Page 114 - April 2017

“We’ve had used car dealers, junkyard operators, feedlot cowboys, princesses, immigrants, school teachers and captains of industry win the All American Futurity. That’s a beautiful thing.”
Scott Wells has worn all kinds of hats during a lifetime in the horse racing industry.
He’s a successful trainer, who broke into that part of the sport as an assistant to D. Wayne Lukas and Jack Van Berg. He’s a published author, who
has written a plethora of magazine articles and three books - including a novel set at the 1950s at Ruidoso Downs entitled “Teaching Narcissus to Swim.”
Wells has also served in a variety of administra- tive and executive roles, including a seven-year stint as an AQHA Director. Currently, he is the president and general manager at both Remington Park in Oklahoma and at Lone Star Park in Texas.
Wells, whose father is AQHA Hall of Fame trainer/breeder Ted Wells, Jr., took a break from all his duties and flexed his writing muscles once more as the subject of our latest “Lighter Side” feature.
Q: Where were you born?
A: Pawhuska, Oklahoma, birthplace of 10-time World Champion jockey G.R. Carter, plus
World Champions Vandy’s Flash, Vannevar
and Vanetta Dee, all offspring of Garrett’s Miss Pawhuska. Pawhuska is also famous for its steer ropers. One of them turned out to be an Academy Award-winning actor, too—Ben Johnson, one of my father’s best friends in their younger years.
Q: What are your hobbies outside of horse racing?
A: Golf, fishing, hiking, elk hunting, reading and rid- ing. Of those, I’m pretty good at reading and riding.
Q: What is your favorite movie, and why?
A: You can’t hold me to one. There are too many genres. In my opinion, “2001: A Space Odyssey”
was the most imaginative film of all time. Richard Dreyfuss was sensational in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” That makes it sound like I’m a big science-fiction fan, which I’m not. But I don’t doubt there’s life on other planets, I just don’t have any idea what kinds of life. Of course I love Westerns and “Lonesome Dove” is epic, but it wasn’t a movie. One of my favorite Westerns is “The Missouri Breaks” with Jack Nicholson and Marlon Brando. Of course I love most of the old John Wayne films, including “The Cowboys” which used several Los Alamitos/Ruidoso jockeys as stunt men. Fortunately, “Seabiscuit” and “Secretariat” were popular movies
which portrayed horse racing in a positive light. Unlike most people I know, I detest “Casey’s Shadow.” Although I enjoyed seeing so many old friends on screen and obviously love Ruidoso Downs and the
All American Futurity, I hated that Walter Matthau’s character chose to run a sore horse who broke down. It sends a terrible message about our sport.
Q: Give an interesting fact about your family.
A: My grandmother Lindesmith travelled with her family as a child from Missouri to Oklahoma in a wagon pulled by mules. My father, Ted Wells, Jr., only had an eighth-grade education, but he earned his PhD in horses.
Q: Do you have a nickname and, if so, what is it and how did it come about?
A: I probably have been given a nickname or two behind my back, but even if I knew them, they prob- ably wouldn’t be fit to print in this fine magazine.
Q: What is the strangest personality quirk you have ever seen in a horse?
A: When I was training at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland, a well-known East Coast trainer sent me a big, well-bred horse who absolutely refused to go to the track at Pimlico or Laurel. My barn at Fair Hill was far from the training track and in a peaceful grove of trees. The first morning I got on him, I rode him for several miles on the fox-hunting trails and we got along great. The next morning,
I headed out the other direction and he was doing fine until he caught sight of the racetrack, which
was at least a quarter of a mile away. Sure enough,
he wheeled on a dime, threw his head up into the air and lunged away, picking up speed until I aimed him at a manure wagon, thinking that would surely stop him. Wrong. He charged up the ramp and into that wagon with such force it moved the wagon several yards away from the ramp. They had to call for a trac- tor to move the wagon back to the ramp so we could continue. Generally, I like to school horses without blinkers of any kind, but this horse was clearly an exception. We put blinkers on him and brought
out a pony, but again, when he’d see the track, even without horses on it, he’d set back, jerk loose from the pony and do his lunging act. And he didn’t care about trees, thorn bushes or anybody’s health. Finally, I
SCOTT
WELLS
by John Moorehouse
John Moorehouse
112 SPEEDHORSE, April 2017
THE LIGHTER SIDE