay met G.G. Jamieson the following spring on the Rancheros Vistadores ride. Jamieson told Jay that even though those boys sure did have his authority
to trade while he was gone, and a deal is a deal, he really didn’t want to sell Azure Te and he wouldn’t mind at all if Jay just brought the horse back at the end of the lease. In fact, Jamieson offered to forego the last half of the lease payment for the horse’s return. Jay, sympathetic to the old gentleman’s regard for the horse
and concerned that Jamieson may have felt
his manager and veterinarian let him down in offering the option to buy, assured Mr. Jamieson that “his two representatives did one hell of a fine job of working this Texan over.” Jamieson offered an additional concession to allow Jay
to breed whatever mares he and the Burnett Ranches wanted for the rest of Azure Te’s life, but when Jay said he had already syndicated the horse and that he could not go back on his word to the syndicate members, the two shook hands and the discussion ended.
The lease of Azure Te was actually acquired in the name of the Estate of S.B. Burnett. Jay Pumphrey, as trustee and General Manager of that estate, along with Ted Wells and Mrs. Anne Burnett Tandy, worked out the terms of the Azure Te Syndicate. Mrs. Tandy is the principle beneficiary of the Estate of S.B. Burnett, which owns 6666 Ranches, and is owner of the Tom L. Burnett Cattle Company, which owns Triangle
Ranches. Her involvement with Quarter
Horses dates backs to the early 1940’s when
she hosted a meeting at her home to discuss
the formation of the American Quarter Horse Association. The AQHA was organized the following year during the Fort Worth Fat Stock Show with Mrs. Tandy as one of its founding members. She was the first woman Honorary Vice President of the AQHA and has been one of the leading advocates of quality and the use of Thoroughbred blood in the improvement of the Quarter Horse. In the case of Azure Te, she has had a quiet hand in his strong effect on the breed. Mrs. Tandy is one of the few founding members of the AQHA who is still active. She
is the mother of Mrs. B.F. Phillips Jr., who, with her husband, is well known as a breeder and promoter of Quarter Horses.
The syndication of Azure Te was completed within two weeks of February 28, 1968, when letters were mailed to twenty Quarter Horse breeders offering fourteen of the thirty-three total shares for sale. The balance of the shares was purchased by Ted Wells who stands Azure Te, Jay Pumphrey, syndicate manager, and the Estate of S.B. Burnett and Tom L. Burnett Cattle Company. Interestingly fourteen of
the original seventeen owners are still in the syndicate. They meet annually to discuss the syndicate affairs at Ruidoso, New Mexico, the Saturday morning of the All American Futurity.
Added to all the frustrations and near misses in buying Azure Te is the fact that, during his racing career, he came very close to making himself completely unaffordable as a Quarter Horse sire. Buster Millerick, who trained Azure Te, told Jay some years after he had bought him, that Azure Te and Native Diver were the fastest horses he had ever trained and two of the
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