Page 115 - April 2017

sent the pony boy back to the barn and just sat there on him for a few minutes, trying to get him to relax. Then, I backed him up a couple of steps and just sat there on him some more. I kept repeating that for about a hundred yards and then started going forward, but only at an angle where he still couldn’t see the rails of the track because of the blinkers. When I got really close, I backed him onto the track and turned him around, and when he lunged this time I had him between the fences, so I just gave him his head and let him run off for a couple of hundred yards, then eased him back to a nice comfortable gallop. Then I stopped him and turned him around and went the other way, then stopped him and turned him around and did some slow figure-8s. Then, he walked back to the barn like a champion. It took me weeks of backing him to the track, but we finally got him training somewhat normally. As a final test, I took him to Penn National and won a race with him. But when I sent him back in to his original trainer at Pimlico, he went rogue on them again and they never could train him. He ended up being a good hunter jumper, so he got over his fear of rails.
Q: If you were not in the horse racing business, what job would you like to have?
A: I’d love to still have horses as part of my life, so being a guide in the mountains or being a forest ranger sounds attractive—but only if I could pick my spots. Winter in the Rockies could be brutal. I could also see being a golf instructor, if I could be guaranteed enough clients to survive. I teach better than I play, that is certain.
Q: What is your favorite thing about living where you live?
A: Water. Due to my responsibilities at both Lone Star Park and Remington Park, we have two houses. Thanks to the effort and bril- liance of my wife, Mellyn, who found them, they each are only a 20-minute commute from our racetracks and both have a lake just a few yards from the back door. Even though I rarely find the time to go fishing, I can’t tell you
how much I enjoy seeing the movement of the water and all the birds and wildlife. There’s just something soothing about a body of water. I’m sure it’s instinctive and runs across all species, but having been raised primarily in the dry country of the Southwest, the sight of free- standing water is a dream come true.
Q: If you could vacation anywhere on the planet, where would it be & what would you do there?
A: Mellyn and I have gone on a summer golf- ing vacation to Colorado the past few years and have had great times there. The scenery, the food and the entertainment options are all great. Last summer we rode the rapids through Glenwood Canyon with a group of friends. Colorado is hard to beat. Also, I found Hawaii to be all it’s cracked up to be.
Q: Do you have a favorite quote and, if so, what is it?
A: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” is at the top of a long list. It applies equally to personal relationships and busi-
ness. It applies to just about everything except warfare. “We’re here for a good time; we’re not here for a long time” is something my grand- father told me when I was just a boy. Those words come to me when I’m stressing unduly over something that’s really not that important. I love those pearls of wisdom. I have books of famous quotes—some of them funny, some of them serious. But the classics become clas-
sics for a reason. They reflect the truth of the human condition.
Q: If you could sit down and visit with anyone, past or present, who would it be?
A: I’m assuming this could be at a restaurant of my choosing, so: Abe Lincoln, Gandhi, Will Rogers, Ernest Hemingway. Gandhi wouldn’t consume much, but Hemingway would run
up a big bar tab. On second thought, that conversation would probably go over my head pretty quickly. I’d really like to sit down with Walter Merrick, Blane Schvaneveldt, Ted Wells and Don Farris, too. They’d probably refuse
Scott with his father,
AQHA Hall of Fame trainer/breeder Ted Wells, Jr.
to accept the invitation unless Jack Brooks was there, too. And Bubba Cascio and James McArthur. What a gathering that would be!
Q: What drink would your friends describe you as, and why?
A: Not “White Lightning” for sure. Although I am white, my foot speed is anything but “light- ning.” Probably a Margarita. Because we’re both Southwestern and prone to good times.
Q: Who’s your favorite athlete of all time, and why?
A: My all-time favorite is Arnold Palmer because of the way he treated people. I saw him play
in person, but I never met him. Everyone who did meet him says that he was the most gra- cious person they ever met. He lifted a sport to prominence, he grew it, and then somehow his tremendous abilities at the sport were overshad- owed by his qualities as a human being. Some of my other favorite athletes are Jim Thorpe, Julius Erving, Ty Murray, Lydia Ko, and Bo Jackson.
Q: If you were making a movie about yourself, who would you cast to play you, and why?
A: Number one, I wouldn’t want to make a movie about myself. They already made one. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Did I mention that it’s my all-time favorite movie?
SPEEDHORSE, April 2017 113
THE LIGHTER SIDE