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Ep.62- Andy Golden- Publishing Pioneer- Formerly Of SpeedHorse
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Episode 62 of QH Racing Talk Weekly Podcast features one of the pioneers in QH racing publishing, and that's Andy Golden, formerly of Speedhorse Magazine.
Andy discusses with Greg Thompson about the origins, and early days of Speedhorse Magazine that saw him working tirelessly with his mother OQHRA Hall of Famer Connie Golden to make Speedhorse Magazine one of the top publications in the Quarter Horse racing world.
For Wednesday, May 20th.
SPEAKER_04It's Quarter Horse Racing Talk Weekly. It's the evolution of how the quarter horse racing world is entertained and informed. From the falling barn to the starting gate. It's become the weekly habit for quarter horse racing fans and industry folks. If you aren't listening to this, can you really call yourself much of a quarter horse racing fan? Introducing our host, Greg Thompson and co-host, Bailey Ivy. It's Quarter Horse Racing Talk Weekly.
SPEAKER_07And hello again, everyone.
SPEAKER_16And I'm Bailey Ivy.
SPEAKER_07Bailey, the action is heating up all over the quarter horse racing world. And one of the things that's just blowing me away is that the fact that 2026 is just we're just speeding right through it. Where I mean we're already at the Riadosa trials and uh the Lassie and Laddie and the Sam Houston trials are all this weekend. And even next weekend is the Heritage Place Futurity. Where is the time gone?
SPEAKER_16Absolutely, Greg. This is my favorite time of the year when there's graded stakes every single weekend.
SPEAKER_07And Bailey, one of the other things I want to touch upon is the response that we're getting from this podcast. I can't stress it enough. And this is not an advertisement. This is not just me plugging this podcast, but the most gratifying thing, Bailey, is when I run across the person that I assume is not kind of my atypical listener of this podcast, and I'll make a reference to something, and I'll say, oh, by the way, I I covered that on in one of our podcasts. And they said, Well, I actually listen to your podcast. And so that's the gratifying part. The person that you assume is not listening, and they're actually listening to this podcast.
SPEAKER_16Yes, that happens to me all the time as well.
SPEAKER_07And Bailey, I'm excited about this week's featured guest, and for on several different reasons. First off, it's in our wheelhouse. We're talking about the publications in the quarter horse racing world. And also, I used to be this guy's former employee, and that is Andy Golden, formerly of Speedhorse.
SPEAKER_16Greg, I've heard a lot about Andy, and when I listened to this podcast, I never knew the history and the knowledge that he has to bring in the quarter horse racing world.
SPEAKER_07You know, Bailey doing some research in order to talk at a higher level to Andy about the publications. It sent me down a rabbit hole of sorts to discuss with some people about how people got the information about quarter horse racing prior to the age of the computer or even before fax machines of how did people get their information about what was going on in the quarter horse racing world? And I reached out to people like Walter Merrick's son, Joe Merrick, and Butchwise and Alan Gold of Quarter Racing Record Fame, and of course our in-house expert, David Smith.
SPEAKER_16I also reached out to my grandparents, and they said typically everything was heard by word of mouth.
SPEAKER_07I heard that from several other people as well. So Bailey, take out your pen and paper and start taking notes. I got a little slight history lesson for you, and there may or may not be a pop quiz at the end of it.
SPEAKER_16Whoa, whoa, whoa, Greg. I thought I was already done with college. I can see my degree on the wall right now.
SPEAKER_07Yes, it's like this is an absolute wonderful history lesson. So I I'm I'm serious about the pop quiz. Here we go with a brief history of publications in the quarter horse racing world. We'll start with 1940, that's when the AQHA starts. The Quarter Horse Journal began in 1948, eight years later. And around that time, they had the Quarter Horse Racing Report Yearbook and Register of Merit that was put out by the AQHA, and they also had another publication called The Quarter Horse that was from the National Quarter Horse Breeders Association. And throughout the 50s and the 60s, the AQHA journal only really covered racing in some extent in a column and was not completely devoted to racing. But in 1961, Benny Scott started the Quarter Racing Record, the very first publication devoted strictly to quarter horse racing. And then in 1969, Walt Wigan Sr. left Rio Sedal and established the Quarter Horse Racing World publication and was later acquired by Connie Golden, the mother of our feature guest disquiet, and became Speedhorse Magazine. And then two employees from the Quarter Racing Record, Ben Hudson and Jerry McAdams, left and started Track Magazine in 1976. Then in 1986, the Quarter Horse Journal devoted half of one of the journals that year, for two straight years, to quarter horse racing before becoming a standalone publication called the Quarter Racing Journal in 1988. But don't forget there was also a publication called the Quarter Racing Weekly back in the 1980s that was backed by RD Hubbard and was ran by Brad McKenzie and Bruce Rimbo. So the point to take out of this discussion in the 1980s, which we refer to as the Heydays, and throughout the 90s, there were four full-fledged quarter horse racing magazines covering racing. So if you're a Stallion farm today in the current market and you think that Stallion E search track and speedhorse call too much, think of what you would have gone through in the 1980s with all four of those publications trying to get a hold of you. And Bailey, one last thing to top off that history lesson, do you know what happened in 2005?
SPEAKER_16Stalin ESearch changed the game.
SPEAKER_07Absolutely. David Smith came and changed absolutely the way people get information about quarter horse racing. So are you ready for the quiz?
SPEAKER_16Can you say that all over again?
SPEAKER_07Oh, absolutely, Bailey. I I relish in the fact that when you actually do take the time to listen to me.
SPEAKER_16You do notice that I'm asking you to repeat yourself, right?
SPEAKER_07Well, we'll be right back after these words from our sponsor and after I give Bailey that pop quiz I discussed earlier.
SPEAKER_16I must have not been listening, Greg.
SPEAKER_18And we'll be right back after these words.
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SPEAKER_17Alright, back to the show.
SPEAKER_07Alright, we're back here on Quarter Horse Racing Talk Weekly, ready to jump into our featured guest this week, and it's Andy Golden. And as mentioned in the intro, Andy Golden is the son of Connie Golden, who acquired Speedhorse magazine from the gentleman she used to be married to, Walt Wiggins Sr., who started Quarter Racing World when he left Riadosa Downs as the media director. And under Andy and Connie's tutelage, Speedhorse magazine became one of the premier magazines amongst a group of four throughout the 80s, the 90s, and into the 2000s, with Andy Golden being one of the driving forces behind the magazine, with his skills at articles, putting the magazine together, and this interview kind of gives an in-depth look and discussion about what it used to be like to put out a magazine prior to the internet and prior to the computer age, as well as some of the legends he was able to point his camera towards, interview, as well as developer relationships to make Speedhorse Magazine one of the premier magazines in the industry. I actually went to work for Andy Golden, who hired me to come to Speedhorse Magazine for a brief stint prior to him selling the magazine off, and I was so happy to be able to get my former employer here on the phone to talk to me about his career in Quarterhorse Racing publications. Alright, on the phone with former Speedhorse owner Andy Golden. Andy, thanks so much for getting here on Quarter Horse Racing Talk Podcast. I appreciate the time, Greg. Andy, kind of give me the background where how Speedhorse came to be and how uh we'll get to the point where your mother acquired Speedhorse and all, and and then you took it into the prominence that we we knew it. And so kind of get started with how did Speedhorse come to be.
