Yo Tambien
Encyclopedia
Yo Tambien was an American
Thoroughbred
racing filly
bred in California
by Theodore Winters, a breeder and major landholder from the Washoe Valley
in Nevada
sometimes called "Black T" due to his huge, black, T-shaped moustache.
. Once there, he made his money as a businessman and by dealing in gold mining stock. Besides owning a huge spread near the present town of Winters
in Yolo County, California
, called Rancho del Arroyo, he also owned another California farm on the banks of the Sacramento River
near Sacramento
called Rancho del Rio. On Rancho del Rio, he kept his best stallion
, Norfolk, by the great stallion Lexington
.
Meanwhile, in the 1870s, the founder of California's first sporting paper, the "Breeder and Sportsman" Joseph Cairn Simpson had also come west, bringing a few horses with him. The best one was his homebred Illinois
mare called Marian. To help finance his newspaper venture, Simpson sold Marian to "Black T" Winters. (Simpson eventually organized the Pacific Coast Blood Horse Association as well as becoming a founding member of the National Trotting Association.) For years, Winters bred Norfolk to Marian, and almost every one of their ten foals proved exceptional, two among them in particular, Emperor of Norfolk
and El Rio Rey
. But when Norfolk grew too old, Winters put Marian to a California-bred horse he owned called Joe Hooker, also a tail-line descendent of Lexington. Joe Hooker had, as well, the distinction of being a half-brother to the racing mare
Mollie McCarty
.
Yo Tambien (Spanish
for Me Too) was, like her father, a bright chestnut
. Joe Hooker was a showy horse, and passed that showiness on to his daughter who turned out to be his best offspring, and the most beloved of the daughters of Marian. Yo Tambien won the most and raced the longest. In the Gay Nineties
, she was called "Queen of the Turf."
Before her second season, "Black T" Winters made the decision to withdraw from the actual racing of his horses and to concentrate on breeding them. To this end, he shipped his juveniles, including Yo Tambien, to the Crescent City
Jockey Club in Chicago
to sell. Gambler and horseman Chris Smith bought them all. Yo Tambien alone cost him $17,000. For the rest of her career she raced for Smith's Kendall Stables.
At the age of three, Yo Tambien ran sixteen times and won fourteen times. From newspaper articles of the day, it was evident she'd made a deep impression on racegoers who began calling her "Queen of the Turf." She made the greatest impact in the Garfield Park Derby, in which she carried 127 pounds and was the sole filly against the best colt
s in the west. One of those colts was that year's winner of the Kentucky Derby
, Azra
. In the Great Western Handicap, carrying much more weight than any of her rivals, she clocked the mile and a half race at 2 minutes 33 and ¾ seconds. After the Great Western, Smith was offered $35,000 for her, at the time a huge sum.
In her third season at four, she made 17 starts, winning 11 and placing in four. She came in third in the remaining two races. In her best race of 1893, she beat the very good mare Racine and went on an eight-race winning streak. In 1894, she won ten of 18 starts.
At the age of six, Yo Tambien was noticeably tired. She won only one of her nine starts, and the decision was finally made to retire her. Her earnings were the third highest for a mare in US history at the time. Only Miss Woodford and Firenze
won more.
to begin her career as a broodmare. She was successfully bred to the great Hanover
(enjoying one of his best years at stud), but one day, pregnant and in turn-out in her paddock, somehow she became so seriously impaled on a loose board she had to be destroyed.
Yo Tambien died in 1896 at age seven.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Thoroughbred
Thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...
racing filly
Filly
A filly is a young female horse too young to be called a mare. There are several specific definitions in use.*In most cases filly is a female horse under the age of four years old....
bred in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
by Theodore Winters, a breeder and major landholder from the Washoe Valley
Washoe Valley, Nevada
Washoe Valley, Nevada is a geographical region in the United States covering sixty-six square miles in southern Washoe County in the state of Nevada. Located between Reno and Carson City, it is named for the Washoe people, Native Americans who lived there before the arrival of Europeans...
in Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
sometimes called "Black T" due to his huge, black, T-shaped moustache.
