As the producer of three National Finals Rodeo money earners for two-time World Champion Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi, top-producing mare Streakin Six Babe is in a league of her own.
She’s also had two other foals help contribute to Tonozzi’s qualifications to rodeo’s “Super Bowl.”
Not surprisingly, “Babe,” as she’s known around the barn, is one of the barrel racing industry’s all-time leading producers with 12 barrel racing money earners of nearly $1.4 million, according to AQHA’s pedigree service QData.
Building the Babe
While her offspring’s exploits are well-known, Babe’s background is full of hall of famers and world champions. Babe’s conception was manifested by Keith Asmussen of Laredo, Texas.
The Asmussen name is legendary in horse racing circles. Keith’s oldest son Steve is a Hall of Fame Thoroughbred trainer, holds the all-time win record for a trainer and has saddled winners of more than $403 million. His youngest son Cash was the leading jockey in France five times before returning to South Texas to run the training stable with his father.
Incidentally, Cash’s daughters Catherine and Carolyn are barrel racers.
Babe was a product of the family’s mixed business of Thoroughbred and Quarter runners. She was out of the stakes-placed Quarter horse mare Ambassadors Babe, a daughter of the Thoroughbred stallion First Ambassador.
Her sire was Burnett Ranches’ World Champion Running Quarter Horse Streakin Six. An AQHA Hall Of Fame stallion, Streakin Six is still one of the all-time leading racehorse sires with champions such as Sixy Chick, Dean Miracle, Six Fortunes, Noblesse Six and Sir Alibi.
Babe started her career on the track in the fall of her second year at Retama Park in San Antonio, Texas. She ran most of her 11 starts on the track as a 3- and 4-year-old. The sorrel streaker finished her racing career at Los Alamitos in southern California under the guidance of Donna McArthur, who with future National Finals Rodeo qualifier Tami (Purcell) Burkland in the irons, won 1997 All-American Futurity winner Corona Cash.
A New World
When Babe was running at “Los Al,” NFR qualifier Danyelle Campbell was successfully plucking her futurity prospects off the track. McArthur just happened to show her a picture of Babe fresh off of a conditioning stint in the swimming pool.
“She was absolutely the most beautiful mare I had ever seen. If you could see her then you’d know exactly why she became the producer she is today. She was just stunning.”
Danyelle Campbell
Campbell had planned on purchasing the mare outright but McArthur told her that they had planned to run her one more time in a claiming race—one where interested parties could buy or “claim” a horse before the start of the race for a set price.
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Campbell’s racetrack connection at Los Al, Adan Farias “claimed” Babe for $4,000. She ended her career with a record of one first, one second and two thirds in 19 starts for earnings of $7,490.
The day of Babe’s last race Campbell actually claimed two horses—Babe and Regain Fame, a Dash Ta Fame gelding that later carried Campbell the BFA World Futurity Reserve Championship. With breeding barrel horses still in its infancy, Campbell had no need to keep Babe since she was already 5 and too old to train for futurities. So, she told her friend Charmayne James about Babe.
James had won her 11th WPRA World Championship aboard Cruisin On Six (“Cruiser”), a gelding by Streakin Six out of the Master Hand (TB) mare Moon Cruisin.
After James took ownership, Babe went to the breeding shed. Her first foal was the Dash Ta Fame mare Famous At Six. James later crossed her on her stallion A Black Feature for her second foal.
In the meantime, Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi was winning her first WPRA World Championship on Sixth Vision (“Stitch”), also by Streakin Six.
Goodbye to Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi’s great mare “Katniss”
On April 1, 2006, Babe transferred from one WPRA World Champion to another and started her journey to becoming an all-time leading barrel horse producer.
“I bought this mare because I loved Stitch so much,” said Tonozzi. “I just called Charmayne and asked her if she had any Streakin Six mares. She said she had one. Her studs were by Streakin Six so she couldn’t really use her.”
Tonozzi bred the mare to Frenchmans Guy the first year but Babe lost the foal at some point in utero.
“I was so excited,” recalled Tonozzi. “I waited all year for this foal and she wasn’t bred! I thought it was the end of the world. I just didn’t know at the time. She was my first broodmare.”
She tried again and got her first of many homebred superstars.
Babe’s Baddies
Babe’s leading money earner is Tonozzi’s latest NFR Round Winner, Babe On The Chase (“Birdie”) with earnings of $472,575, according to Qdata. The 2011 daughter of the late Chasin Firewater got a jump on career earnings with a $115,000 Slot Race victory at the 2015 LG Pro Classic Futurity. She made her pro rodeo debut at San Antonio a few weeks later.