SPEAKER_08Speedhorse was originally founded by Walt Wiggins. It's called Quarter Racing World. Then my mother it met Walt in about 1957 or 58 in Brazil, and that is where I was born. My dad was with the Associated Press and they struck up a friendship. And then later on it turned into something more serious in about '77, and they were married. And we moved from my mother moved from Albuquerque to Norman, Oklahoma, where the magazine was located. The marriage didn't last very long. And Walt really didn't want to keep the magazine.
SPEAKER_09Right.
SPEAKER_08And there there was some property that mother and Walt owned together in Roswell. And Mother traded it for the portion of Speedhorse, which mother had changed the name to. The the magazine was basically broke. It owed $250,000 to a bank in Roswell. And Mother turned it around within a couple years.
SPEAKER_07With where was her background in court horse racing? I mean, is it just something that she learned to write about and learned to you know, we all have to start somewhere. It's not something we're taught in school and all, but where did where did the I guess the origins of her knowing about court horse racing to to put out such a magazine?
SPEAKER_08It was zero. Mother owned a real estate company in Albuquerque at one time, and she was uh both my parents were entrepreneurs. And my my mother was doing very well in real estate. Mother just had the ability to take a business and make it better, regardless of what field it was in. And she turned speed horse from a broke company to the most prestigious magazine in the quarter horse industry.
SPEAKER_07Now, at that time, Andy, with you you had track magazine, you had uh quarter racing record. No, no, quarter racing record was the first publication.
SPEAKER_08And then Ben and Jerry McAdams, to my knowledge, started out working for Benny at on quarter racing record. And then they started track. And at that time we were the you know failing publication and those two were kind of going at it. And mother said we just always snuck in and outperformed it.
SPEAKER_07Andy, with that during that period of time, you guys were a weekly. I mean, even when I came to work for you that that short period of time, towards the tail end right before you had sold Speedhorse, which we're getting way ahead of ourselves, it was a weekly publication throughout the time when when Connie had it and and you actually were rolling with the magazine, it was has it always been a weekly publication back then? No.
SPEAKER_08I think that started sometime in the early eighties or maybe the seventies maybe seventies. Late seventies. Mother started that on a weekly for a weekly, and we did a weekly, we had the magazine and then the weekly publication. And at one time it was bi-monthly. And of course we had the Thoroughbred Times too, which is bi-monthly also, and we sold that to a company in 1981 in Kentucky. But we started the Thoroughbred Times.
SPEAKER_07Wow. I was unaware of that. Uh Thoroughbred Times uh for the listeners I it's actually no longer in existence right at the moment. But at one point in time through the two thousands, it was a large publication and it was rivaled the Blood Horse magazine, and it was quite quite a quite a publication, so to say. I d had no idea that Connie and you had started that.
SPEAKER_08Actually pasted it up. That's what I mean, actually stayed up late at night in the old school way you had to put it all, you know, get it ready to go to press. That took a lot of labor to get that done, and that's what I was doing.
SPEAKER_07Andy, talk about that. You know, th I'll give the listener the modern day version of what happens with a a journalist, especially in a in a print world. You got photographers that have these high dollar cameras and they're all multiple of them that are sitting in the finish line or in the paddock and they're taking the pictures, and they're actually looking at their viewfinder, making sure that they're in focus, make sure they're getting that shot. Or when the horse goes past the wire in a big race in a big grade one, they're once the horses go by and they take their shots after they've they've taken about I guess 60 frames of just holding down the trigger and just taking the shot as the horse gets closer to the finish line and goes past it, but they're always looking in their viewfinder. Tell us back in the day what it was like. I mean, you you I'm assuming you would have to go travel all the way back from say if you were in Riadoso to get all the way back to Oklahoma, and you wouldn't have known if you were right on the money in focus or not until you actually developed those pictures.
SPEAKER_08You're absolutely right. And I'd I had my own enlarger. I'd get there with a loop and you you I'd develop the film. It was mostly black and white. And I would take it and I would look at it and see which ones were in focus, and then I'd print them. And it was very laborious. And then, you know, that then you had to change it into a screen in order to print it into a a format for a magazine. You know, speed horse in the old days had thirty or forty people working there. And when you were there, Greg, you know, four, five, six, seven people could do it. And it was, I think we had ten or eleven when you were there. And it it was a much different animal back then. It was very took a long time to do it. A lot of bells and whistles.
SPEAKER_07Not only that, it was also the in for information like after an event, you didn't have Equibase, you didn't have equine line. How would you back in the day, prior to the World Wide Web, as well as other you know, faxes and whatever, how did you guys get results? How did you get statistics? How did you get sales results from some of these big sales?
SPEAKER_08Well, back in the old days, all the tracks sent us their information. And that's you know, and everybody was looking at our speed horse racing report because we had all the races. We would put 'em in by date. It's the only place they could get 'em, basically. And so the you know, these people were religiously following it, and we would get all the stuff from all our tracks running, put it into the magazine, and then we would print it and people would look at it. And it was state of the art back then when you said there were no computers.
SPEAKER_07When you said racetracks would send you it, you're talking about mail.
SPEAKER_08They would put it in the mail and say, That's right, ma that's right. They mail, and it was a pain because sometimes they you wouldn't get it and you'd have to call them back. And and the staff was quite large because there were so many parts to doing a magazine. It's so easy nowadays compared to what it was back then.
SPEAKER_07And you're also talking about the same as a stallion. If you d in order to promote a stallion or to buy an advertisement for a stallion in an old speedhorse magazine or track, whoever, a photographer would have to go out and shoot it, or or somebody would hire a photographer and they would have to mail you the pictures.
SPEAKER_08That is correct. Now I came to the magazine as a professional photographer. I went to cla I did it in university and then I did it also I went to schools to learn how to take pictures of equine. It was called Daryl Daryl Dickinson was a guy and he was in Colorado. And I went to his school to learn how to take pictures. And I was I considered myself at the time of all the magazines, I was the only professional photographer. I mean, my photos were were used in most of the other magazines of the stallions. And so I'd travel all over. I matter of fact, I'd be gone. If the weather wasn't good, I'd have to stay there for a while. One time I was at West Texas Studs for three days because the weather was bad, waiting for it to clear to take pictures of their stallions and it then I'd hustle back and get them printed and and put them in the magazine.
SPEAKER_07But you would also, as mentioned, you some of your shots or a lot of your shots would wind up in the other publications. That would also have to be something done through mail. Is that you'd put a develop a picture, make a copy of it, and send that copy over to whoever, right?
SPEAKER_08You would do that, and then back in the old days in printing, nowadays in your computer, you know, you can just download the photo, you can send it to me, and I can print it. Right. In the old days you couldn't do that. You had to go through a system called a separation. And it separated the blue, the yellow, the red, and the black. It was four pieces of film. And when they printed it, they had to they printed it like that. That that's how printing was done, those same colors. And we'd we'd have five cabinets full of these separations, and you could not change the size of them. So if you wanted one that was three by four inches, you couldn't enlarge it. You had to get a new separation a larger size, and that could cost hundreds of dollars. It could cost two hundred dollars. And you had you treated them like gold, because if they were scratched, they were no good anymore.
