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ments to be made, but the Hubbards have done a wonderful job of keeping Ruidoso going, and we’re just hoping to keep the ball rolling and build on what they have done. But the core is racing itself.”
Put all that aside, too. Let’s face it: Buying a racetrack in New Mexico might not be among the most lucrative of investments.
Flores laughs. “We had to have marbles in our head, huh?” he asks. “That’s probably true. We’ll see what we can accomplish. It’s going to come with time. We can sit here and hope and dream of the all things that we want to do, but only time will tell how this thing is going to play out.”
All five of these horsemen know well the value of time and patience.
“I’m going to be 90 pretty quick, but I don’t feel like I’m going to die any time soon,” Andreini says. “I’ve been breeding and racing Quarter Horses since 1968. I’ve got a ranch, I’ve got a band of broodmares, I’ve got a big investment in this business. Although I’ve never made any money in the business, I’m really fond of it – I’m very fond of it. Because Mr. Hubbard found it was time to leave, a few of us jumped at the opportunity to take his place, and maybe give that place a facelift and make it a fun place to go. I do really think in the meantime, we can make a little money – not a lot, but a little. Cover our expenses, so to speak.”
Of course, there’s just no place like Ruidoso. Es- pecially during the May-September racing season.
“I love South Texas in the fall, winter and spring, but it’s so hot in summer and that’s why you come to Ruidoso,” says Sigman, the only per- son ever to be the CEO of AT&T, win tie-down ropings at jackpots and rodeos, train American Quarter Horse race winners, and now he raises racing, rodeo and ranch horses on his Namgis Quarter Horses ranch at Hondo, Texas, about 40 miles west of San Antonio. “And that’s part of why
we are trying to buy Ruidoso Downs. It’s really a passion that the five of us share for the history of Quarter Horse racing and horse racing in general, and we want to preserve that history and make that history better as it unfolds in the future.”
So it’s back to the future, whether we’re talking about a track in 2017 or a movie story set in 1909.
“We’re very complimentary and very apprecia- tive of what the Hubbards have done here in the 30 years they’ve owned Ruidoso Downs,” Sigman says. “They really saved this track when they bought it
30 years ago, and it’s phenomenal what they’ve done with the triple crown, how they’ve grown those races and expanded them into the derbies and maturities. They’ve done a great job, but they’re wanting to slow down, and it’s time to put some new blood and new energy in it, and we have that passion.”
It’s a situation Big Jake would appreciate.
“It’s really a passion that the five of us share for the history of Quarter Horse racing and horse racing in general, and we want to preserve that history and make that history better as it unfolds in the future.”
Gary McKinney, John Andreini, Narciso “Chicho” Flores, Johnny Trotter & Stan Sigman
SPEEDHORSE, July 2017 47