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“He was a dandy. He helped old Jim a lot. Jim had a lot of good horses, but never one like him.” – Clyde Holland
© Speedhorse Archives
Lord Winsalot winning the 1976 Delta Downs Futurity.
completed the 350-yard race in an “excellent” :17.90 and earned $135,907 for his efforts.
As one journalist discovered, Lord Winsalot’s exploits had completely changed Jim Jay’s racing priorities. “Once he saw what he had in Lord Winsalot, he lost any interest in tax benefits,”
he wrote. “Jay’s desire to win is such that before a race, he gets so worked up jittery, he can only do one thing. He puts on his old clothes and goes down to the stable area to help get Lord Winsalot ready.” Jay humbly maintained that as he became the owner of a Champion, “You know, you always hear about the other man coming up with a big stakes horse. You never believe it can happen to you.”
His euphoria didn’t last long. After making it past the first round of the Rainbow Futurity trials, Lord Winsalot inexplicably finished seventh in the semifinals. It turned out he was infected with a “life-threatening” virus. “There was a horse right over in the next barn,” Jay told reporters. “He came down with the same virus, and it killed him.” Thanks to his handlers’ tireless efforts and a round of antibiotics, Lord Winsalot pulled through, losing more than a month of training in the process.
On August 27, the gelding returned to the track for his All American Futurity trial. His handlers were “a little pessimistic.” Before Lord Winsalot’s illness, Jay and Yates had known their horse had a chance at winning the Futurity. However, his layoff made that “look like an impossible dream.” “He looked pretty sluggish in workouts, and he’s only been back in training for three weeks,” a journalist noted, “and that’s hardly enough to prepare an animal for the All American.”
Lord Winsalot proved all his detractors wrong. After breaking “with the spirit of a fighting bull,” the gelding won the 440-yard race in :21.77, logging the third fastest time
of all 217 contestants. Jay was elated. “It amazed me that he ran that well,” he declared, “considering how sick he’d been, and what little
training we were able to get into him.”
After his impressive victory, Lord Winsalot
was installed as the second-favorite in the All American. He lived up to the expectations. After an uncharacteristically slow start, the gelding struggled to gain momentum in the first hundred yards before taking aim at the leaders. Unfortunately, Lord Winsalot finished second to Real Wind, an undefeated filly owned by two retired schoolteachers. Even so, his performance was praised. “Lord Winsalot was pounding for all he was worth in order to salvage second place money,” an observer recalled. “Considering the ground he had to make up, it was remarkable he did as well as did.” Moreover, the gelding earned a very respectable $138,000.
After the All American Futurity, Yates
gave Lord Winsalot three months off. On December 3, the gelding finally returned to action in Louisiana’s Delta Downs Futurity trials. The time off had clearly helped him. Lord Winsalot swept through the 400-yard race in :20.06, setting a New Track Record. His nearest opponent was 3-lengths behind. Eight days later, the gelding demonstrated similar form in the Futurity. Despite facing rain and
a “sloppy track,” Lord Winsalot triumphed by 3 1/2-lengths. The $77,445 he received for his efforts boosted his career earnings to $411,399. Satisfied with the gelding’s outstanding campaign, Yates rested him until 1977.
The next year began auspiciously for Lord Winsalot. In January, the American Quarter Horse Association honored him as Champion Two-Year- Old Gelding. Interestingly, one of the gelding’s younger half-brothers, Robinalot, went on to earn eight wins and $62,734 over 25 starts.
After more than five months on the sidelines, Lord Winsalot strode to the post for the Los Alamos Derby trials. A few days earlier, the gelding had blazed through a 350-yard workout in :18.1, establishing himself as the easy favorite. The race didn’t go according to plan. At the start, Lord
Winsalot burst out of the gate with so much power that he stumbled and wrenched his back. Despite being injured, Lord Winsalot finished a decent fifth to a longshot named Think Money.
The trial turned out to be the last race of Lord Winsalot’s career. Although the gelding appeared to be in decent health afterwards, Jacky Martin noted that he had “a few sore back muscles.” By July, however, Lord Winsalot’s handlers realized that they would have to keep their horse out of training for at least the rest
of the year. They soon learned that the injury he’d incurred in the Los Almitos Derby trial was even more serious that they’d realize. Despite the efforts of veterinarian Sid Zarges, the gelding contracted peritonitis, the “inflammation of
the membrane lining the abdominal wall and covering the abdominal organs.” This usually occurs due to a hole in the intestines or a burst appendix. On August 14, 1977, Lord Winsalot passed away because of his injuries. “He was the toughest horse I ever saw,” Sid Zarges said. “He was a Champion in dying as he was in living.”
Even though his life was tragically cut short, the gelding left a permanent mark on racing. Thanks, in no small part, to his breakout
with Lord Winsalot, Jacky Martin was able to establish himself as one of the country’s top riders. Over the course of his career, he won a record seven All American Futurities with Moon Lark (1978), Mr Master Bug (1982), Mr Trucha Jet (1985), Merganser (1988), Strawberry Silk (1989), Dash Thru Traffic (1992) and Eyesa Special (2000). In 2000, Martin surpassed the retired Kenny Hart to become the highest- earning Quarter Horse jockey in history, a record he held for eight years.
But more than anything else, it was the impact Lord Winsalot made on people that made him unique. “He was a heck of a little horse,” Holland remembers. “He was a dandy. He helped old Jim a lot. Jim had a lot of good horses, but never one like him.”
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