SPEAKER_07The meticulous amount of time and effort and and as well as you know, kind of the what we view now as the barbaric way of doing it, of through the mail and and waiting. You know, it it the head spins, Andy, of the production of being able to produce those magazines like y'all did back then, as oppos as opposed to the modern day, it's just the head spins to think about what obstacles you'll had. It's as an example, there was no Roberts communication where you could sit and watch a race, or you you know, unless you were sent information from the racetrack, where would you get the results for something from I I know you were in Oklahoma, so you're probably at Blue Ribbon Downs, but what about over in Colorado? Or what about over in Farmington, California? I I can just keep going on and on. And you're kind of at mercy of waiting for these racetracks to get on the either on the phone or I I guess when the fax machine really became apparent, Andy, you I guess that would be another way of making the process faster.
SPEAKER_08The fax machine was the greatest I remember when we got it, because when we used that to send out ads for approval, we'd send it out by FedEx. Because you design the ad, you'd be talking to people over the phone, you couldn't even tell 'em, you could describe what it looked like. But you'd end up FedExing it out. We did it every single day. And then the fax machine came along and you talk about that was a game changer for us because I could send an ad for approval immediately. Now they may have to go Kinko's or uh FedEx or somewhere to look at it or pick it up, because they may not have a fax machine. But that was a game changer for us, is when the fax machine there's been several game changers. Computers was another one. I mean, the old way you used to do magazines, you had typesetting machines and they were about a hundred thousand, fifty to a hundred thousand dollars each. We had three of them. When the stories were written, they had to be typed in, the sizes of the type had to be selected by the paste up person. The person typed it in, gave it back to us, and then we was pasted up with wax on a on a format and then sent to the printer. It was very complicated and time consuming.
SPEAKER_07It sounds extremely time consuming.
SPEAKER_18And we'll be right back after these words.
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SPEAKER_07Your mother was great at also forming relationships with some of the top people in our industry, as you mentioned before. For that your mother was very friendly with Walter Merrick and Melan Hadley and and just several of the people. What was the key to really the success of when you guys really hit your stride at Speedhorse? What were some of those attributes or or those relationships that really made this thing sore for you guys? Well, mother, like you said, mother was friends with these people.
SPEAKER_08They they saw this lady. It's a it you know, the horse business is kind of a man's world, especially back then, maybe not so now, but and these people were a lot they knew Mother was smart, like Hatley. I mean, mother wrote the speech for the induction of Walter Merrick into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame for Melvin Hatley. She did quite a few things for Melvin Hatley. And when Walter, when he got EasyJet back and he was all choked up, it was you never saw Walter get too emotional. But he got emotional about Easy Jet. He loved that horse. And he turned to my mother and said, Connie, you tell him. Because he she couldn't speak at that moment. And I remember, you know, it she had good relationships. You know, she knew A. B. Green. He called her little lady once, said, You need anything done, just call me. And A. B. Green, I think he was uh he was a very interesting character. He owned Go Mango and at one time, and he was uh he was a big uh what do you call it? He he did asphalt, he was a big road guy. I guess that's where he made his bucks, and he was down in Purcell. But back then, Greg, the industry was had a whole different complexion. It was just different. I mean, it was uh when I got in in 79, it was hustling and going, and people just it wasn't it was a business, but in my eyes, these people just loved horses. I mean, not that they don't now, but it was different. To me, it was is different. These it was not the money-based deal that it is now.
SPEAKER_07Andy, you had seen several different economic trends and and you know, referring to before the when the oil was booming and then of course when the oil was crashing, some of those events that you went through and you were obviously making your living off of selling advertisement to these folks that are in the horse industry, you had mentioned one of the pivotal moments in the industry that kind of stood out to you of that really kind of changed everything. Uh you you even call it, maybe call it the depression of court horse racing. Kind of explain to the listener what you were talking about.
SPEAKER_08Well, when Penn Square Bank went under back in, I can't remember the exact date, 84, 85, it just sent a tsunami wave around the industry.
SPEAKER_07In Penn Square Square, you're talking around right there in Oklahoma City, right down from uh Remington Parcus.
SPEAKER_08Right. And it a lot of their banks went under. I'm in Norman. There's only one bank that survived in in Norman. Wow. Every other one went went out of uh went out of business there. And we ended up having a loan with the FDIC and ended up paying it off. Matter of fact, I think that's one of our greatest accomplishments is that we didn't take bankruptcy. We were told to. And mother went without a salary a couple years, I didn't make much, and we paid off everything, and it took till about 88 for us to start coming out of it.
SPEAKER_07But why why did we see these banks crash?
SPEAKER_08Well, that's something. I mean, the oil business for one thing. I mean, I think they're all you know, they were the banks were like one bank in Norman, they were heavily loaned, they heavily loaned out on oil. And oil people, you know, they had loans that just weren't couldn't get paid back on. There were a lot of people that went broke in the horse industry. There were people that were worth hundreds of millions of dollars, I think one in Houston, that lost almost everything because he couldn't satisfy the the note anymore. And he owned one of he owned some of the big, uh, biggest stylions in the industry. And, you know, it was just a very tough time. We took about four million in bankruptcies from people. So we just barely made it. And I consider that probably our accomplishment because the rest of the country was in a recession. I think the horse industry was in a depression. Very tough back then.
SPEAKER_07During that period of time, Andy, you mentioned that you high level on the photography wise, that also means that you were pointing that camera of yours towards some of the great legends of the sport. I mean, you probably have a a mile-long list of some of the great ones that you shot, but what are some of the one the great ones that you had photographed and that stand out in your mind?
SPEAKER_08Well, I did Dash for Cash, and it was a funny story. It wasn't funny at the time for me. I went down to Phillips Ranch, and Dash for Cash had a tendency to hold his head really low, and we needed it up a little bit. So the guy popped it, and Dash for Cash went all stood straight up, however tall he could be, 12 feet, and fell over right backwards. And he laid there for a minute. And people came running from all over the ranch. I'm saying, I'm gonna be known for the guy that killed Dash for Cash. And I mean, it was oh, and then I had to come back and take more stallion photos later. I felt after lunch, I felt like I was I wish I'd been in a hole or something. That was he was alright after that. I've done I've done Moonlark, I did Mr. Alpner, I did Eastex, of course. You know, I've taken thousands of Stallion pictures of gone. One of the other things I took Master Hand and I took Kipke's charger the same day or the next day. Master Hand was on the cover of the was to be on the cover of the Stalin Register. But what I did, because they're both black horses, I got them mixed up. What was on the cover was Kippy's charger instead of Master Hand. And uh mother, I go in the office and she says, Andy, what's the hine is this? It's that masterhand. She said, What stein is this? Kippy's charger. You know, Dr. Buller that had Kifty's Charger, and then you had Gail Cooper that had masterhand. And they two were arguing what horse was what. But Kifty's Charger kind of had a little bit of an underbite or overbike. Anyway, it's a beautiful picture of Kifty's Charger. And it was a beautiful picture of Masterhand, but I wish I'd run the the squared up one of him three-quarter front, then the headshot of Kifty's Charger. So that was a total mess up on my part. And pretty photographers don't like to do that. That was a really uh down part for a few days.
SPEAKER_09Yes.
SPEAKER_07What what was it about Dashracash when you finally did get him to stand up and he was okay and got to shoot him? You know, he's legend of the sport, and what what stands out to you about why he was that that individual? Or is it was he just I I've shot several stallions before and several of them stick out in my mind of there are absolute Adonis sculptures of of physique and everything to go along with it. What was it about Dash for Cash or or maybe another uh stallion that you've mentioned here? Which one stands out as like the Adonis? My favorite horse was EasyJet.
SPEAKER_08Okay. I just grew up liking him, you know, when I got into the business. But Dash for Cash, you know, it was the two horses. Dash for Cash and EasyJet were the battle for the breeding at that point. And Dash for Cash obviously came out on top. But Dash for Cash was he was just a well-built horse, smart. You know, I would move his feet when I took his picture. He wasn't a mean horse at all. He was just a very intelligent-looking horse and and was built really well. And you could see it now, he's EasyJet, unfortunately, you know, they syndicated him for around $600,000 a share. And this was done, oh, I don't know, in the early 80s or somewhere like that. And at $600,000 a share, and I can't remember any shares they sold. You could never get your money out of him in selling babies. And the the syndication, there was a guy that died in a plane crash, I think his name was Brown Badget. He was involved in some way, but this whole deal fell apart. And Easyjet was standing at Winna Suerte Ranch at the time. You know, Walter took back the syndication and he lost a little bit of power behind him, but he was a great horse. He was, you know, he's one of my favorites.
SPEAKER_07You came on the scene in '79, so therefore you were also there in Riyadoza during the Triple Crown run of special effort in 81, which is always a special story that if I almost never let somebody get out of the conversation, Andy. If they were there, they're going to tell me about it. So I haven't never heard your version of it. So what is what pulls in the mind from the 81 run of Special Effort through the Triple Crown?
SPEAKER_08The first one I did was Moon Arc. And then I went the course and did 80 and then 81. As a photographer for the magazine, you want to take pictures of all the horses before the race. And I remember going to Johnny Goodman's place, and they were wired as tight as you could be. You felt danger there. I mean, literally. It was, I mean, you know, I want to get the hell out of there. I mean, it it it was, and you know, I never had a bad word with Johnny or or anything, but it was really serious back then. Most, most, uh, most of them, you get to know the horses. Like Moonlock, I was gonna go touch him and and Jack Brooks, I'm getting ready to touch him. He'd say, Andy, he'll he'll bite the shit out of you. You know, I was getting ready to do that. And then I remember O Sejwana, they turned around and they gave him beer, gave her beer to drink. It was, you know, you got to know all these horses, and you could see sometimes you could pick who was gonna win. It was really interesting because you you get to see the horses. Special Effort was a great horse, and we all know, we know his breeding from what you know your podcast with Johnny Goodman, I think, said be, you know, what he was, what his breeding was, or that he what he wasn't, more or less. And uh he was a sure enough great racehorse. You know, what would he what kind of money would he have made in this time? I don't know. He he was really great racehorse. Of course, I have the favorites that I liked, and uh, you know, one of mine always was EasterX. And I I just because Easter X was the leading money earner at the time, and a lot of people don't know the story, he laid over and I don't know where it was, but they put him in a uh not a very good stall, and the metal gate fell on his leg and cut him all the way up from his groin to his to his hock almost. And he sat there and they had done weld that off of him. And it really, at that point, he only earned about eighty thousand dollars after that. But Eastex, I mean, he could have earned a lot more. He was just, I got to know him real well because he was a I was around him for 20 years at my farm. And he was a fighter, aggressive and a fighter, but also a kind horse.
SPEAKER_07Andy, I'm gonna lob this one up and give you the alley-oop. The story goes that Dr. Hull had owned East Tex during his racing career, winning the All-American Futurity with James MacArthur, and then it got to the point where he was it was sold to Mexico to go to the match races, and it was sold for a relatively small amount of money. So actually, I'm teeing this one up for you, Andy, so take it from there.
SPEAKER_08He was sold for $4,000. I mean, Eastex saved Hall. Hall been in financial trouble, and he saved him and from, I guess, financial disaster. And it uh Hall, in my personal opinion, just not a good example of a good horseman. That horse should have stayed at his place and retired there, but Hall sold him for $4,000. We ended up having to give $10,000 back for him.
SPEAKER_07How did you even know that he was available to be sold back, Andy?
SPEAKER_08Kenneth Winters actually got the deal done. We found out what he had done, and we just thought, this is horrible. He was a leading money earner. Here was a leading money earner. He was the representative of the quarter horse racing world, and he was sold for $4,000. He looked like a million bucks. He was 12 years old when I got him back, and he looked like a million bucks. They obviously had him an equipoise or something because he was trying to, he thought he was a stallion.
SPEAKER_07And you you and Connie had uh uh came together and uh actually reached out to some other people in the industry to pull the money in order to get him back and get money to be able to take care of him for the rest of his life there.
SPEAKER_08A lot of people gave money, Robert Gentry, I think Bob Moore made Bob Moore Farme had to give money. I know Jerry Windham gave money. It was ten thousand, some people gave a thousand, some, and then we got him back, and and literally, you know, that was it was nice of them. We c we just wanted to get everybody behind it, really. And then we took care of him, and I paid, nobody else paid the care of him, I paid the care of him, and then when I sold my farm, the old D. Wan Lucas farm, then I moved him over to D.Rapers and I paid for the care there.
SPEAKER_18And we'll be right back after these words.
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SPEAKER_13All right, back to the podcast.
SPEAKER_07Andy, when I first met you, you were right at the tail end of of that acquisition of you owned Wayne Lucas's estate or actually his farm that he had there in Norman. How did you acquire that?
SPEAKER_08Well, I knew Melvin Hatley's and D. Wayne Lucas were partners. Obviously, D. Wayne Lucas was a great trainer. Melvin was more of the businessman, and they were working together. David Burge was a right-hand man for Melvin Hatley. And they separated and Burridge ended up going with Lucas. So I knew was coming to be auctioned off. And so therefore, I just said, I'll just go take a look at it. I had a check to buy sweatshirts to have our logos put on. And I go there to the farm and then I drive away and I said, I don't know, I want to go watch it. So I go there and I end up buying it with that check. Mother knows nothing about it. And I write the check for $50,000. I didn't have any, you know, and we start getting calls. She gets calls before it's even done, before she knows from me, from like people wanting to know what we're doing with D. Wayne Lucas' farm. But there were more high-dollar horses that went through that farm than probably anywhere else because he had uh that was its headquarters, and then he had three other satellite farms over there, which where Betty and Betty Raper is now is one of them. And then two down in Lexington, which I own one of them right now with Stacy Charrett. And the one I own used to be D. Rapers, and that's where EasyJet first stood. I mean, stood when he was with D. Raper.
SPEAKER_07Yes, with him being such a nationally prominent trainer at uh during the time that you know I wasn't around when he was actually rolling as a quarter horse trainer, and of course he converted, famously converted over to Thoroughbreds in the early 80s. But of him actually having such a prominence there in Norman, Oklahoma, as well as being one of the original owners of Heritage Place, one of the the multi-partnerships that began Heritage Place, he was all involved. It's always bizarre to me, Andy, that he was so much involved, I guess. He was a salesman.
SPEAKER_08I mean, D. Wayne Lucas, you there aren't many people is is that can talk like he does and and talk with authority. And he was very interesting to talk to. Where Melvin Hatley, you could hardly get a word out of him, just like Walt Merrick, Walter Merrick. Walter Merrick, the only time I ever saw him emotional was about Easy Chet. Yeah, Heritage Place, mother had involvement in that too. All those kiosks that in the center were her idea because and came up with that idea. We we did she did a lot with Melvin Hatley then. Of course, Melvin Hatley was a driving force, so were, you know, quite a few other people, Robert Gentry. But back then it was really Walter Merrick was an owner. There was quite a few of them back then.
