Since you don’t have the papers, you’re stuck waiting for the JC to get back to you…or you can power through the partial tattoo lookup. It takes a lot of time (unless you are very very lucky) but you should be able to find the tattoo today.
Start here (sign up for a free account if you don’t have one): https://www.registry.jockeyclub.com
Click “Research a Tattoo”
Enter his markings and the letter (which is D)
Start with 00 for the first two numbers
Check each horse that pops up
If you get nothing with 00 for the first two, then you try 01, then 02, then 03…until you find him. The D year has horses through the 48s, but I would expect to find him in the 0s, 1s, or 2s given his DOB. Of course, he could have been registered late (who knows) so may have a higher registration # than his early dob hints at.
This is easier with fairly unique markings. It’s a real PITA with a plain horse.
As I’m sure you can see, if you have ANY part of the tattoo, this become a whole lot easier. If you have pics of the lip and of the horse showing markings, we can take a look. Often it’s easy to suss out the tattoo in pictures when it’s not easy in real life, looking at the horse.
Oh, and before you start investing the time if you want to grind through like this, make SURE you know what markings the horse has. A few white hairs on a heel or a few white hairs on the forehead on an otherwise unmarked leg or head IS a marking. If you call a heel with a few white hairs unmarked and search this way, you won’t find the horse. Markings are everything with this.
@danacat best to just use equineline for pedigrees. That’s actually what’s powering your Aus site 
:yes: