Page 132 - Speedhorse February 2018

Ty Wyant with grandchildren
“When No Secrets Here won the All American Futurity in 2006, it was a muddy day. He was a Vessels horse and I said to Bonnie, ‘I want Scoop’s shoes and don’t clean them!’ She showed up the next day with them, and they are still dirty!”
Some of Ty’s most-treasured pieces are photos of his sons with industry greats that provided the vehicle for his career: Jeff at age 3 with First Down Dash winning the Hollywood Park Invitational and winning the Champion of Champions, signed by James Lackey and Blane Schvaneveldt; and Ben with Gold Coast Express after winning the Los Alamitos Championship, trained by Bob Baffert.
“And that’s just what’s on display,” Ty says, “ — I don’t even want to go into the storeroom!”
Life in the Present
There’s no such thing as a typical day for Ty. “It’s never boring,” he says. “Maybe that’s the best part of the job besides meeting the people. And, I get to tell people they’re getting inducted into the Hall of Fame — that’s pretty fun!”
Also included in his idea of fun are skiing, in which he’s been involved longer than he’s been involved with horse racing; running, which he started while at Los Alamitos for something
to do when he wasn’t working and which progressed to running 25 marathons (even qualifying for the Boston Marathon), triathlons and bicycle racing. He also started golf lessons and takes his dog for runs. “For 10 years, his job was to keep me running and he’s going to be 14, so now we go at his pace,” Ty says.
Rather than slowing down, things at the track continue to accelerate. “We’re upgrading and spending a lot of money on the facilities, a continual project for the new owners,” he says. “They’re great people; we couldn’t have found a better group to take over for Mr. Hubbard, and they’re moving forward with a lot of projects and improvements.”
Ty contributes to the improvements by continually adding to the Hall of Fame collection and promoting the track and the industry, as a whole. “It’s been a wonderful run,” he says. “I get to see all these great horses firsthand, and work with a lot of the people I already knew — trainers and jockeys and such — and I get the opportunity to meet more every day.”
“Ty has left an everlasting contribution
to Quarter Horse racing through his work in preserving its history in the Ruidoso Downs Racehorse Hall of Fame,” Walt says. “Generations to come will benefit from his work and dedication.”
For him, the tasks are easy to do because he loves what he does. “I never say I go to work,” he says with a smile, “ — I say I’m going to the track.”
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and Jeff ’s college fund after Marsha’s death. In 2010, Ben graduated from the Naval Academy. While in the Navy, Ben attended nuclear power school and is now the global lead of Amazon’s Web Services Marketplace. He’s also working toward his MBA at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
Then, Ty and his family suffered another loss when, six weeks after Ben’s graduation, Ty’s mother died in a car accident.
Jeff became a mechanical engineer at Colorado State University and is now a test engineer for Northrop Grummon, working on the $9 billion James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled to launch in 2019. “Essentially, it’s a replacement for the Hubbell space telescope,” Ty says. “When Webb Space Telescope passes lunar orbit, it’ll be one-quarter of the way to its destination.”
His Empty Nest
With both boys on their own, Ty found himself at Ruidoso covering a race in 2005. “I want to say it was the Rainbow Futurity and Derby weekend,” he says. “I mentioned to Bruce Rimbo, who was president and general manager at the time, that if anything came up in the way of a job, to let me know.
“You know, before the casino opened up, Mr. Hubbard was just keeping this thing alive. But with the addition of the casino, they got to the point that they had a media relations
department. I remembered the days when I was writing for the Daily Racing Form. I’d try to find out who won a Grade 1 stakes the day before and it was nearly impossible!
So when Bruce called that November to tell me they needed publicity, I came down here on March 1, 2006, and cranked it up like we did at Los Alamitos. I got the press releases going out, and I’ve been here ever since.”
In addition to handling public relations, Ty curates the Ruidoso Downs Racehorse Hall of Fame, which inducts one horse, one trainer, one jockey and one owner/breeder each year.
“I have the best office in town,” he says. “I can walk right out into the Hall of Fame and see memorabilia from racing’s greats.” The collection includes a trophy room filled to overflowing with not only trophies, but photographs, saddles, boots, silks, horseshoes, pedigrees, race records, bronzes, saddle towels and more from icons such as Dash For Cash, First Down Dash, Denim And Diamonds, American Runaway, Corona Cartel, Easy Jet, Refrigerator and many, many more.
“Go Man Go is buried in the infield and I have a box of his ashes up here,” Ty says, “and I have an overnight from the All American Futurity in 1961. It wasn’t even framed when
I got it. I had it framed, and it has Pokey Bar, Savannah Cates, Bunny’s Bar Maid — she was the odds-on favorite and got beat by Pokey Bar — Three Chicks, Golden Note ...
“I never say I go to work, I say I’m going to the track.”
130 SPEEDHORSE, February 2018