Page 38 - COVER__NOV22.indd

SPEEDLINES
you find a way to do it. When the bidding reached $1,800 on the filly, I jumped to $2,200. I know that’s not an astronomical amount, but it was to me.”
The plan was to race Sparkling Tip and then make her a broodmare. She went to the track to run AA time earning her ROM. She raced first at Gateway Downs where she won her first start
in a futurity trial qualifying for the consolation in which she finished third. Then, it was on to La Mesa Park at Raton, New Mexico, and Centennial Park in Denver, Colorado, where she raced four more times, placing out of the money each time. This gave her a record of six starts with one win and one third with earnings of $244.00.
The Burbanks were undeterred by the race record of their new filly, and she became a broodmare. Burbank, a student of pedigrees, saw Sparkling Tip as a broodmare prospect from the beginning. He explained to Jank about his reasons for her potential to be a successful producer of speed. “Sparkling Tip had some good bloodlines, which is the main reason we wanted her. Her mother was a Thoroughbred. Tiptoe Tune by the great Domino line speed horse and speed sire Spy Song. Tiptoe’s mother Apoora was also a speedball by Bolero. People that knew Tiptoe Tune said that anytime a saddle was put on her she could work
a :22 quarter and a :33 three/eighths.
In her first race, her times for those distances were :21 3/5 and :32 4/5. She was so fast she could not keep a straight course and twice traveled back and forth across the track to the wire.” She made seven starts with two wins earning $5,000 in those two wins. Tiptoe Tune was bred by Frances Genter.
A PEDIGREE FOR SPEED
Spy Song was bred in Kentucky at Charles Fisher’s Dixiana Stud. He was truly a speedster with 36 starts, 15 wins, nine seconds and four thirds earning $206,325. He raced for four years
with such stakes wins as the Arlington Futurity (6.5f), Hawthorne Sprint Handicap (6.5f), Chicago Handicap
(7f), Myrtlewood Stakes (6f) and the Hawthorne Speed Handicap (6.5 f). He set a New Track Record at Hawthorne in 1945 going 4.5 furlongs in a time of :53 4/5 and he set a New Track Record in the Hawthorne Sprint Handicap going the six furlongs in 1:16 4/5. He was also second in the 1946 Kentucky Derby.
The sire record for Spy Song shows that he sired 348 foals with 249 winners and 28 stakes winners. His stakes winners include Crimson Satan, the 1961 Co-Champion Two-Year-Old Colt. He was the winner of 11 stakes races from 1961 to 1963 with 59 starts and winning 18, with 9 seconds and
9 thirds earning $796,077. Spy Song’s other runners include Royal Note, who won five stakes races including the Lafayette Stakes where he set a New Track Record going the 4.23 furlongs in a time of :49 1/5. He also set a New Track Record at Oaklawn Park for 3 furlongs in a time of :34.
The sire of Spy Song was Balladier, another speedster, but injury kept his racing career short. He made five starts in 1934, winning three and finishing second once. He won two stakes races in the United States in the Hotel Stake at six furlongs at Saratoga and the Champagne Stakes at 6.5 furlongs in New Track Record time of 1:16 3/5. He was second in the Futurity Stakes. He was named the Champion Two-Year-Old Colt for 1934.
Balladier was the sire of 278 named foals with 207 race winners and 16
AQHA Hall of Fame horse Top Deck, who has a breeding pattern of 4x4 to Peter Pan.
stakes winners. His stakes winners include: Decorated, winner of four stakes races including the San Gabriel Stakes
at 7 furlongs; and Double Jay, the 1946 Champion Two-Year-Old Colt. Double Jay became a leading sire and broodmare sire. His daughter Irish Jay produced Lucks Gay Chic, the 1982 AQHA Racing Champion Aged Stallion. The sire of Balladier was Black Toney by Peter
Pan, a grandson of Domino. The dam of Balladier was Blue Warbler by North Star by Sunstar.
The dam of Spy Song was Mata Hari, the 1933 Champion Two-Year-Old Filly and the 1934 Champion Three-Year-Old Filly. She ran 16 races winning seven
and finishing third twice. She won the Arlington Lassie Stakes, Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, Breeders Futurity, Illinois Derby and the Illinois Oaks. She was a New Track Record Setter in the Breeders’ Futurity with a time of 1:09 3/5 for 6 furlongs. She won the Illinois Derby, setting an Aurora Downs New Track Record of 1:49 3/5 for the 1 1/8-mile race. She beat males in both races. The sire of Mata Hari was Peter Hastings
by Peter Pan, and this gives Spy Song a breeding pattern of 3x3 to Peter Pan. The great Quarter Horse sire Top Deck had a breeding pattern of 4x4 to Peter Pan. The dam of Mata Hari was War Woman by Man O’ War and War Woman was out of Topaz by Uncle.
Apoora, the dam of Tiptoe Tune,
was a race mare with two wins in seven starts and earnings of $4,750. Apoora produced seven Thoroughbred foals with seven winners including Blue Ridge
Champion Lucks Gay Chic, who traces through his sire What Luck to Balladier, winning a 1981 Derby Consolation race at Ruidoso Downs.
36 SPEEDHORSE November 2022
© Speedhorse Archives
© Speedhorse Archives