Triple's Image

Triple’s Image was bred, born, raised, and shown to be a great horse.

“He was one of the best stallions in the United States,” says professor emeritus Lee Pettey, retired equine director and instructor at Mount San Antonio College. “He was bred to be a runner, but he was so good looking, his original owners decided not to race him.”

Bred by Walter L. Clark of Forsyth, Montana, and foaled in Oklahoma on April 22, 1969, Triple’s Image was a son of Triple Chick. Triple Chick, son of Three Bars, was out of racing champion Chicado V. Triple’s Image was out of Phffft, whose sire was Leo and dam was a granddaughter of Joe Hancock.

Sold at 3 months to Lee Alexander and Ed Anchel, his registered name was going to be Triple Quick. Before the papers went through at AQHA, he debuted at the All American Quarter Horse Congress and left as a champion weanling colt. His owners decided Triple’s Image fit better.

Shown 29 times as a yearling, usually by Jerry Wells, Triple’s Image placed first in 26, grand champion in 2, reserve in 11, and finished the year as the industry’s leading yearling stallion. As a 2-year-old, Triple’s Image was shown 40 times, won 26 grands and 12 reserves, and earned 34 points in halter and 4 points in western pleasure.

Triple’s Image made his ultimate mark through his progeny. In the 1970s, the stallion won get-of-sire classes 10 out of 11 times, including at the Cow Palace in San Francisco.

Triple’s Image sired 986 American Quarter Horses including 8 world champions, 8 reserve world champions, 10 AQHA Champions, 17 Superior halter horses, 74 Superior performance horses, and 174 ROM earners in all divisions. Altogether, they earned 2,986 halter points and 12,037 performance points.

Through 2018, Triple’s Image was the maternal grandsire of three AQHA Champions, and the earners of almost 3,600 halter points and more than 8,900 performance points.

“Triple’s Image was a perfect gentleman in the breeding shed and in the barn,” says AQHA Past President Sandy Arledge, who stood Triple’s Image on her Far West Farm in Del Mar, California. “I had him at the end of his career, and then donated him to Mount San Antonio College on behalf of his owner, Jack Strong, a state senator in Texas.”

Triple’s Image was euthanized June 28, 1999, due to kidney failure and was buried at the horse unit at Mount San Antonio College. He was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2020.

Biography updated as of August 2021.