Page 167 - Jan_2020

He said, “I’ve become a close friend with Justo Fernandez and learned a lot about Beduino. Justo is a businessman in Mexico City. He breeds and races horses and owns the Hipodromo de las Americas – a beautiful race track in Mexico City, as well as the new border city track at Nuevo Laredo.
“Justo is a gentleman. He will bet almost anything on one of his horses in a match race. He’s been on the Mexican national trap shooting team, has been on the equestrian team, and goes around with a Colt .45 automatic piston stuck in his belt.”
Young Vessels went on, “Most of the rumors we’ve been hearing about Beduino are true. His name means Bedouin. The name possibly comes from his gray coloring which is similar to the Arabian breed of horses.”
Beduino’s blood lines go back to Man O’War and even further back to Domino, a speed horse racing at the turn of the century.
A 1974 letter to the Vessels from Leon Rasmussen, breeding expert of the Daily Racing Form, said Rasmussen believed Beduino’s great early speed came from the Domino line, which enters Beduino’s heritage six or seven times.
Beduino’s great grandfather is Nasrullah and his grandfather is Rejected, who won both the Santa Anita Handicap and the Hollywood Gold Cup. Rasmussen wrote further that the gray coloring comes from another grandfather, Grey Sovereign, and father Romany Royal.
Beduino is now nine years old and Fernandez won him as a yearling in a match race. Fernandez had wanted to race against a
particular horse. The owner didn’t want to
bet money, so Fernandez offered to bet his horse against a gray yearling owned by the other man. The bet was accepted, Fernandez won the bet, and Beduino was his.
Vessels continued the story.
Beduino ran 13 short Thoroughbred races and then Fernandez started matching him against Quarter Horses in shorter distances run in a straightaway.
Beduino whipped all comers in Mexico,
and then a match race was arranged with the Quarter Horse Champion Come Six in Mexico.
Fernandez got the long end of 2-1 odds.
According to Come Six jockey Luke Myles, “We had a half-length lead or more coming out of the gate and led all the way until the last two jumps. Then this gray blur shot past me.”
Beduino with Scoop Vessels at Vessels Stallion Farm.
LOOKING BACK - AN EXCERPT FROM OCTOBER 1979 ISSUE LOOKING BACK - AN EXCERPT FROM OCTOBER 1979 ISSUE
What A Woman, from Beduino’s first crop, wins her first race at Fairplex Park on Sept. 18, 1978.
Justo Fernandez Sr. (center)