SPEAKER_07Andy, going through the what I you know, if you had to label it, I mean the like the the heyday of even though you guys were going through some of the oil crunches during that period of time, as it pertains to quarter horse racing, is the late 70s throughout the maybe the early part to the mid parts of the eighties, it's always seems like seems like it was a great time. So kind of take the listener on what uh if that was the heyday as it pertains to what we've heard, was it the heyday for you? When and if so, kind of explain what it was like to be in the quarter horse industry during that period of time. There was a lot of excitement.
SPEAKER_08People were really excited. And, you know, of course, we didn't it we didn't have paramutual then, we didn't have gambling. Of course, there was gambling always going on. You'd see you'd see the bookies and stuff. You know, you had Apache Downs, you had Stroud, you had Blue Ribbon. You you you had you you didn't have any Class One tracks. You didn't have any in Texas either. The business was very exciting, and you just felt it. You felt the people. They they loved the horses, they loved fast horses, they loved to watch them race. They took a lot of pride in it. It w it was uh it was always been a business, obviously, but it was a it was in their blood. It was really in their blood, these people. You get you got to talk to them about their horses, they were it just was a very interesting time. And and back in 80, we had, you know, probably one of our largest Stein registers, and then of course the I think then you had Penn Square and it changed ever it changed everything. I mean the the banking system changed everything. But it was a it was a great time. There were more people at Heritage Place, I remember. You couldn't you couldn't walk around almost. It was just unbelievable.
SPEAKER_07So Andy, stay in that the heyday, talk about some of those all American futurities that you were able to witness and and cover and you were there right along the rail with your camera pointed at. Talk about some of the ones that stand out through you throughout your time as being there at Speedhorse.
SPEAKER_08Well, you know, of course I loved Ronus Ryan. He was a very interesting horse. I was there when he ran his race. Of course, East X, I was there when he when he won the race. And special effort, you know, I who could ever you you brought special effort earlier, who could ever forget something like that? You know, it's so hard. Greg, it's been so long ago. I can remember watching on TV the new ones, but those old ones when I photographed, it's hard to, it, it's hard to even I'd have to look at some names. If I looked at the names, then I'd say, oh yeah, yeah, I remember that. I remember but the interest you say the changing industry. I remember when I got in in '79, you went to the Riyadoso Select or All American Sale. You saw Linda Blair there, the one that she was dating, I think, Cash Ash Muson, and she was the one from The Exorcist. You saw Lauren Green there. Of course, Audie Murphy had been before that. They had they had a lot of movie stars, and it was the chick thing to do is be in the horse industry. And it was really poppin'. You know, and and Don Piner was involved. David Smith started working for us and then went to Don Piner. He was an ultimate salesman. I mean, he did a lot of, he was involved in special effort dealings and pie in the sky with the Ursuls in some way. He was um, and this was right before Pen Square went down.
SPEAKER_07You were also involved in quite a few of the horse deals before you you've you've definitely played your hand as an agent over the years as well, to talk about some of those experiences of in in it with an agent's life, or I guess the you're you got way more dry runs than you actually have success stories. So would any of them stand out, Andy?
SPEAKER_08Yeah, well, I got to be good friends. Of course, I was friends with Walter. Not good friends with him, but enough that you know I knew him well. I knew his family well. I mean, I knew Lenny and Joe and and Buddy Southers. I dealt with him. And Bill Allen, I got to know him. He was he's the man that did all the oil Valdez cleanup in Alaska. Mike Pole, which is a friend of mine, attorney, and we did a deal once with George Alban, that was one of the guys that got in trouble for the banking business, and he had to sell his horses. So they called me up and asked me to do a deal. So I had a deal. Done with Bill Allen, Walter Merrick, and it was for about 80 horses. I can't I could be wrong on this, but included Sir Alibi, a bunch of yearlings, um Peacefully, which was a thoroughbred mare that produced the Kentucky Derby winner. Had a deal done for two million dollars. And I asked Mike Paul, say, Mike, do I need to go down there for this? No, no, it'll be fine. So I get a call, and Mike said, the deal's off. Said, What? Yeah, George Alban was derogatory toward Walter Merrick. And he something about he didn't say one of the yearlings was included in the deal. So the the deal, I saw a two million dollar deal just end in an instant. I ended up selling one horse for a hundred thousand. And I wish Walter and Bill had bought it because they would have made a ton of money. There was really, really a good deal. And I'd been involved in quite a few other horse sales. The thing that concerned me was being in the magazine business. And I thought it kind of had a maybe it wasn't a good deal to be in the sales. And and I so I kind of just bowed out of it. I liked it. I sold several to Joe Kirk Fulton, sold uh Paul Travis's horses. I mean, I did quite a quite a bit of selling. I just decided I didn't want to do it anymore because because I thought there was a conflict. But we did, I will tell you an interesting story though. We no this is the first time I'm telling this. Nobody'll know, but it's not I'm long. Always said I would not compete against anybody. I didn't want to own a stallion. Well, we ended up owning special show in a blind trust. Mother owned him. Even the ranch place, Jonas and Ranch, didn't know that we owned him. He ran through our attorney in Oklahoma City, Terry Tippins. And Fred Stanley once called me and asked, Do you own special show? I said, No. And that was an interesting story. And the other interesting story is Mike Pole called me up one time and said, Andy, those my partners on PYC want to sell PYC. I said, Mike, I don't know. They want to sell half of them. And I said, Well, this is before he he ran into Texas classic. This was about two weeks before. And I said, Mike, I don't know, let me think about it because you know I I don't like the conflict. Well, he I talked to him the next day, he said, Well, I got it taken care of. I said, Well, Mike, I don't care if you I hope you Mike's a good friend of mine. I said, I hope you win all the money in the world. I didn't do it, and you know how much that money cost me. That probably cost me $10 million for a hundred thousand dollars. That was but that's all right. It was an interesting thing. And PYC, we all know what you know. He ended up selling him to the Reliance Ranch and big portion of him.
SPEAKER_18And anyway, great horse too. Yes. And we'll be right back after these words.
SPEAKER_07It's staggering just how many grade one winners and champions come out of the Heritage Place Yearlink Stell every year, and how you, the buyer, get a chance to be one of those people, only one of those champions. This year, September 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th, there in Oklahoma City is when the Heritage Place Quarterhorse Yearlink Cell takes place. So reserve your hotels now, and we'll see you in Oklahoma City at Heritage Place, the place where champions are sold.
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SPEAKER_13All right, back to the podcast.
SPEAKER_07Andy, one of the things throughout that career, through especially through the eighties and into the nineties, uh especially you mentioning Moonlark, pretty much got to see most of Jack Brooks's success as it pertains to being on the mountain. We don't have anything that's parallel to that in the quarter horse racing world since then, not even anywhere close to that. So describe to the listener what it was like of I almost would say it's the Jack Brooks dominance that was there on the mountain.
SPEAKER_08I think you won seven All-Americans. I can't remember because it just popped in my head. He was a gentleman. But a fist fight, I but he was he was always just a a really stand-up nice guy, and he was a good trainer. And I remember somebody telling me that he had for doing the blistering on the horses, the he had a formula that he wouldn't give out to anybody else for putting the, I guess, the blistering on the legs. And he knew it. And he he was just but he was a statesman. I mean, Jack Brooks was somebody that could go eat with the Queen. That that's the kind of guy he was. I mean, just a nice guy, and he had super horses. Him and Jackie Martin, they were like a team. I mean, they were a team. And you know, he always had to press shirts, tight pants, and look like a real cowboy. You know, he was he was a real deal. But I always when I see him, I'm always fond of him because he he just he was somebody you could say was a great person to stand up in front of the industry. He was a statesman.
