Ralph Todd, owner of The Tin Man, dies at 90

ARCADIA, Calif. – Ralph Todd, who owned the multiple Grade 1 winner The Tin Man as well as the California stakes winners Mama Simba and Oraibi, died in March, his daughter Stacey Nance said Sunday.

A memorial service was held recently in Santa Ynez, Calif. Todd was 90.

Todd, who owned a pipe and supply company based in Buellton, Calif., owned and bred Thoroughbreds for more than 40 years. He also owned a stone import business.

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The Tin Man won 13 of 31 starts and earned $3,663,780 in a seven-year career from 2001-07. He won four Grade 1 races – the 2002 and 2006 Clement Hirsch Turf Championship at Santa Anita, now known as the Grade 2 John Henry Turf Championship; the 2006 Arlington Million at Arlington Park; and the Shoemaker Mile at Hollywood Park in 2007.

The Tin Man was fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Arlington Park in 2002 and at Santa Anita in 2003, and was second in the Group 1 Dubai Duty Free, a $5 million race at Nad Al Sheba Racecourse in Dubai in 2006. Nad Al Sheba was replaced by Meydan Racecourse in 2010.

By Affirmed, The Tin Man was out of Lizzie Rolfe, who was the dam of Mama Simba, a winner of 12 of 42 starts for Todd and his wife, Aury.

Mama Simba, who earned $505,775, won five stakes at Fairplex Park in Pomona from 1990-93. Remarkably, Mama Simba, who was by Mamaison, won the Bangles and Beads Stakes on a Monday in 1991 and returned to action on Friday of the same week to win the Las Madrinas Handicap.

“She was the queen of Pomona,” said Richard Mandella, who trained for the Todds.

The Todds also owned Oraibi, who won Grade 2 Malibu Stakes in 1988, the late season sprint for 3-year-olds. The Malibu is now a Grade 1.

Todd separated from his wife, Aury, in the 2000s. He is survived by his daughter, Stacey.

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