Short answer:
Allies only have a race attribute if it is specifically stated in their text box. Creature cards converted into allies via Ready to his Will/Memories of Old Torture also have a race attribute.
Explanation:
Allies can have a race attribute, although most of them don’t. ICE only published two allies with a race: Great Lord of Goblin-Gate and Great Troll, both appearing as a keyword in the card’s textbox.
Ichabod referenced allies having this attribute in ICE 114:
In fact, Ichabod was not entirely correct with this answer, as there actually are ways for an ally to have a race beyond it being printed in the text box – but because so few allies normally have a race, this implication wasn’t always addressed by ICE as it pertains to other areas of the game. We will attempt to clarify those possibilities here:ICE RULES DIGEST #114
30-07-1998 Author: Craig Ichabod O'Brien Source
[…]
If not, what are the races of all the allies (seems rather important right now).
Allies only have race if it is specifically stated in the text box.
1. COVERT/OVERT STATUS OF A COMPANY
According to the following paragraph from MELE, Orc and Troll allies make a company overt:
Overt and Covert Companies
The text doesn’t specify that the Orc or Troll must be a character, which means that any Orc or Troll ally will also make the company overt. In practical terms, the only two Orc/Troll allies that ICE printed are already included in the published list of allies that make a company overt, but both Ready to His Will and Memories of Old Torture can convert certain creatures into allies, and those allies would thus make their company overt if the converted creature had the Orc or Troll race. Note that both CoE #33 and CoE #40 Q4 previously upheld this interpretation.The text for certain cards distinguish between overt companies and covert companies. Any company that contains a Ringwraith in Fell Rider mode, an Orc, or a Troll is an overt company. Any other company is a covert company.
It’s also important to note the following excerpt from MEWH:
Although this paragraph could be interpreted as indicating that only Orc or Troll characters, and not allies, make a company overt, it doesn’t actually contradict the aforementioned rule from MELE; rather, MEWH’s rules are merely indicating that a company with any Orc or Troll characters is an overt company, but logically that doesn’t mean that a company with an Orc or Troll ally isn’t overt. Also, if ICE intended to overwrite the MELE rule with MEWH, they completely omitted Ringwraiths in Fell Rider mode, further suggesting that overwriting MELE was not the intention here so much as clarifying overt/covert (and hero companies) for Fallen-wizard players. With that said, it’s important to note that, despite this paragraph from MEWH, the MELE rule doesn't contradict it and thus the MELE rule does apply to Fallen-wizard players (i.e. a company with an Orc/Troll ally is overt regardless of who the company belongs to).SPECIAL ORC & TROLL RULES
A company with any Orc or Troll characters is an overt company. In addition, a company with any of the following allies is an overt company: Great Bats, Great Lord of Goblin-gate, Last Child of Ungoliant, Regiment of Black Crows, Two-Headed Troll. Any other company is a hero company.
2. CANCELLING ATTACKS IN CvCC
Certain cards allow the defender to cancel an attack in Company vs. Company Combat, but only if all members of the attacking company belong to a given list of races (e.g. Dark Quarrels and Orc Quarrels). According to MELE:
Since allies count as characters for purposes of combat, all allies in the attacking company must belong to one of the listed races, along with all of the characters. This means that allies with no race in the attacking company would make this attack not cancellable in this fashion.Such a card can be used to cancel an attack from a company only if
each character in the company has one of the race types that the card can cancel.
Note that this digests overturns CoE WEEKLY RULINGS/CLARIFICATIONS 16 Q9, CoE WEEKLY RULINGS/CLARIFICATIONS #16 Q10