Page 88 - March 2017

It’s been more than a year since the horse-racing world lost Melvin Hatley.
Passing away last Jan. 12 at the age of 83,
experiences and spend some time with them.” Hatley came away from his research deter- mining that the bloodlines of Three Bars and
Lukas, who has been enshrined into the Rac- ing Hall of Fame, was the first trainer to generate more than $100 million in career earnings. He
Hatley left behind a massive legacy, not only in the world of Quarter Horse racing, but in the entire industry.
Hatley rose from meager circumstances as a child to achieve success in a variety of different business endeavors, including oil, real estate, and banking.
“Melvin certainly was a mover and a shaker, in his day. He dealt with every important person of that time,” recalled Butch Wise of the Lazy E Ranch, who worked for Hatley in the 1970s. “He had a real love for Quarter Horses, he had a great love for the people, and he had a huge impact on the industry.”
In an article published by Speedhorse in 1980 entitled “Judgment Call,” Hatley recalled being born in a two-room shack that lacked window screens in Dyke, Texas.
“I don’t mind having gone through that hard life,” Hatley said in the article. “My parents could never give me material things when I was growing up, but they gave me something better – strength.”
That strength produced a dogged determina- tion that, when Hatley began breeding horses in the 1960s, led him to attack the endeavor like a scientist undertaking a research project.
“I came into the business by ordering every publication pertaining to the racing industry I could find and read myself to sleep at night for about ninety days,” Hatley said. “I wasn’t afraid to go to experts like A.B. Green and Chief Johnson and ask for advice. Basically, that’s a good way
to come into the business, whether it’s from the standpoint of farm management or racing or stal- lion or broodmare management, whatever - read everything you can get your hands on and then go to the people in the industry who’ve had successful
Top Deck had proven to be the most lucrative, and he focused his future breeding on those two bloodlines.
The list of Quarter Horses connected to Hat- ley through the years reads, in part, like a partial Who’s Who of the sport.
Triple Chick. Decketta. Miss Olene. Miss Thermolark. Barne’s Lady Bug. Possumjet. Separate Ways. He also was part of the ownership group behind Mr Jet Moore, the first-ever winner of the Champion of Champions.
Through it all, Hatley brought a no-non- sense approach.
Hatley’s recipe for
success in racing also
included a heavy
dollop of honor . . .
“This is not just a hobby for me to go watch my horses run ... it’s a business,” he told The Oklahoman newspaper in a 1988 profile article.
Business picked up, and stayed up. In 1965, Hatley paid $100,000—a high for him, at the time—for a Quarter Horse. Two years later, he paid triple that amount for Go Man Go, one of the most storied sires in the entire history of Quarter Horse racing.
Hatley showed as much aptitude in picking business partners as he did in breeding horses; Hatley spent the bulk of his subsequent time in horse racing allied with D. Wayne Lukas, who is arguably the greatest Thoroughbred trainer of all time.
also holds the record for saddling the most win- ners of Triple Crown races (14) and has produced 20 winners of the Breeders’ Cup.
“Wayne was the best partner I ever had,” Hatley told DRF.com in a 2006 article. “One year during the oil boom, we sold $15 million worth of horses and never ran an ad. When we were rolling big, we had 150 horses in training at one time during the year, and they were racing at 13 different tracks.”
“We had a wonderful, successful run from the standpoint of a business relationship, but more importantly we passed that years ago and we became very, very dear friends,” Lukas said in the same DRF.com article.
The two started working together in Quarter Horse competition in the 1970s, starting with Native Empress, the mare Hatley purchased after reading about her in the Quarter Racing Record.
In the latter part of the decade, Hatley and Lukas made the bold decision to try their luck in the Thoroughbred circuit. Together they owned Lady’s Secret, a progeny of Secretariat, as a foal. They sold her to Gene Klein, and the mare went ontobethe1986HorseoftheYearaspartofa career that included 25 victories and more than $3 million in winnings. Hatley said he had no regrets about selling the ultra-successful mare.
Hatley and Lukas, wisely, held on to Life’s Magic, a two-time Champion filly. Life’s Magic logged her biggest victory in the 1985 Breed- ers’ Cup Distaff, prevailing against a field that included, coincidentally, Lady’s Secret.
The dollar figures got bigger through the years. In 1985, at one of the Kentucky sales, Hat- ley and Lukas became embroiled in a three-way bidding war over a yearling who was the progeny
86 SPEEDHORSE, March 2017