Page 130 - Speedhorse February 2018

Perpetual
ENTHUSIASM
Over more than 40 years, Ty Wyant has maintained his passion and devotion to promoting the Quarter Horse racing industry.
by Diane Rice
Walt Wiggins Jr., whose father founded Speedhorse Magazine, remembers his early years with Ty Wyant. “In 1976, when Ty came to Roswell, New Mexico, to work on Quarter Racing World [later renamed Speedhorse], he timed his travel so he could meet J.D. and Elsie Kitchens, who bred Ty’s show mare and co-bred Real Wind, who went on to win the Rainbow and All American futurities that year,” he
says. “There he was, right out of college — he hadn’t even started his first job in the racehorse business — yet he hit the ground running. And he’s the same today.
“His entire adult life, he’s been devoted to the industry and to its history and legacy,” Walt adds. “That’s very evident in his position [as Ruidoso Downs’ media relations director and curator of the Ruidoso Downs Racehorse Hall of Fame].”
Los Alamitos Race Course’s legendary announcer, Ed Burgart, adds that he met Ty
in 1977 when he started at Los Alamitos and
Ty worked there in publicity. He attributes Ty’s success to his work ethic, his outgoing personality and his passion for the sport. “He’s very down to earth and understands Quarter Horse racing,”
he says. “As do all the media people, I respect everything he’s done in the industry. When I think of Ruidoso now, not only do I think of R.D. Hubbard; I think of Ty as well.”
Scratching His Itch
Ty was born in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, in 1953 to Elmer “Tug” and Pauline “Polly” Wyant. Tug taught high school until Ty was 3, then went to work for IBM in New York. In 1965, the company transferred Tug to Boulder, Colorado. It was there that Tug and Ty nurtured the interest they shared in horses.
“At that time, the area was out in the country so we decided to get a horse,” Ty
says. The first was a little grade mare, then Ty moved into Quarter Horses, showing in Rocky Mountain Youth. “I studied the Quarter Horse Journal,” he says. “I virtually memorized it every month when it arrived. It was my introduction to racing. That’s when Kaweah Bar and Charger Bar were racing.
“When I went to college, CSU’s library
also had the Thoroughbred magazines — Thoroughbred Record and Bloodhorse — so when I had time between classes, I’d go read them. That was when Riva Ridge and Secretariat were racing.”
Building a Career
In December 1975, Ty graduated from CSU with a major in journalism and minors in marketing and animal science. “I knew I wanted to do something with horses and I decided I either wanted to get into racing or cutting. I decided to go with the racing side because I knew if I got involved in cutting, I’d end up riding cutting horses and give up my journalism career.”
After seeing Ty’s resume, Walt Wiggins Sr. hired him at Quarter Racing World and Ty made the move from Colorado to New Mexico, where he stayed for two months, then moved with the magazine to Oklahoma for a year.
After returning to Colorado, Ty got a call from Bruce Rimbo, publicity director at Los Alamitos, asking Ty to work for him. It didn’t take Ty long to evaluate the perks and take the job.
“Dash For Cash was a 4 year old then,” Ty recalls. “I said, ‘Let me get this straight. I’m 24 years old, I get to live near the beach, I get to watch the best Quarter Horses in the world, and I have the best seat in the house. I think I can do this!’
“I threw everything I had in the car and went to Southern California. That’s when I met Ed Burgart. I was doing print media, writing press releases and such, and he was doing radio, and we had a hotline where you could call in for results; there was no internet back in the late ’70s.”
Building a Family
It was during his time at Los Alamitos that Ty met his late wife, Marsha. “She was a waitress at a bar that Ed and I would go to,” he says. “She had shown hunters and jumpers and was
a groom to several Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse race trainers.” They married in 1979.
But with Ty covering racing six nights a week and Marsha working days, maintaining a relationship was difficult. So after a few years, the couple decided to move to Colorado. They stayed from 1981–1984, welcoming two sons — Ben and Jeff — to their family while there.
In 1985, Bruce Rimbo again recruited Ty. Bruce and Brad McKinzie, the late vice president and general manager at Los Alamitos, had started Quarter Week magazine and wanted Ty on their team. So Ty, Marsha, 6-month-old Jeff and 2-year- old Ben moved to Huntington Beach. “It was quite
128 SPEEDHORSE, February 2018