Page 92 - July 2020

LOOKING BACK
Love Charge, Charger Bar and Kaweah Bar and repeated the win in 1973 along with winning the Los Alamitos Championship.
From Azure Te’s first crop of foals all but one starter was a winner and all that had more than one start had a speed rating of 80 or better. Jay and Ted had a long list of mare owners who had requested breeding contracts without even knowing the fee. Having had no experience with the effect of Azure Te’s success as a racing sire, and unsure of how many would respond to breeding contacts that were already requested, Jay and the syndicate were in doubt as to how much to raise the fee in order to still be assured of filling Azure Te’s book. Further, they were almost afraid to run an ad. They finally set
the fee at $1,500, limited the mares to ROM runners or producers, and ran an ad publishing the new fee on December 15, 1971.
They sent night letters to all who still had the breeding contracts out on the horse giving them a deadline for return. Jay said, “I hated to do that in a way, but the contracts could continue to float in on you.” He also added, “It sure was sweet, but it doesn’t happen very often.”
In January 1972 the Azure Te syndicate ran
a second ad reading, “Thank you – booked
full” and two-hundred and nine mares were bred to Azure Te that year. They would have liked to have closed his book sooner (and did the following years), but in an effort to be fair, they accepted all mares whose owners returned contracts according to the terms they had set. It was more than they bargained for. In hindsight Jay admits that the two mistakes they made were in not raising the fee to $2,000 and not being even more restrictive about the quality of mares they bred. If it was an error in judgment, it was a minor one for limiting the book to ROM mares or ROM producers saved Azure Te from certain overproduction in the ensuing foal crop.
In 1972 Azure Te’s get continued to boost his recognition as a sire. Azuree won the Kansas Futurity Consolation. Twelve Five, an orphan filly out of Double Rose by Double Bid, won her section of the All American Futurity trials in a blistering :19.86, the second fastest qualifying time out of 179 starters. She had already run second in the Rainbow Futurity and was in the lead in the finals when she hit a mud hole and pulled a muscle in her back taking her out of contention. She returned to the track and ran well in her three and four year old years.
Hot Kiss, owned by Burnett Estates, won her trial heat of the All American tying with 2 other horses for the ninth, tenth and eleventh fastest qualifying time. Hot Kiss had the misfortune of not shaking into the race, so actually Azure Te qualified two foals for the All American from both his first and second crop. The great horse has continued to bomb the All American with qualifiers and from 1971, when his first crop of
Te N Te, by Azure Te, sustained an injury to his hock while in race training and was admitted into the AQHA registry through the hardship clause. Later, he won 5 out of 5 Grand Champion Stallion titles and Hi-Point Halter Stallion of the Sun Country Circuit.
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foals raced, through the 1977 All American and is tied with Go Man Go in producing eight All American Futurity finalists.
The popularity of Azure Te’s colts was also becoming evident in the sale ring. Seventeen lots by Azure Te averaged $14,235 in the 1972 All American Futurity Sale, the second highest average of any living sire who had more than one lot in the sale.
The syndicate was very concerned about the number of mares that were being booked to the horse, but Jay insisted that by raising the fee to $3,500 and limiting his outside book to AAA or AAA producers or mares with a speed index of 90 or better or producers of the same, the numbers could be absorbed by the market. Of course he was right and it paid extra dividends in the many quality runners Azure Te sired. His get continued to sell well because the bottom side of his foals’ pedigrees had some bold type to go with the top side. An ad announcing Azure Te’s 1973 breeding terms came out in October of 1972 and again the syndicate was forced to run a “Thank you – book full” ad
the following month. In 1973 Azure Teen,
in her second career start, won the $147,000 Oklahoma Futurity at La Mesa Park and added to Azure Te’s prominence as an All American sire by qualifying for that Futurity. Azure Teen, who was bred by Bud Warren, sold in the All American Sale as a yearling for $12,600 to Dr. Richard S. Harper of San Antonio. She also
added $73,600 to her earnings as a finalist in the Oklahoma Futurity. Hot Kiss was a finalist in the All American Derby. The Honker qualified for both the West Texas Derby and Rainbow Derby. Tea Belle and Te Best made it into the Laredo and Tumbleweed Derbies respectively. Today’s Girl qualified for the Tall City Futurity while Well Built and Hot One were both finalists in the Twin Sisters Futurity.
The interesting thing at this point is that the dams of all of the outstanding horses mentioned thus far were bred to Azure Te before any of his foals had been tested on the track. One could expect better things to come as people were more willing to commit their top mares to a proven sire.
Come Six continued his winning that year in the Peninsula and Dale Robertson Stakes while The Honker bested world record holder Truckle Feature in the Ruidoso 550 Championship Handicap. The 1973 AQHA Annual Review listed Azure Te as the third leading living sire of all time money earners with average earnings of $9,246. Many of those horses were still running and adding to their earnings.
Azure Te still showed himself prominently in the sale ring in 1973 and Quick Six was the high selling horse at the Twin Classics Yearling Sale at $23,000 and Figure Eight Bars, bred to Azure Te, topped the Jack Dyer’s Sale at $150,000. Routine, the dam of Azure Teen, brought high money of $100,000 at the