Page 24 - April2020.indd

Oklahoma Quarter Horse Association. He has been inducted into the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Hall of Fame and the Remington Park Hall of Fame.
Wise and his wife Nancy operate Stone Chase Stables LLC, a breeding and sales operation, and he is president of Wise Sales Co. Inc. He is also the manager of Lazy E Ranch LLC in Guthrie, Oklahoma.
The Wises have two sons, Clay and Parker Wise, and two daughters, Mallory Wise and Ashlie Blair. Ashlie and her husband Shawn have two children, Derek and Lacie.
While Wise didn’t get to address the AQHA membership at Convention this year, SPEEDHORSE reached out to him to provide an opportunity to share his thoughts about the current state of affairs and his vision for the future of AQHA.
During this time of social distancing and “shelter-in-place” orders, many AQHA race meets and shows have been cancelled including the AQHA Level 1 Championships. In March, AQHA announced that exhibitors will be able to show at the AQHA World Championship Shows without qualifying points this year. Wise said AQHA continues to work closely with state associations and racing jurisdictions, but unlike in the show pen, AQHA does not control the race meets.
He pointed out some bright points in
the racing industry, such as Remington Park continuing to race without fans at the track. This is allowing purses to be paid and money to continue to be pumped into the economy.
“We don’t control much of that as most of
it is managed and regulated by governmental bodies in various states,” Wise stated. “Racing must abide by the laws and rules set by the
state racing commissions and their state governments. Some have closed; some have not. Some continue to race; some raced without spectators – that’s an accommodation that
is necessary currently to try and have some semblance of continuity today. Remington Park has been fortunate enough to continue to race this past week. The important part of that is,
by continuing to race this past week, they put $1,500,000 in purse money directly in owners’ pockets. That was from Thursday night through Sunday afternoon. That included the finals of the Oklahoma Futurity and Derby along with other stakes races on March 21.”
Wise pointed out the delicate balance needed to keep the economy moving, especially in the equine industry.
“It is a fragile model, but we need it to continue to function because that money went into those owners’ pockets, which will allow them to pay their bills and that, in turn, allows the trainers to pay their grooms and to pay feed bills, transportation bills and everything that’s associated with this distribution mechanism that is the economic foundation of the Quarter Horse racing and breeding industry.
“We’re very grateful to Remington Park
and to the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Racing Association for their diligent efforts to continue to cause this money to be a infused into the horse industry,” Wise added.
Expenses Continue Without Races
“None of this is free, and racing and showing is capital intensive,” Wise noted. “It’s important that things get back to normal as quickly as they can. But that same sense of urgency applies to all businesses throughout the United States. We know that there will be a vaccine and treatments developed in the future for this virus and the quicker those things become available, the quicker we can get back to the business at hand that is the horse industry.”
While the world is experiencing the effects of the destructive virus, AQHA is navigating this new reality, too.
“We are obviously in interesting times, and AQHA is continuing to react and act in the best interest of the members and the Association, and we will continue to do so,” Wise stated. “We continue to monitor daily situations in all aspects of the Quarter Horse world – not just the racing world and not only domestically, but internationally. AQHA has a very, very large footprint throughout the world, and we’re going
to do the best we can to continue to promote the Quarter Horse throughout the globe.”
Wise offers this advice to his fellow AQHA members.
“I think understanding is paramount and for all of us to continue to grasp the difficulties that all face on a daily basis and remember that a good dab of patience will go a long way – not only to help your fellow AQHA members,
but to help your fellow man, which is very important right now.
“And, remember, this too, shall pass,” he added.
With the cancelation of the AQHA Convention, AQHA leadership missed
an opportunity to meet face-to-face with members, who have been on the frontlines of AQHA’s transition to a new computer system. An issue that Wise acknowledged, but also labeled as a necessity.
“I think there’s a number of questions
that people had that we were hoping to be able to answer at the Convention, and there are a lot of initiatives that are out there in
the world,” Wise said. “Regarding AQHA, one of the things over the last year that we have all struggled with is our new computer system. But it was imperative that we have a new computer system because the other one would not sustain where we wanted to be – the AQHA Executive Committee’s vision to provide a mobile computing platform that you can do business with AQHA using your laptop, your iPhone, your iPad and whatever means there is, we want you to be able to do business with us anywhere in the world at any time. To be able to do that, we had to have a new computer system. I have been involved in four computer replacements or makeovers in the past 30 years, and none of them were easy. In fact, they are always complicated
and the larger the project, the greater the potential for disruptions.”
Not one to back down from a challenge, Wise pointed out the complexity of the system transition.
“When you think about this – and I think everybody needs to keep this in mind – there
“It’s important that things get back to normal as quickly as they can. But that same sense of urgency applies to all businesses throughout the United States.”
Wise and his wife Nancy operate Stone Chase Stables LLC, a breeding and sales operation, and he is president of Wise Sales Co. Inc. He is also the manager of Lazy E Ranch LLC in Guthrie, Oklahoma.
22 SPEEDHORSE April 2020