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 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 colts 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.
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