Page 128 - Speedhorse November, 2018

DEAL STOWE
& HIS ENDURING MISSION
New Mexico horse-man’s 5-year pursuit of Champion-producing bloodlines proves that there is no royal road to anything, but that victory always belongs to
the most persevering.
Photos by Walt Wiggins
A.D. Stowe was two years old when his parents moved from the small ranch town of Grapeland, Texas, to Elida, in eastern New Mexico.
This was ranch country where a horse was as much a part of life as a car today – perhaps more so. Young Deal (a name bestowed in honor of the doctor attending his birth) grew up vowing someday to own good horses like the ones the cowboys rode at the local rodeo.
Billy was a 600-pound wad of hair, Deal’s first horse, who was at least the beginning of a dream even if he weren’t a vision of loveli- ness. Billy performed equally as well with
or without accoutrements, such as bridle or saddle, and was known to drop like a bullet
at command from his spindly-legged master, who more than once matched him at the fastest Elida had to offer. Deal made sure 150 yards was his outside distance, however. To guarantee no farther competition beyond, Deal would dump himself off the bridles mount when the 150-yard mark was passed, and it’s said that Deal was not above urging Billy to “drop dead” at the nearest sand bed, thus halting any suggestion of contention.
“Billy,” recalls Deal, “would lay down, buck and fight for me just like a lion. Lay one hand on me, and one would have Billy, with ears back and gnashing teeth, to contend with.”
Deal and horses have been taking care of each other ever since, for more than a quarter century now, but it wasn’t until this season that horses began holding up their rightful end of the deal.
Deal Stowe owns the sire of Real Wind, the 1976 All American Futurity winner. He also owns her dam, as well as Real Wind’s full sister. Moreover, he enjoys the personal reward of knowing that the mating of this remarkable Champion is the end result of more than 15 years of his own genetic planning. He accom- plished the mission-impossible that Quarter horsemen in the nation dream of.
Where did Stowe’s blueprint for the win- ner’s circle begin?
Deal Stowe, a 24-year veteran Wildlife Culturist with the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, is shown here with Go With The Wind, the sire
of 1976 All American Futurity winner Real Wind.
Deal recalls it this way. “I was at Ruidoso in 1960 looking for a son of Three Bars. I didn’t find what I was wanting at a price I could afford, but I was told of a Leo son by the name of Golly who’d had nine official races. He was good and straight, had a nice head, and he was out of a AAA Midnight Jr. granddaughter who won the Columbine Stakes in 1950 and had eight wins from 28 starts.
“Golly had a long hip, good stout legs and although he was a little long, he was straight in front. The horse had gone through several trainers, so I figured he’d never really had a chance.
“Anyway, I called his owner Hank Wilson in Wilsall, Montana, and bought the horse. I liked him and liked his breeding, but never really wanted a Leo son. I had one nonetheless, and set out to prove him at stud the best I could.”
Stowe’s first mate for Golly was a handsome Khaled mare from Rex Ellsworth’s ranch, but she was barren and never conceived.
In the fall of ’60, Stowe made a trek to Sunland Park to see if he could find a brood- mare potential off the track.
“I walked that barn area over from one end to the other,” he recollects, “and I asked all the vets and all the trainers – everyone – if they knew of any prospects I could buy. Of course, I didn’t have much money and couldn’t pay over
two or three thousand for whatever I found, so I guess this limited my reception.
“Anyway, late in the afternoon my friend and I were just fixing to leave, without success, when one of the vets yelled and said that there was a Depth Charge daughter on the north side that I should look at.
“I told my friend, ‘Heck, man, I’m walked down, let’s go home, and besides, you can’t buy any Depth Charge daughter for what I can pay.’
“He told me that I was crazy as we drove out toward the east edge of El Paso. ‘You’re a danged fool,’ he said. ‘I know you’ll like that mare and you’re gonna come back tomorrow and try to get her, so why don’t you do it now and get it over with?’
“My friend even offered to contract the first foal from her if I’d go on and buy her now.
“Well, that did it. We returned to the track, looked at the mare, bought her for $4,000, and headed home at 11:00 in the night. I came that close to not getting the mare named Renewal.”
There were times in the ensuing months that Deal Stowe must have considered his sanity, for two years later he still didn’t have the mare in foal.
He was steadily losing hope when one day he noticed the mare standing up by the stud pen. Just for the want of something to do, perhaps, and an inward anticipation that he should try one more time, Stowe opened the
126 SPEEDHORSE, November 2018
LOOKING BACK - AN EXCERPT FROM NOVEMBER 1976 ISSUE