California background
Theodore Winters was one of the foremost horsemen who founded Thoroughbred racing and breeding in California. Like almost everyone, Winters had gone west because of the California Gold RushCalifornia Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
. Once there, he made his money as a businessman and by dealing in gold mining stock. Besides owning a huge spread near the present town of Winters
Winters, California
Winters is a city in Yolo County, California. The population was 6,624 as of the 2010 census. It is part of the Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city is near Lake Berryessa. It is noted as the one-time residence of cartoonist R...
in Yolo County, California
Yolo County, California
Yolo County is a county located in the northern part of the U.S. state of California, bordered by the other counties of Sacramento, Solano, Napa, Lake, Colusa, and Sutter. The city of Woodland is its county seat, though Davis is its largest city....
, called Rancho del Arroyo, he also owned another California farm on the banks of the Sacramento River
Sacramento River
The Sacramento River is an important watercourse of Northern and Central California in the United States. The largest river in California, it rises on the eastern slopes of the Klamath Mountains, and after a journey south of over , empties into Suisun Bay, an arm of the San Francisco Bay, and...
near Sacramento
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
called Rancho del Rio. On Rancho del Rio, he kept his best stallion
Stallion
A Stallion is a male horse.Stallion may also refer to:* Stallion , an American pop rock group* Stallion , a figure in the Gobot toyline* Stallion , a character in the console role-playing game series...
, Norfolk, by the great stallion Lexington
Lexington (horse)
Lexington was a United States Thoroughbred race horse who won six of his seven race starts. Perhaps his greatest fame came however as the most successful sire of the second half of the nineteenth century; he was the Leading sire in North America 16 times, and of his many brood mare and racer...
.
Meanwhile, in the 1870s, the founder of California's first sporting paper, the "Breeder and Sportsman" Joseph Cairn Simpson had also come west, bringing a few horses with him. The best one was his homebred Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
mare called Marian. To help finance his newspaper venture, Simpson sold Marian to "Black T" Winters. (Simpson eventually organized the Pacific Coast Blood Horse Association as well as becoming a founding member of the National Trotting Association.) For years, Winters bred Norfolk to Marian, and almost every one of their ten foals proved exceptional, two among them in particular, Emperor of Norfolk
Emperor of Norfolk
Emperor of Norfolk was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse. Because he was big with huge hindquarters and because of his stellar racing record, he was called the "California Wonder."-Going to California:...
and El Rio Rey
El Rio Rey
El Rio Rey was an undefeated American Thoroughbred racehorse. He was voted the American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt.-Breeding:...
. But when Norfolk grew too old, Winters put Marian to a California-bred horse he owned called Joe Hooker, also a tail-line descendent of Lexington. Joe Hooker had, as well, the distinction of being a half-brother to the racing mare
Mare
Female horses are called mares.Mare is the Latin word for "sea".The word may also refer to:-People:* Ahmed Marzooq, also known as Mare, a footballer and Secretary General of Maldives Olympic Committee* Mare Winningham, American actress and singer...
Mollie McCarty
Mollie McCarty
Mollie McCarty, , foaled in 1873, was an outstanding California-based Thoroughbred racehorse who won her first 13 race starts and was second on the two occasions when she was defeated.-Breeding:...
.
Marian and Joe Hooker
Joe Hooker had had a brief and difficult racing career, but many turfmen believed him the fastest race horse California had ever seen. When Winters bought him, already owning Norfolk, he gave him little thought. He bred him to a few Rancho del Arroyo mares, and then sent him on to this third ranch, the Rancho del Sierra in Washoe Valley, Nevada, to run in a pasture with a few lesser mares for company. But when the Rancho del Arroyo mares started dropping Joe Hooker foals who were winners, Winters brought Joe Hooker back to the main breeding barn near Sacramento. The first mare he bred him to was his best mare, Marian. The result of the 1888 match between Marian and Joe Hooker was Yo Tambien.Yo Tambien (Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
for Me Too) was, like her father, a bright chestnut
Chestnut (coat)
Chestnut is a hair coat color of horses consisting of a reddish-to-brown coat with a mane and tail the same or lighter in color than the coat. Genetically and visually, chestnut is characterized by the absolute absence of true black hairs...
