His British-born sire Khaled was a winner of England's Coventry, Middle Park, and St. James's Palace Stakes.
Under trainer Mesh Tenney, the colt won the most important race for three-year-olds on the West Coast, the Santa Anita Derby.
Ridden by regular jockey Bill Shoemaker, he then finished twelfth in the Kentucky Derby and for the rest of the year showed little of his old form.
On January 18, 1957, Ellsworth sold Terrang to Texan's Roland Bond and Lawrence S. Pollock, the latter using the nom de course, Poltex Stable.
For his new owners, Terrang's race conditioning was handled by Carl Roles who got him back into top shape and guided him to great success over the next three years.