As democrats move into their new digs in Washington this week, Apollitical Time (pictured with trainer Juan Alleman) could be the omen bet for Quarter Horse racing fans in the $125,000 Charger Bar Handicap at Los Alamitos, the first Grade I stakes race of the year. If she comes out in front, it will be her 12th stakes win at Los Alamitos. But that will still leave her shy of the record of 18 Los Al stakes wins shared by Charger Bar and Kaweah Bar.
Charger Bar was a nine-time AQHA Champion that earned Quarter racing’s top title of World Champion in 1971. She was bred and trained by Wayne Charlton, who sold her as a 3-year-old to Drs. Kenneth Wright and current Los Alamitos owner Ed Allred. Charger Bar won 28 races and earned $495,437 in the early 1970s. She defeated 19 Quarter racing champions including All American Futurity winners Mr Kid Charge and Rocket Wrangler, world record holder Truckle Feature and the legendary Band Of Angels, Come Six, Elan Again and She’s Precious.
Charlton said that the 1968 Tiny Charger foal out of the Rocket Bar (by Three Bars) mare La Ree Bar “had more speed than anything I ever had, and she loved to win, but she wasn’t the kind that would really put out. She’d run about fast enough to beat them, and that was about all you could say for her. If she got away bad, she would tear herself apart to get to the front.”
Ironically, Charlton said Charger Bar’s best race was in the Los Alamitos Championship when she finished third behind Burnett Estate’s Come Six. Coming out of the gates, she got battered between two horses and lost all chance.
“She was sideways in the middle of the race track before (James) Dreyer got her straightened away,” Charlton recalled. “She ran her eyeballs out and I was thrilled with her for trying so hard. Most horses, when they get banged around like that, they don’t even try to run.”
Charger Bar became one of the top broodmares of her time, producing stakes winners Blushing By, Go Proudly and Proud Heritage. She is buried in the infield at Los Alamitos Race Course, where a monument near the clubhouse turn honors her legacy.