Page 130 - January 2018

GO MAN GO
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by Larry Thornton
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How Go Man Go did it his way is profiled in some stories that Robert Strauss told Jim Jennings in the article “They Rode Two of the Greats” in the April 1980 issue of The Quarter Horse Journal. Strauss described the situation this way. “I broke Go Man
Go. I was the first one to ever sit on him. When we were breaking him to run, he ran off with me before we ever wanted him to run. I mean, just flat ran off with me.” (He apparently wanted to do it his way.)
Strauss goes on to tell about the day he realized, despite the running off, that Go Man Go was special. “My brother Eldridge Strauss was training for J. B. Ferguson,” he recalled. “After we started working Go Man Go, my brother told me one day, ‘I’m gonna put Bill (one of the Strauss brothers) on this colt, and let you ride Mackey Jimmie, and I’ll bet you a fifth of whiskey the colt out runs the mare.’
“Well, I thought he was crazy,” Robert continued. “This was a nice filly. She ran second in the Pomona Futurity. A nice AAA mare. But sure ‘nuff she broke a little in front of him, but he beat her just for fun.” (Again, doing it his way.)
Go Man Go went on to win nine of his 10 starts at two, giving him his first World Championship in 1955. His only defeat that year came at the hands of Sure Now in the Ruidoso Futurity. Strauss wasn’t sure that Go Man Go lost the race, as it could have been
a dead heat it was that close. Strauss rode the colt in eight of these starts.
Strauss believed that Go Man Go developed some quirks in his gate behavior, and these quirks allowed him to develop a
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Frank Sinatra song “I Did It My Way,” as this great Champion certainly did it his way on the track. He started his career as a rogue that chased his trainer out of his stall in the early stages of his training. Go Man Go overcame his rogue title, however, to become a 3-time World Champion with 27 wins from 47 starts. Some of his races were missteps due to doing it “his way.”
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, it reminds me of the
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