Page 48 - July 2017

“I think if we keep our five heads together, we’ll come up with some good ideas and continue to build on that great tradition there.”
the first in the family to graduate from college, and they later founded Olympia Drywall Com- pany and a related drywall supply in Houston.
“We grew up very poor – migrating to earn our living,” he says. “Our parents taught us to work hard and stand for what we are. After col- lege, I went to Houston and started in business not knowing anything except how to do the work. So now we have work to do at Ruidoso.”
Sigman and Trotter brought everyone together.
“We had the opportunity and we wanted to be selective of who we put in the group,” Sig- man says. “We didn’t want a large group. We’re not the only ones who share this passion. We’ve gotten feedback from numerous breeders and owners and others who are thankful for what we’re doing and would love to help and contrib- ute, but a big group makes it complicated.”
It also helps to have everyone not only on board, but also on the same page.
“Every one of us has a story, and they’re each pretty unique but all very similar,” says Trotter, who
was AQHA President in 2014, owns a feedyard
at Hereford, Texas, and ranches in Texas and New Mexico. “Each of us started out with very little, or nothing, but we’ve all been very successful at what we do. It’s a pretty dynamic group. We met in Okla- homa City the morning I was put in the Cowboy Hall of Fame, and in an hour, we had the deal ham- mered out. That’s how much all of us think alike.
“All of us have a sizable investment in the horse business,” Trotter continues. “All of us are stallion owners, all of us have mares, all of us are stock producers – even Champion producers. We all aspire to breeding an All American winner or another Champion. Here’s the thing: You never hear people talk about this colt or that filly out in the pasture being the next Texas Classic or Heri- tage Place winner. They talk about it being the next All American winner. That’s Ruidoso: It’s the pinnacle, and we want to keep it at the pinnacle, and more to the point, to take it to the next level.”
It’s at a lofty level already. Put aside the fact that the track sits at some 6,700 feet altitude in
the Sacramento Mountains. In 1989, the first year that Hubbard owned the track, Strawberry Silk
led the way in an All American Futurity-G1 with $2,000,000 on the line, a purse that by last year had grown to $3,000,000, while at the same time the All American Derby-G1 went from $330,812 to $2,415,084. In 1989, the first leg of the triple crown was the $357,172 Kansas Futurity-G1;
the Kansas Futurity was replaced in 1993 by the Ruidoso Futurity-G1, which in 2016 carried a purse of $1 million. In the same manner, the Ruidoso Derby-G1, which likewise replaced the Kansas Derby-G1, went from $44,986 in 1989 to $1,068,631 in 2016. Under Hubbard’s ownership, the Rainbow Futurity-G1- went from $447,030 to $1 million last year, while the Rainbow Derby-G1 jumped from $398,231 to $1,224,488.
There still is room for improvement, however. We’re talking incremental changes over time.
“If you’re going to start someplace, you might start with the face of the track, green it up, give the place a little facelift and make it a little more appealing,” Andreini muses. “There’s a lot of work to do. But we’ve got time to fix all that stuff. I think that the people who are my partners, whom I’m very fond of, they are a lot of good thinkers, they all have the wherewithal to step up if need be, and I think if we keep our five heads together, we’ll come up with some good ideas and continue to build on that great tradition there.”
So that’s a start.
“We have a lot of things that we would like to get done, we have a lot of goals in mind,” declares Flores, who has bred the earners of more than $4.2 million, including Grade 1 winner Snowy Alibi ($470,026), and raced graded stakes winners such as Jess Maid Magic ($230,960) and Wagon To Hol- lywood ($157,990). “The core is the triple crown races, which are the Ruidoso, Rainbow and All American, and that’s the premiere racing for Ameri- can Quarter Horses. Who wouldn’t love to win any one of those races? Of all the things that we want to do, first of all, we want to keep that intact.
“There are improvements to be made, maybe a little restructuring of the purses for those races,” he continues. “Maybe the money could be redistrib- uted a little bit differently. Maybe trial heats should run for say $15,000, and if you win your trial heat but don’t qualify, well, at least you could get part
of your money back, and we’d be able to give the public full fields of the best horses. This is a busi- ness and you succeed in business by keeping people happy. At the end of the day, not everybody is going to be happy. No matter what you do, you’re not always going to be right, and some people will always think you’re never right. There are improve-
46 SPEEDHORSE, July 2017
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“Ruidoso Through The Years”