Page 121 - July 2016

RUIDOSO DOWNS RACEHORSE HALL OF FAME WELCOMES NEW MEMBERS
by Jennifer K. Hancock
A record crowd witnessed the Ruidoso Downs’ Racehorse Hall of Fame inductions of the 2016 class that included owners John and Sue May, trainer Bill Leach, jockey Casey Lam- bert, and 2011 All American Futurity winner Ochoa (Tres Seis-Stolis Fortune, Stoli).
Each year the nonprofit Hall of Fame wel- comes one owner/breeder, one trainer, one jockey, and one horse. Attendees to the event support the work of the Hall through donations, and the packed Ruidoso Turf Club showed that support continues to grow.
Longtime Fort Stockton, Texas, residents Sue May and her late husband John were married for 61 years, and the couple bred, owned and raced Quarter Horses for four decades while reg- istering most of the horses in Sue’s name. One of their top runners was two-time Champion Prospect To The Top, who was the 2011 Cham- pion 3-Year-Old Colt and the 2012 Champion Aged Stallion.
Sue May also co-bred Champion Easily Smashed, who raced for the partnership of
Sue May, trainer Bill Leach and Carol Child. The Mays were among the ownership group
of his dam, Smash It TB. Easily Smashed, who won the Sun Country Futurity and the Kansas Derby, was the 1981 Champion 3-Year-Old Colt. John May died on December 10, 2014 at the age of 84.
Bill Leach successfully campaigned both Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds. He won the Kansas Futurity with Double Dutch Bus and the Ruidoso Thoroughbred Futurity with Smash It TB. He trained Miss Einstein TB, a multiple stakes winner who became a stakes producer. Co-owned by Leach Racing when
competing, Miss Einstein is the dam of stakes winners Mr. Wizard, Beau Wizer, Lady Genius and Double Smart. Equibase statistics show Leach’s lifetime earnings at $7,064,095 from 4,812 starts and 704 wins.
Jockey Casey Lambert retired from racing
at the conclusion of the 2015 Ruidoso season, where he won the leading Thoroughbred jockey title. Equibase statistics show Lambert, who became a jockey at age 16 and retired at 49, rode 22,091 races, winning 2,728 of those races and earning $34,935,781. Casey’s father, Cliff Lambert, joined the Ruidoso Downs’ Racehorse Hall of Fame in 2015, and they are the first father-son inductees. The younger Lambert rode Mine That Bird to win the WinStar Derby (now the Sunland Park Derby) just weeks before the horse upset the field in the 2009 Kentucky Derby with Calvin Borel in the irons. Lambert describes Heritage Of Gold, third-place finisher in the 2000 Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Distaff, as the best Thoroughbred he’s ever ridden and 1995 Champion Aged Mare Special Phoebe as the finest Quarter Horse he has ridden.
Owned by Johnny T.L. Jones’ J Bar 7 Ranch, Monty and Katsy Cluck with Doug Benson, Ochoa is the all-time leading money earning Quarter Horse at $2,781,365. At Ruidoso Downs, the gelding won the All American Fu- turity, Rainbow Derby, Mr Jet Moore Stakes, and the All American Derby. Trained by Ru- idoso Downs’ Racehorse Hall of Famer Sleepy Gilbreath, Ochoa is the sixth horse to win both the All American Futurity and the All American Derby, and was the 2011 Champion 2 Year Old and the 2012 Champion 3 Year Old.
“I remember when we just had 30 or 40
people,” said Ruidoso Downs’ owner R.D. Hub- bard at the Ruidoso Hall of Fame event. “Look at this. It’s great.”
Ty Wyant, who is the Media Relations Director at Ruidoso Downs Race Track and curator of the Hall of Fame, said the evening is intended to honor the inductees and their his- torical impact to the sport in a memorable way.
“I have been here 10 years, and it is by far the largest and most boisterous crowd,” Wyant said. “I give all credit to the inductees and their friends, who came and supported them. We had a ton of fun, and it’s a great fundraiser for the Hall of Fame.”
Eclipse Award winning trainer Steve Asmussen has attended his share of induction ceremonies, in- cluding the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame Museum in Saratoga Springs, New York, and described the Ruidoso Hall of Fame induction as, “a whole lot more fun than the others.”
“We have two missions. We want to educate people. And, we want to preserve memorabilia,” Wyant said, referring to the cases holding Quar- ter Horse racing memorabilia. “We know that these precious artifacts can get passed down
to someone that has no interest in horseracing and end up in a garage sale. Nothing makes me happier than to be in the Hall of Fame and see some kids playing with the kiosks and looking at videos such as the one on Blane Schvaneveldt or looking at a case and getting in touch with the past of racing.”
The Ruidoso Downs’ Racehorse Hall of Fame is located on the second floor of the grandstands, and admission is free with Turf Club admission during racing days, Friday through Monday.
Hall of Fame inductees and family members. Inductees included owners John and Sue May, trainer Bill Leech, jockey Casey Lambert, and All American Futurity winner Ochoa.
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