SPEAKER_07Just always seemed to always carry himself with class. Andy, uh as it pertains to the evolving of the horse industry, I guess what is it that you're seeing you you you've you're also a member of the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Racing Association as one of the board members.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_07And you're on that as as well as you've you've kind of uh kept your I guess your your fingers in the pot of uh at least knowing what's going on and how the industry's going. But you've dating all the way back to the late 70s and all, you've you've had a first really a front row seat on how the industry is in trends wise of how they go. What is it you're seeing with the industry of what's the difference or similarities between what's currently going as versus what it was like in the eighties? Or maybe there's it's just absolutely polar polar opposite.
SPEAKER_08It was a different time because it it it just a different time. I I what's going on in the industry right now is I mean, you've got the monetary, it's it's much more expensive to raise a horse, to own a horse, to breed a horse. You know, vet vets are more expensive. Everything is more expensive in the business, I think, than what it used to be. And the biggest problem that we have in the you know, right now is is a drug issue we've had is one of the biggest problems that we're having right now. Because there are a lot of people that are getting out of business because they feel they can't compete. You think about it. Texas had the largest number of horses, they probably still do in the in the country. You had in Oklahoma, you had near the Purcell area, they called it the ho the heart of the horse country. I mean, you could go in one square mile where I mean there were more stallion farms. You had A. B. Green, you had you Frank Merrill. You you just had you had Ridgeley Farm, which was Butch and Whitchwise and uh Whitman. I mean, they just won after another, and they all they all basically went away. I mean, and that's with the we don't have the same diversification that we had back then. The industry the industry uh needs new blood. And you know, some of the young, you know, it's it's still kind of a you don't see a young crowd, you see more of an older crowd, you know, ownerships and things like that. There are young people. Louisiana's an interesting case because it's in their blood. You know, I have a lot of friends down Roboshows, and I keep tabs on them through Stan ESearch. I mean, uh when they win races and what they're doing, and I watch your podcasts, I watch your videos, and it it keeps me you know abreast of what's going on.
SPEAKER_07Andy, was there a period of time that that you guys felt throughout that and I'm talking about as the industry through, say, even through the the late eighties and the nineties, and and you know, you like I mentioned, you had the oil crunches and and the changing of the guard, so to say, from the some of the old to the new. Was there ever what you that sentence that you just uttered that we need new blood in this industry? Surely that's something that's been uttered even back in the eighties, late eighties and throughout the nineties or into the two thousands and all. Was there a period of time where you felt the you felt that was also poignant at this point in the industry back in the day? And if if so, what did the industry do? How did they attract it? And you know, maybe it's something that we could parallel into what we're going to try to do to attract new folks into the industry currently.
SPEAKER_08Well, the oil business, oil people had a lot of disposable income. And a lot of them were heavily involved in the horse industry. And when the oil business went bust, it really took a lot of them out. I mean, I knew several people that just, you know, lost it all and they're gone. Not only that, they had a foundation of these people in the oil business, and they had a foundational cattle business, horse business, and it was all kind of building a foundation on one of another on another. Nowadays you get a doctor that gets in the business, or you get some like a friend of mine, a lawyer, he likes, he wants to run some horses, but that's not the foundation. They just want to run horses. I don't know what the answer is. You you just have to have a big pool. And I don't know what the answer is. I I really don't. I think about it all the time. And you know, although I'm not in a business anymore other than the trophy business, I I care deeply about the horse business, and I want it to thrive, and I want it to be fair for the people and the horses, and that we should be a quality attraction for people to come in to watch them at the races and want to be involved in, yes. Yeah, that's right. You know, I've seen this for a long time, and I got to watch it from the sidelines, and I see people that are very, very rich getting into the business, and then they get out. Seen it many, many times. And in some cases, they've been, I know a couple cases where agents have gotten to them a little too much and they get embarrassed and they get out. I had a couple cases like that I knew about. And it's just hard to get people in the business sometime unless a friend brings them in, or unless you have a person that's, you know, like in my case, I have a lawyer friend. Let's run a horse sketch. Okay, let's run a horse, and that's what we're gonna do next year. You know, it's just a different time.
SPEAKER_07Andy, during your period of time at Speedhorse, you were very innovative. Several things happened. You have introduced the speedhorse futurities and the derbies. Also, you had a thing called speed lines.
SPEAKER_08And that was what you have in the AQHA today is what we were doing way back when. And it darn near broke us. But and we took it down in about eighty-nine because it w we could see it. The industry were just going to radiate, I think. It's gonna break us. But you could on the computer system, you could you could do anything that you wanted to do. Basically again from AQHA Today or the Jockey Club. It was very similar to that, and it was way before its time. But for a little company like Speedhorse, it was a big big bite to take. It was too much for us.
SPEAKER_07So, Andy, uh you had always known that the principal here at Stalin ESearch is David Smith, and David came up with the concept for stallionesearch.com and put it into play, and it was basically where people could go online and do research and making decisions on on which way to breed their mare. That was the the general concept. At the time, what it was he was competing up against you at Speedhorse as well as at Track Magazine. So what was your initial take? I I know you're very fond of Stying ESearch now, the concept and what have you, and we we also see the trend of a lot of people moving to that direction. But at the time, when you were strictly a magazine, what would you what was your thoughts of Styne eSearch?
SPEAKER_08Well, let me go back and give you a little bit of history first. David, like I said, worked for us. Then he was for good friends with Ivan Ashman, and he Ivan Ashman bought the quarter racing record, and David was running it. And so we were head head-on competitors in the magazine. Also, Fred Stanley was involved in it. Somehow David left and Fred was still going, and the quarter racing record went out of business over time. But David and I have always been friends, and we talked about it, and I said, I said, I'll stay in the magazine business, you stay in what you want to do, and I'll I'll never get into yours, you don't ever get into mine. And that's what we did. I mean, David's always been like a friend, and because look at what Stany Search has become. It's it's the uh pinnacle of all this. I mean, I look at it all the time. And uh since you've been, I I watch your videos all the time. Leanne that works for you worked for me for 10, 12 years. But the online is is obviously people are so comfortable with online viewing now. I mean, I look at Statiny Search when I want qualifiers, where I want to see who won, whether I want to watch a video. It's great. And David's been instrumental in that. And so have you and Leanne and whoever else has been involved.
SPEAKER_07Yes, thanks for the kind words on that, Andy. Getting back to your rolling with Speedhorse, there came a time when you had that opportunity to sell. So kind of talk about your transition of selling the the magazine and and obviously what you're doing to this to the modern day.
SPEAKER_08Well, my mother's health was not good. She had emphysema and COPD, and I didn't want to do it by myself. I'd been running the magazine for a long time, but I was tired. And so we started putting it up for sale, and nobody knew. The employees didn't know. I didn't know. Nobody knew.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I was working with it. Do you remember?
