Page 96 - December_2023

Lord Winsalot By Andrew Hanna
In 1976, a little gelding named Lord Winsalot took the racing world by storm. Over the course of a year, he won ten races, placed in
three more, and racked up $416,687 – all en route to being crowned the 1976 AQHA Champion 2-Year-Old Gelding.
Lord Winsalot was an unlikely star. The gelding’s owner was a businessman who had only been involved in the sport since 1972. Similarly, his trainer and regular jockey were both neophytes with five years of racing experience between them. Lord Winsalot had begun his own career in obscurity before rising to prominence with his explosive starts and staying power. More than anything else, his
life is a testament to the fact that, in racing, good fortune does not have to cost a fortune. “Racehorse quality is such a capricious thing,” turf scribe Dick Alwan once wrote. “You can never tell where it is going to show up. Each year, people with the best connections in the business, and enough resources to buy half the state of New Mexico, pump in money with both fists. The object is to come up with that magical thing known as a stakes winner. By all rights... these are the folks who ought to be carrying home all the glistening trophies and all the glory. But it doesn’t work out that way.”
Lord Winsalot’s journey to stardom began on March 1, 1974, when he was born at Ronny Schliep’s Oklahoma farm. Though Schliep wasn’t fully established then, he soon made a name for himself by breeding Miss Thermolark, who was named 1978 AQHA World Champion and Grey Lark, who was a legendary five-time Roping World Champion in Heading and Heeling.
Lord Winsalot clearly benefitted from Schliep’s knowledge of pedigrees. His sire’s dam, Four Forty Queen, was an AAA-rated runner and a finalist in both the All American Futurity
and the Kansas Futurity. Additionally, the sire
of Four Forty Queen, Hall of Famer Go Man Go, was a three-time Champion whose progeny won more than $7.5 million. He also played a major role in modernizing the AQHA. Around the time Go Man Go was born (1953), a debate was raging about whether or not Quarter Horses with a Thoroughbred parent could be admitted into the registry. Since Go Man Go’s sire was
a Thoroughbred, he initially wasn’t included. However, after five years of lobbying, he was
finally admitted. This helped Quarter Horses
with one Thoroughbred parent to be added to
the registry in the future, which diversified and strengthened the breed. “He was to Quarter Horse racing what Babe Ruth was to baseball,” declared AQHA Director of Racing Dan Essary, “...and what Man O’War was to Thoroughbred racing.”
While Lord Winsalot’s sire, Sir Winsalot, didn’t have a successful racing career, his bloodlines were very impressive. His sire, Tiny Charger, earned $74,482 and outran Jet Deck
94 SPEEDHORSE December 2023
Top: Lord Winsalot winning the 1976 Kansas Futurity at Ruidoso Downs. © Speedhorse Archives
Above: Miss Thermolark, who was named 1978 AQHA World Champion, also bred by Ronny Schliep. © Speedhorse Archives
Right: Ronny Schliep, breeder of Lord Winsalot. © Speedhorse Archive