Trainer: Bob McMeans
Owner: Lawrence Brulotte
Breeder: Lawrence Brulotte Ranches, Inc.
Record: 50-20-6-4
Earnings: $211,782
Foaled April 15, 1975, Flamme had the honor of being the first of five-time (1982-86) leading sire Drum Fire’s many champions and was a member of his first full crop.
Bred and raised at Lawrence Brulotte Ranches Inc. in Yakima, Flamme raced in the name of Lawrence and Barbara Brulotte’s Wampum Stables.
The precocious filly was out of 1970 Spokane Futurity winner Jolly Pandora, by Rameses, who was a half-sister to the stakes-winning full brothers Black Cyclone and Black Tornado. Jolly Pandora’s dam was a half-sister to three-time Longacres stakes winner Ambolero, who ran second in the 1958 Longacres Mile.
Flamme started her race career at Longacres, where she won her second start by five lengths and followed that with an
8 1/4-length victory in the Broderick Memorial. In her fourth start she won the Mercer Girls Handicap and finished second to future Oregon horse of the year Duttons Pride in a six-furlong allowance. Running fourth in the race was future Longacres Derby winner Hoist the Silver. Flamme finished the Longacres meet with a narrow loss to Duttons Pride in the mile Juvenile Championship Stakes and then capped her year by duplicating her dam by winning the Spokane Futurity. Her 4-3-0 record from eight starts and $52,662 earnings earned the Bob McMeans-trained filly her first Washington champion title.
Flamme’s sophomore season – during which she was tested exclusively in stakes – began with a nine-length romp in Longacres’ Seafair Queen Stakes, but through the rest of her season at the Renton track would finish with two seconds, two thirds and three fourths.
In October, she made her first appearance at Yakima Meadows by annexing the Campesinos Handicap by six lengths. That win, coupled with her final race of the year – a track record-setting performance in the Yakima Valley Derby – led her to being named horse of meet.
In 1979, Flamme could only manage one allowance win in her six starts – all at Longacres – but she came back with a vengeance at five to win five stakes in nine tries. She began her year at the spring Yakima Meadows meet with back-to-back wins in the Miss Yakima Handicap and Yakima Mile Stakes, the former by five lengths and the latter – yet another outing against the boys – by a 4 1/2-length margin. The warrior princess then returned to Longacres, where after a third place finish in an allowance, she rolled off three straight stakes wins in the Fashion, Rhododendron and Everett handicaps, before tailing off in her final three starts of the year.
Sent to the breeding shed in 1981, she failed to get in foal to the cover of Table Run, so was returned to the races in 1982 for her longest season yet. From March through mid-December the daughter of Drum Fire started 15 times.
She began her year at Yakima Meadows where she proved that even at six, her will to win was still strong. After taking an allowance and then the Miss Yakima Stakes, Flamme journeyed to Longacres, where in ten outings, she won half – four allowances and the Luella G. Handicap.
At the end of the meet, Flamme traveled to Hollywood Park where she was unplaced in her final three starts of the season, but still gained recognition with her second championship title as Washington’s top older filly or mare.
Flamme finished her six-year career with a fifth and a third against stakes class distaffers in January allowance races at Santa Anita. Her final count was 20-6-4 from 50 starts and her $211,782 in earnings led her to be Drum Fire’s top earner.
As a broodmare, Flamme produced only six foals, with five returning as winners, led by the Meritable gelding Eternal Fire, who won 17 races, placed in three Yakima Meadows stakes and earned $94,284. Her daughter Golly By Jolly, by Laomedonte, was stakes-placed at Yakima and Playfair.
Read the expanded profile in the WASHINGTON THOROUGHBRED MAGAZINE, Fall/Winter 2022, page 164.
