Page 98 - December_2023

Lord Winsalot winning the 1976 Delta Downs Futurity.
out well.” Luckily, one of the jockeys who rode for him (Carl White) also worked with Paul Walters and urged Jay to buy Lord Winsalot. He decided to look into the matter and brought along another jockey named Jacky Martin and friend named Clyde Holland. While the men were at Walter’s barn, they ran across Randy Edwards and asked to see the best horse he
had. Since Ronny Schliep had already put Lord Winsalot up for sale, Edwards knew what was coming. “I didn’t really want to take them over to Lord Winsalot,” he recalls, “but I did.” When they reached the gelding’s stall, the three visitors were initially put off by his appearance. “My, my, my,” Holland remembers. “He looked like a goat, the hair on him was so long.” Edwards turned and assured them, “This is the best horse in the barn. He’s the best horse in the country, as far as I’m concerned.” Instead of disagreeing, Jacky Martin added, “I think he can outrun anything they’ve got in the barn.” Thanks to these recommendations, Jay offered Ronny Schliep $5,000 for Lord Winsalot.
“And that,” Edwards says, “is how it all started.”
Once he’d purchased Lord Winsalot, Jay sent the gelding to his trainer Roscoe Yates. Known for his “easy going and amiable” personality, Yates hadn’t even been a professional trainer when Jay approached him in July 1975. “I fooled with horses for 10 years, but never trained them,” Yates said. “I was in the service station business with my dad. Training was just a hobby.”
Fittingly, Jacky Martin was also relatively new to racing when he was assigned to Lord Winsalot. Martin started out exercising his father’s Thoroughbreds before a growth spurt prompted him to switch to Quarter Horses. “The first year I rode,” he confided in a 1976 interview for El Paso Times, “...I didn’t win too many races. The next year, though, I wound up third in the standings. Then the last two years I was the leading rider (at Blue Ribbon Downs).” However impressive this was, Blue Ribbons Downs was still considered
part of “the bush league.”
From the beginning, the three horsemen
knew they had something special in Lord Winsalot. On January 1, the gelding trotted
on to the track for the Blue Ribbon Downs Futurity trials. Lord Winsalot broke with his customary speed and won by “an easy length.” More impressively, his performance was the second-fastest of all the preliminaries and earned him a speed rating of 95.
Nine days later, Lord Winsalot returned to the track for the 330-yard Blue Ribbon Downs Futurity. Despite running “well” again, the gelding lost by a slim nose. As a consolation prize for finishing second, he received $21,109. Jim Jay wasn’t particularly worried. “At the time,” he explained, “I felt the horse was going to be a lot better. He really wasn’t in condition and wasn’t ready to run.” To give Lord Winsalot the chance to reach peak form, Roscoe Yates gave him a two-month break before entering him into the Texas Columbus Triple Crown Futurity trials. The gelding ran the 300-yard race with ease
and triumphed by 2 1/4-lengths. A week later, he kept his momentum going to capture the Futurity and nabbed the $26,010 winner’s purse.
Next, Yates aimed Lord Winsalot at the lucrative Texas Futurity. The gelding sailed through the 300-yard trial in :16.86, missing the Track Record by :0.06, and defeating his closest opponent by 3 1/4-lengths. Sadly,
he wasn’t as fortunate in the Futurity itself. Hampered by a muddy track, Lord Winsalot tried his best, but finished fourth, missing the win by 1/2-length.
Following that setback, Jay and Yates brought the gelding to Ruidoso Downs. It was a significant step up in class. Even though he was excited, Jay tried to stay realistic about Lord Winsalot’s chances. “I was still pretty skeptical,” he admitted. “You have to stay that way. I’ve seen fellows get high on a horse, then take him to Ruidoso Downs, and they find out pretty
quick that their horse isn’t much after all.” Jay’s concerns were assuaged when Lord Winsalot finished a close second in the May 21 Kansas Futurity trials, allowing him to advance to the next round of preliminaries. Eight days later, Lord Winsalot outclassed his competition to win by 1 1/2-lengths. His time of :17.81 was the fastest qualifying time. Aside from proving he was primed for a memorable performance in the Futurity, the gelding also earned his
first press coverage. “A few weeks ago,” noted Dick Alwan in the El Paso Times, “you could have mentioned the name Lord Winsalot, and the response you would have gotten around Ruidoso Downs would have been, ‘Lord Who?’ Few people outside of Arkoma, Oklahoma, had heard of the two-year-old gelding, or his owner Jim Jay. Or his jockey Jacky Martin. Or his trainer Roscoe Yates. Or his sire Sir Winsalot... but that was a few weeks ago. Now there’s
no unconcerned dumb looks and shrug-of- shoulders. Now the very name of this suddenly majestic steed is enough to stop traffic. He’s become, as the gods of irony have planned it, the top qualifier for Ruidoso’s $413,130 Kansas Futurity. The winner of the June 13 scramble will get over $135,000 to stuff in his coffers.
If Lord Winsalot, who most surely will be the betting choice, slips home first, you can be sure that Lord Who is gone for good.”
On June 13, Lord Winsalot strode to the post for the Kansas Futurity. Facing a twenty- mile-per-hour headwind, the gelding broke sharply and settled into a good position. “For a split second,” a witness recalled, “it seemed he might get stuck in tight quarters with Rockafella on one side, and Megahertz on the other. But Megahertz quickly dropped back and Lord Winsalot went jetting into the lead, clear of trouble. Rockafella began losing ground at this point. Lord Winsalot was moving with great power and had all the earmarks of a winner when he was about 100-yards away from the gate. A threat began to loom on the inside as Ole Sport squeezed clear from heavy traffic and began picking up steam. For about a dozen strides, it almost appeared Ole Sport would generate enough momentum to challenge the winner. But Lord Winsalot kept up those power- packed strides and was pulling away with great authority when he reached the wire.” At the finish, Lord Winsalot was 2 lengths ahead of Ole Sport. Despite the “stiff” headwind, the gelding
Jacky Martin, jockey assigned to Lord Winsalot.
96 SPEEDHORSE December 2023
© Speedhorse Archives
© Speedhorse Archives