. Joe Hooker was a showy horse, and passed that showiness on to his daughter who turned out to be his best offspring, and the most beloved of the daughters of Marian. Yo Tambien won the most and raced the longest. In the Gay Nineties
Gay Nineties
Gay Nineties is an American nostalgic term that refers to the decade of the 1890s. It is known in the UK as the Naughty Nineties, and refers there to the decade of supposedly decadent art by Aubrey Beardsley, the witty plays and trial of Oscar Wilde, society scandals and the beginning of the...
, she was called "Queen of the Turf."
Racing days
Winters began racing Yo Tambien at the San Francisco Bay District Course as a two-year-old. She easily won her first race, and then took the Youthful Stakes. Winters immediately sent her east to compete against the best fillies of her day. By the end of her first season, she'd started 14 times and won eight of them, four in succession. Her losses were said by Winters to be due to her high strung nature. Before she ever reached the starting line, she was often exhausted.Before her second season, "Black T" Winters made the decision to withdraw from the actual racing of his horses and to concentrate on breeding them. To this end, he shipped his juveniles, including Yo Tambien, to the Crescent City
Crescent City, Illinois
Crescent City is a village in Iroquois and Crescent townships, Iroquois County, Illinois, United States. The population was 631 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Crescent City is located at ....
Jockey Club in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
to sell. Gambler and horseman Chris Smith bought them all. Yo Tambien alone cost him $17,000. For the rest of her career she raced for Smith's Kendall Stables.
At the age of three, Yo Tambien ran sixteen times and won fourteen times. From newspaper articles of the day, it was evident she'd made a deep impression on racegoers who began calling her "Queen of the Turf." She made the greatest impact in the Garfield Park Derby, in which she carried 127 pounds and was the sole filly against the best colt
Colt (horse)
A colt is a young male horse, under the age of four. The term "colt" is often confused with foal, which refers to a horse of either sex under one year of age....
s in the west. One of those colts was that year's winner of the Kentucky Derby
Kentucky Derby
The Kentucky Derby is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbred horses, held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is one and a quarter mile at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings carry...
, Azra
Azra (horse)
Azra was an American Thoroughbred racehorse. He was bred in Kentucky by George J. Long and raced under the colors of his Bashford Manor Stable. His sire was Reform, a son of the very important sire Leamington. Azra was out of the mare Albia whose sire, Alarm, also sired Himyar.Trained by John H....
. In the Great Western Handicap, carrying much more weight than any of her rivals, she clocked the mile and a half race at 2 minutes 33 and ¾ seconds. After the Great Western, Smith was offered $35,000 for her, at the time a huge sum.
In her third season at four, she made 17 starts, winning 11 and placing in four. She came in third in the remaining two races. In her best race of 1893, she beat the very good mare Racine and went on an eight-race winning streak. In 1894, she won ten of 18 starts.
At the age of six, Yo Tambien was noticeably tired. She won only one of her nine starts, and the decision was finally made to retire her. Her earnings were the third highest for a mare in US history at the time. Only Miss Woodford and Firenze
Firenze (horse)
Firenze , also recorded as "Firenzi,", was an American Thoroughbred Champion and Hall of Fame filly racehorse. The New York Times called Firenze: "...one of the greatest distaffers of the 19th Century."...
won more.
Ending
Yo Tambien was sent to the McGrathiana Stud in KentuckyKentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
to begin her career as a broodmare. She was successfully bred to the great Hanover
Hanover (thoroughbred horse)
Hanover was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse that won his first 17 race starts. He was the only American stallion to head the Leading sire in North America list for four consecutive years until Bold Ruler did so in 1965.-Background:...
(enjoying one of his best years at stud), but one day, pregnant and in turn-out in her paddock, somehow she became so seriously impaled on a loose board she had to be destroyed.
Yo Tambien died in 1896 at age seven.