Page 185 - Speedhorse, February 2019

Q: This may be a tough question but of all the horses you’ve worked with, is there one that stands out as the best horse you’ve had?
A: He [Streakin Victory] was my first good horse. I owned him myself. He had a great per- sonality and he ran 121 times and won, I think, 26 of them. But probably the best horse, I’ve got him in the barn right now, and that’s He Looks Hot. I’ve had some fantastic horses over the years.
Q: What’s the most important thing, to you, to prepare a horse prior to a race? A: Keeping them calm and keeping things in the same routine so they don’t get too
nervous. That seems to work best for me.
Q: What’s the best part of your job, training Quarter Horses?
A: Just their personalities. Getting to know each horse individually is great. Each one is like a different person. Every horse has a different personality, every horse has a different way of being trained. They’ll tell you what they want to do, most of the time.
Q: Are there any quirky horses you’ve had through the years or ones with really unique personalities that stand out?
A: There’ve been a lot. Streakin Victory had a
great personality, he was a funny horse. He took care of himself. He kind of ran when he wanted to run, not really when I wanted him to. He Looks Hot, that particular horse is special. We won the Los Alamitos $2 Million Futurity (in 2014) and were going to turn him out for a while, but he ate the bottom of a lead shank in the trailer when he was tied up - he ate the bottom 2 1/2 feet of it.
He ended up missing his entire 3-year-old career with colic surgery. Then he came back and started winning stakes races again, qualifying for the Champion of Champions. They had to go back in 2018. He was fastest qualifier for the Winter Derby and he colicked again on me and he had two stones which were connected to that lead shank. They had particles that started the stones forming. So, we had to do a third colic surgery on him.
He came back and won the (Robert L. Boniface Los Alamitos Invitational) Championship out
here in 2018 and qualified for the Champion of Champions again and ran a great race.
Q: Any advice for someone looking to enter the business?
A: Really, the answer is be prepared to work because it’s long, long hours and a lot of work. If you’re not ready to do it, don’t do
it. It’s a great sport and we need some young people in it.
Q: What do you think is important
to ensure the future of Quarter
Horse racing?
A: The main thing is we have to have some new younger owners and trainers coming up through the system and we just don’t have that right now. We’ve had some unfortunate people pass away just lately: Scoop Vessels, John Andreini, three or four of our bigger owners that have just gone. That takes a huge chunk out of the sport—and nobody to replace them. Doc [Allred], he loves the sport more than anybody I know. It takes people like him and Spencer Childers, who passed away [in 2009], to keep the sport going and there’s just not a lot of people coming up.
Scott Willoughby with Dr. Ed Allred’s He Looks Hot and jockey Vinnie Bednar after winning the Robert L. Boniface Los Alamitos Invitational Championship on Oct. 14, 2018
SPEEDHORSE, February 2019 181
THE BACKSIDE