SPEAKER_08Yeah, I forgot. And uh the Bachelors is actually the son, Blue is what goes by Blue. He was the one that ran at us. I got to meet him, and I hadn't met his father, John Bachelor, until later. But we came up with an ideal and they ended up taking it over. And I think they had a few, you know, was it a few tough years? It's hard to run a publication, it's not easy. But you know, they've been doing it now for 15 years. So he's done quite a few things with the barrels and different things like that, incorporated them, which is good. And I'm happy Speedhorse will always be in my heart. I mean, you can't do it as long as I did it and and not feel affinity toward it. And st and but Statin ESearch is is probably online is always going to be the future, I think.
SPEAKER_07Andy, when you sold Speedhorse, you you had plenty of other companies. You even at the time of of Speedhorse, I believe you had multiple other companies going, and so you really just took your focus from one to another. So what are you currently doing?
SPEAKER_08Well, I started elite trophies back in 90 because the trophies that were being used for horse racing, I thought were substandard. So I started getting them for my own races, for the speed horse races, and then people started wanting me to do them for them. So this is back in 89 and 90, and I did it myself kind of in in the speedhorse building. You remember I had trophies all over at certain places, and then I just started getting traps, you know, in the last 15 years, started in 2007 or 5. I have a some real estate and we opened up, made an office in a storefront in Norman, Oklahoma. And we started doing I do horse racing trophies from California to Florida. Thoroughbreds, paints, appaloosas, associations. We do all the racetracks in Texas, I believe. No, we yeah, let me see. Yes, we do all the racetracks in Texas. Yes. We do most of them in New Mexico. I do the California Thoroughbred Racing Association, I do theirs. We do TOC, which is Thurbreds of California, do Arizona's Thurbreads. We do all kinds. And then we do a lot of bear racing. I do them all for the BBR, which we used to own the BBR. We started it also, which was the Bear Horse Racing. I started that with a group of people, and then I gave it to one of my employees. But it's one of the only places you can get true equine uh trophies. Yes. And uh I think we do a real good job.
SPEAKER_07Andy, just so the listeners there give definitely give you a plug here. What's the website that they can go on and find you?
SPEAKER_08Customers can go on to for our website, eTrophies.net.
SPEAKER_07So it's eTrophies.net. Well. Andy, it's always been a pleasure. Uh, you know, can't thank you enough for what you've done to my career. As well as you you took you know, you took a chance with me. And, you know, uh if I hadn't met you, I don't believe I'd be where I currently am now. So I appreciate you coming on and talking to us about your story in the quarter horse racing industry here on Quota Horse Racing Talk Weekly. And I absolutely love that you're listening to us.
SPEAKER_08Oh yeah, I enjoy it very much. Um and maybe I gave maybe I was at Spark, but you've taken it much further than that. Okay, you're doing a wonderful job. I I really am so happy to see the success that's going on over at Staddy Search.
SPEAKER_07Thanks again, Andy, and appreciate you being on the show.
SPEAKER_18Okay, thank you. And we'll be right back after these words.
SPEAKER_15The grade one producing Toledos has another stakes winner. Besides CM Dash and Cartel, late run coming from high octane, it's getting late. Chilly right to the line when she's a whirl away too. It's a photo in the old South Derby.
SPEAKER_07Check out the stallion page and all the statistics of Toledos on stallionesearch.com or go to Dunranch.com and take a look at their extensive website. And that's Dunranch out there in Winniewood, Oklahoma. Also standing as champion and grade one producer a revenant, the brother to two-time champion of champions winner, a political victory, the runner-up finished for the grade one Ed Burk Million in hot pursuit, and the graded states winning Juice Loose, and the Grade One producer PYC Fun and Fancy, all standing at Dunn Ranch in Winniewood, Oklahoma.
SPEAKER_12All right, back to the show.
SPEAKER_07All right, we're back here on Quarter Horse Racing Talk Weekly. We're jumping right into the racing recap section this week. Looking out at Sunray Park in New Mexico, the four-corners for turny for two-year-olds going 350 yards with a purse of over $200,000. And here's the call.
SPEAKER_14They're running in the four-corners returning. GBH Cowboy, a rocket from the outside, already clear. Battle for second right now, led by D Memphis. Cowgirl in Sephora, 157 along the rail. Flying Cowboys, Candy is charging, trying to catch GBH Cowboy. GBH Cowboy wins the four-corners returning.
SPEAKER_16GBH Cowboy is a two-year-old gelding by Flying Cowboy 123 out of the FDD Dynasty mare, GBH Lightning, read by Gary Hartstack, owned by Tungsten Racing Partnership, trained by Eric Valenzuela, and written by Jose Enriquez.
SPEAKER_07And we were able to get on the phone with Marcelino Gonzalez of Tungsten Racing Partnership to talk to him about this talented two-year-old, the winner of the Four Corners Faturity. All right, on the phone with Marcelino Gonzalez of Tungsten Racing Partnership. Marcelino, this talented young gilding is getting it done in the Four Corners Fraturity. Talk about this horse's progression.
SPEAKER_05This uh horse was purchased on the Texas sale. We took him to training and we um we paid him into the uh West Texas Fraturity. He was a qualifier there. The final wasn't so generous for us. We it we had a we had some bad luck on that race. But um we knew he was fast and he was talented. So we decided to uh go ahead and take him to the uh to Sunway Park, and um he started training really well, maturing really well, and um he started. Start showing brightness that he's he's a runner, Mr. Greg. What's next for this youngster? He's paying to the rainbow fraturity trials, and he's also paying to the Fiesta Fraturity trials. So we're just uh we're gonna stay uh take it step by step, and if he does really well on the rainbow, who knows, we might even supplement him for the all-American if he shows the the triple tangent.
SPEAKER_07Congratulations on the Four Corners Futurity win. Thank you, Mr. Greg. Really appreciate it. Alright, staying there at Sunray Park, the restricted grade three New Mexico Breeders Futurity also took place for two-year-old New Mexico Breads going 350 yards for a purse of over $238,000. And here's the call.
SPEAKER_14They're running in the New Mexico Breeders Futurity. Good break. Big Ted broke good. That's some more. Farside gone, good looking. On the inside, we have Royal Dynasty MRB, and then followed up by Perry's alibi. Royal Dynasty MRB. She's in front, just barely from Big Ted. Royal Dynasty MRB from Big Ted.
SPEAKER_16Royal Dynasty MRB is a two-year-old Philly by running buddy out of a Royal Jess Mare, Azara. Bred by MRB Racing LLC, owned and trained by Jorge Sanchez Jr. and ridden by Luis Martinez.
SPEAKER_07Head down south to Louisiana for the Old South Derby. $112,000 derby for 330 yards for three-year-olds. And here's the call from Don Stevens.
SPEAKER_15And they're off in the old South Derby at Delta Downs. They all came away well. Breaking fast, ISO Gray, but quickly up to challenge. She's a whirl away too. Trying to come on late as Chili right in the middle, down to the inside. CM Dash in Cartel. Late run coming from high octane. It's getting late. Chili right to the line with she's a whirl away too. It's a photo in the old South Derby.
SPEAKER_16Chili is a three-year-old Colt by Chilitos out of the Shizum Mare, Zoom in on me. Red by Tommy and Joanna Bullard, owned by Jaime Cardinez, trained by Josué Ponce, and ridden by Jorge Garcia.
SPEAKER_07The next following day, the two-year-olds took the spotlight in the 330-yard Old South Futurity there at Delta Downs. And another call from Don Stevens.
SPEAKER_15And they're off in the old South Futurity of Delta Downs. Good break on the inside. Jess Diamonds are wild, moving up now. Mucho man lady charging out to a lead and starting to pull clear. Mucho Man Lady and Manuel Gutierrez on the outside. Be my Valentine, the King Marfa, but it's all Mucho Man Lady to win the old South Futurity.