Now ProRodeo winner and multiple-time NFR qualifier Birdie is already carrying on Babe’s legacy as a producer. Her first three foals to the arena—Runnin Racketeer, by Be A Magnolia Runner, Tres Chasin Babe PZ, by Tres Seis, and Seis On The Chase, by Tres Seis, are all money earners. Seis On The Chase, a 2019 stallion, was the third highest seller at the 2022 Pink Buckle Sale, commanding a $160,000 bid, and currently has futurity earnings in excess of $15,500 after recently winning the first round of the Royal Crown Futurity in Buckeye, Arizona.
Ima Famous Babe (“Katniss”), a 2013 daughter of Dash Ta Fame, was Tonozzi’s primary mount until her untimely passing in May of 2022. As a 5-year-old futurity horse, Katniss won the Copper Spring Futurity, won her first pro rodeo and placed at the NFR. She won multiple pro rodeos and was a back-to-back San Angelo Rodeo Champion. Her oldest foal, by Tres Seis, is a 3-year-old this year.
“Now (Babe’s) babies are passing that on, too. Birdie’s babies all look like her and Katniss’s babies look identical to her. I can have a pasture full of yearlings and if you know my horses at all, you can tell which one is a Birdie and which one is a Katniss. It’s amazing how that genetic line copies itself.”
Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi
Blazin Babe Olena
“Anna,” a 2017 mare by Blazin Jetolena, was a futurity horse in 2022. She ran out $175,633 in her first year of competition. Anna won the Blue Collar Breeders Futurity Championship at Ardmore, Oklahoma, was the reserve champion at the Breeder’s Challenge Finale Futurity and third at the Royal Crown Futurity in Waco, Texas. She also picked up her first pro checks at Garden City, Kansas, and Livingston and Dillon, Montana, and nearly made the short round at the Reno Rodeo.
Tonozzi’s first foal out of Babe was the 2008 gelding Ima Super Fly Guy, by Frenchmans Guy. As a 4-year-old, “Super Fly” won the inaugural Diamonds & Dirt Barrel Horse Classic and was one of the top 10 futurity horses in the country in 2012. A year later, the gelding became Babe’s first NFR money earner when he placed in Round 6. Super Fly ran out $130,942 before his unfortunate passing.
Super Fly’s full sister, a 2015 mare named A French Babe (“Elsa”) is a multiple aged event finalist with earnings of $49,764. Elsa helped Tonozzi place at the 2021 Mountain State Circuit Finals Average. She is also a PRCA money-earning head horse.
Other top money earners out of Babe include the late gelding Smoke N The Babes, by Smoke N Sparks with earnings of $38,327; Claire Kalafatic’s This Babe Rocks, a mare by Firewaterontherocks, with earnings of $27,838, and Lisa Wernli’s Babe On The Run, a daughter of Be A Magnolia Runner, with $14,959.
More Babes
In addition to her top winners, Tonozzi has Babe O Licious, a 6-year-old full sister to Elsa; Streaking Is Easy, a broodmare she raised by Dashin Is Easy; broodmare Famous At Six, who produced Tonozzi’s 2023 multiple futurity finalist a Guy With An Alibi, an earner of $16,000 thus far; Teeto, a 2-year-old colt by Triple Vodka; and Shezan American Babe, a yearling filly by her stallion A Guy With Proof. She also has a 4-year-old full sister to Katniss, Babe On The Prowl (“Raya”).
“I love that cross,” said Tonozzi of the pairing of Babe and Dash Ta Fame. “It’s obviously proven itself.”
She and her husband Garrett are trying something new with Babe On The Prowl.
“Garrett is actually going to rope on her,” she said. “He’s going to rope on her and do the 4-year-old futurities and I’m going to do the barrel futurities as a 5-year-old.”
So far, Raya’s earned $6,000 as a head horse after placing in the aggregate of the heading slot and open futurities at the Roping Futurities of America’s event in February.
Tonozzi said it’s just amazing how much she sees Babe in her offspring.
“I think that’s the mark of a true producer,” said Tonozzi. “In every baby, I see her—whether it’s the eye or the head. It’s always in the face. I can see her. I don’t know if there’s any scientific proof for this or not, but after all these years of raising babies out of the same mare, I know the ones that really, really look like her end up being the best ones.
