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THE LIGHTER SIDE
LAKE NEWCOMB
Industry Question & Answer
by John Moorehouse
If Lake Newcomb had any doubts about the strength of the horse racing community, they were erased three years ago. That’s when a tornado destroyed Newcomb’s home and barn in Elk City, Oklahoma, and others in the horse world rallied the cause to help.
“The racing community was fantastic,” Newcomb said. “We had people from Remington Park, trainers I’ve known for a long time, helping get the stuff out of the house. Oklahoma has a volunteer veterinary program out of Oklahoma State University. They came out and looked at every horse on the farm.”
Newcomb said the entire experience was something he would not wish on anyone, but that it showed him the quality of the people who are involved in the sport. These days, Newcomb still is very active in the horse racing world—and trying to keep things running—as president of the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Racing Association. Oklahoma is one of
the few states that, as of press time, still had live racing happening in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Newcomb and the OQHRA board are doing what they can to keep races going, even with the casinos closed and purses having
to take a cut to reflect that lack of revenue. Remington Park also has excluded spectators and many track personnel from its events.
Meanwhile, Lake and his wife LeDona continue to run their Newcomb Cattle
Company. Their horse operation also is still active, although Lake said he scaled back significantly after the Elk City tornado that destroyed his home and barns while also killing multiple animals.
“After the tornado, we cut back a lot,” said Newcomb, who grew up around horses and competed in rodeos as a kid. He noted some advice from his father got him into the business side of the horse world. “My dad, he was telling me that I needed to figure out something else to make a little extra money. We were farming a lot back then; farming wasn’t very good at
the time. We went together and went, it was way back when, to Oklahoma City at Heritage Place when they had a June horse sale still. We bought a mare and baby.”
The baby, First Place Queen, became the Newcombs’ first racehorse.
The rest is history.
“I can’t think of anything else I’d rather do,” he said. “I never had any desire to do anything else, really.”
Newcomb is as busy as ever these days, but still took some time out to participate in the latest installment of our “Lighter Side” feature.
Newcomb’s first racehorse First Place Queen winning the $1,313,700 Los Alamitos Million Futurity-G1 under G. R. Carter Jr.
While Lake is busy with his duties as OQHRA President, he and his wife LeDona continue to run Newcomb Cattle Company
120 SPEEDHORSE April 2020