SPEAKER_16Mucho Man Lady is a two-year-old Philly by KJ Mucho Macho Man out of the Cosmograph Mare Cosmo Traffic. Owned and bred by Roos Ranch, trained by Jose Garcia, and ridden by Manuel Gutierrez.
SPEAKER_07Now we go out to California for the Ataquan California regional derby out there at Los Alamitas for the three-year-olds going 400 yards with a purse of almost $35,000. And here's the call from Michael Rona.
SPEAKER_11Racing! CM Jessablue Monday was leaning right, brushed the side of the gate, but as quickly away. With CM tell him where you got it. Near the inside, Jess FYI caught a flyer. It's Jess FYI showing the way. Jessablue Monday's down the outside. And how about them cowboys sneaking through along the inside? How about them cowboy?
SPEAKER_16CM How About Them Cowboy is a three-year-old gelding by Flying Cowboy123 out of the Dash to Fame mare. Me fame's a dandy. Owned and bred by Randy Dickerson, trained by Luke Lindsay, and written by Armando Viramontis.
SPEAKER_12There's more to come. Stick around after these words from our sponsor.
SPEAKER_07Quarter horse breeders, take note that this weekend at Delta Downs in the Grade 2 Lattie Faturity, it's full of runners from the RoboShow Stallion roster. For instance, by A Political Blood, A Political Latino, and Awesome Eagle V and Sharpest Image, who are both by Gold Heart Eagle V, and all three of these runners are in the Laddie Faturity. And then there's Who's That Lady who's by A Political Blood and Gold Ain't Your Color by Gold Heart Eagle V that are both competing in the Lassie Faturity. So good luck to all these runners from Sires standing at Roboshow Ranch Incorporated. Alright, we're back here getting into the preview section on Quarter Horse Racing Talk Weekly. And again, Yancey Guyman has joined us from Utah Yancey. I don't know if anybody's being keeping track of this, but I think if you know if we were measuring who's the better handicapper out of me and you and Bailey, what it have I have I lapped you guys yet, or am I am I close, Bailey? Are you keeping score?
SPEAKER_16I I'm probably losing, honestly.
SPEAKER_07Yes. Yancey, have you picked any winners? Have you been following?
SPEAKER_06Or I mean Sam Sam Houston, but I haven't got any tally marks tallied up. Maybe I have to start.
SPEAKER_07Here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna start measuring starting this week. So this Saturdays, Lassie and Laddie Fetchurity out at Delta Downs. We're going to look to see who can pick the winners. And let's talk, let's do ladies first. We'll go with this restricted grade two event out there for the two-year-olds. For the two-year-olds going 330 yards, a $300,000 purse. And there's a huge standout in the field, guys, that MC Blue Cartel, the winner of uh last timeout in the big Futurity, and of course runs a huge race, and it's three for three coming into this field. The Mardi Gras Futurity winner, it this horse has to be the standout in this field, and that's why she is three to five on the morning line.
SPEAKER_16Yes, I agree with you, Greg. I think she's definitely the one to beat in this race.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I mean, it's hard not to like that horse. She's definitely one of the best running right now. I think one of her toughest competitions or competitors in the race is Mucho Man Shortstop, the seven horse. She ran fourth in the Mardi Gras fraturity, and then she comes back and wins her trial here, and she has Rodrigo Vallejo in the irons, and he's always a big time money rider.
SPEAKER_07This Philly race is of course a springboard into future progression in the two-year-old ranks there in Louisiana, and it's gonna be hotly contested, and the way they do it out in Louisiana is they always have the Lassie Faturity on the Friday, and then they bounce over to the boys on Saturday in the Lattie Faturity. Another 330-yard event for the two-year-olds, just a little bit cheaper on the purse at $297,000 in change, and another great field going into the finals here.
SPEAKER_16I don't know if you saw the fastest qualifiers trial man for cost, but he went head to head with the second fastest qualifier, a political Latino, and he won just at at the bob of a head.
SPEAKER_07This Roos Ranch owned and bred runner out of KJ Mucho Mancho Man. It's two for two going in as a with a perfect record, didn't qualify into the Mardi Gras fraturity, but certainly ran a huge race to get into the field here going for the Laddie Faturity.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, he's did everything right so far. Um Nestor Duran super tough in the Irons. Um I think the horse just to his outside, sharpest image, is gonna be a hard one to beat. He this horse ran third in the Mardi Gras this year, and in his trial he looked really impressive. So I think he's one that's gonna be a hard one to outrun as well.
SPEAKER_07Well, another horse that we certainly got to look at, it's making its fourth career start, is Awesome Eagle V. Fourth career start going into the gate here this coming weekend. The Gold Heart Eagle V Gelding knows how to get to the winner circle, has won twice, finished seventh, had a little bit of a troubled trip there in the Mardi Gras Futurity, didn't run the race that I'm sure the connections wanted to, but bounces in going into this futurity as one of the two-year-olds to watch in this race.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I agree with you, Greg. He's I mean statistically, if you look at babies, the their third or fourth out is usually when they really put it together, and that's some of their best outs of their careers, their third and fourth out. So should be a really good race down in Louisiana.
SPEAKER_07Alright, guys, now this is the point in time we're going to start bringing out our measuring stick, so let's you we have a three to five favorite going into the the lassie fraturity, so I'm gonna make you pick an exact. I'll go with the three-horse on top, MC blue cartel, but I'm gonna go finish second with the five-horse gold ancient color.
SPEAKER_06I'll go with the one. The horse jumped in the air at the start of his trials, and he was dead last and he still came up and won his trial, so I'll go with the one RD the reason for B.
SPEAKER_07So are you going three-one? Yeah, three-one. Alright, Bailey, how about you?
SPEAKER_16I'm gonna take the three and the seven. MC Blue Cartel and Mucho Man shortstop.
SPEAKER_07Mucho man shortstop. Now we'll drift over to the boys on Saturday. Yancey, who do you like?
SPEAKER_06I'll put the three on top with the four.
SPEAKER_16I'm gonna take the three-six.
SPEAKER_07So man for cost on top, vigilante on the bottom. I am going to go, and I'm surprising both of you. I'm putting the seven on top. Awesome, Eagle V. I'm gonna go with the experience, and I'm gonna bring man for cost, the three horse, as my second. So I'm gonna go with seven-three exacta. And we'll see who comes out on top, and that closes out the preview section here on May 20th, 2026.
SPEAKER_16And that's all the time we have this week for this week's Quarter Horse Racing Talk Weekly.
SPEAKER_07Bailey, this is probably one of my favorite ones. It's right down my alley, of course, talking about publications. You and I have both both worked for several publications up to this point, and just to hear the history about how people were able to obtain their information back in the day and and what what it was like by some of the people that have paved the way for me and you as an example.
SPEAKER_16Yes, Greg, I agree. It's come such a long way from back in the 70s and the 80s.
SPEAKER_07Well, we look forward to being back here, bringing you all the graded stakes action, as well as our next featured guests next coming week here on Quarter Horse Racing Talk Weekly. And I'm Greg Thompson.
SPEAKER_16And I'm Bailey Ivey.
SPEAKER_07And we'll see you next week here on the number one quarter horse racing podcast in the entire world Quarter Horse Racing Talk Weekly.