Page 184 - Speedhorse, February 2019

Scott Willoughby
by John Moorehouse
“We have to have some new younger owners and trainers coming up through the system.”
NAME: Scott Willoughby
HOME BASE: Los Alamitos, California
YEARS OF EXPERIENCE: 30
FAVORITE HOBBY: “Shoot, training horses. That’s all I do.”
Q: When you struck out on your own as a trainer, did you feel any pressure to live up to your family’s accomplishments?
A: They never put any pressure on me, but I put a lot of pressure on myself, obviously, trying to become half as good a horseman as they are. I thought if I could get close, I’d be doing pretty good.
Q: Do you feel like you’ve gotten close?
A: I don’t know. I have such high respect for both men. My dad knew more about horses than most people will ever know, myself included. My uncle was a great horseman and rancher and everything else. It’s hard to say that I’ve ever come close to their accomplishments, but I’ve done well.
Q: How many horses do you currently have in the barn?
A: Well, we just got most of our babies in this week, so right now I have close to 52 horses in the barn.
Q: What’s the secret to staying organized when you’ve got that many horses?
A: I don’t know, I wish you’d tell me. It’s just having really good help, trying to keep a good system and doing it every day. I have extremely good help in my barn. I have a great vet and Dr. Allred is fantastic to train for. He’s one of the best owners and I have a lot of respect for the man as a person and as a horse owner.
Q: How long have you been working with Dr. Allred?
A: Starting my 14th year.
Q: How did that come about?
A: I had trained a few horses for him on and off for a couple of years, just one or two. I always had a small barn, 6-10 horses and was doing pretty well here. And one day he called me and asked me if I’d like to start training for him, full time. So, I took it.
Q: You started out at Ruidoso and then moved to California. Didn’t your dad sug- gest you give California a try?
A: We talked about it some. I’ve trained in Oklahoma and Texas and New Mexico. I grew up in Oklahoma, so we were at Blue Ribbon Downs and Remington Park. And we always made the circuit in New Mexico. One day we were talking about California, and I had a really great 870 horse at the time named Streakin Victory, who was nominated to be World Champion several times but never got it because we could never win
the kind of money that the horses in California were winning. So, we brought him out here to try to make him World Champion that summer, or I did. He won several races, but he just didn’t quite get there.
H
had amassed at least $10 million in winnings.
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SPEEDHORSE, February 2019
John Moorehouse
Scott Willoughby should enter that rare company this year. Willoughby, who is in the midst of his 30th anniversary as a full-time trainer, closed out 2018 with more than $9 million in his career coffers, and also posted a year-best 52 victories.
By the time you read this, Willoughby also prob- ably will have become the 17th Quarter Horse trainer to amass at least 600 victories at Los Alamitos, where he is based and runs the majority of his starters, which come out of the stable of Dr. Ed Allred.
Willoughby has strong bloodlines in the sport. His father, Bob, also trained horses. His uncle was the legendary Walter Merrick, an American Quarter Horse Hall of Famer.
“I’ve never had any other reason to do anything else,” Willoughby said of his decision to follow in his family’s footsteps. “I can do a lot of other things; I’m a certified welder and things like that, but I never left the racetrack.
“I love horses. I love Quarter Horses. They’re such great animals. They’ve got great personalities and they’re just so much fun to be around.”
Check out what else Willoughby had to say in our latest Backside feature.
eading into 2019, only 40 Quarter Horse trainers
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