Page 152 - January 2018

Johnny Trotter received the Chester A. Reynolds award at the 2017 Western Heritage Awards ceremony.
April 20
The Racing Medication and Testing Consortium (RMTC) and long-time Maryland Racing Commission executive director Michael J. Hopkins received the highest awards given by the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI)
at the ARCI’s 83rd annual conference on Equine Welfare and Racing Integrity. The RMTC received the William May Award, which recognizes an individual or entity that has had a profound positive impact on professional racing. Michael J. Hopkins received the Len Foote Award, which recognizes exemplary service and contribution to racing integrity by a commission executive director as chosen by their peers.
April 21
Johnny Trotter received the Chester A. Reynolds award at the 2017 Western Heritage Awards ceremony at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. This special award is named in honor of the Museum’s founder and is presented to a living honoree or group that embodies the Western lifestyle and perpetuates the legacy of the American West with an unwavering commitment to Western ideals and values. Trotter was the 2006 recipient of the Tri-State Fair Western Heritage Award, was the AQHA’s president in 2014, was inducted into the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2015, and is an avid team roper.
April 22
The American Cancer Society held their signature fundraising event, Relay For Life, for the first time at Turf Paradise Race Course. The event opened with cancer survivors and their caregivers being honored and celebrated through the Survivor Lap, and included a Luminaria Ceremony to remember those lost to cancer, as well as entertainment, before concluding with a closing ceremony.
April 23
A letter of intent was signed for R.D. Hubbard to sell Ruidoso Downs and the Ruidoso Horse Sale Co. to Stan Sigman, Gary McKinney, Narciso Flores, Johnny Trotter, and John Andreini. Hubbard, a leading Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred owner
who has also had ownership interests in other tracks such as Hollywood Park, Zia Park, Los Alamitos and Turf Paradise, owns Crystal Springs Farms in Tularosa, NM.
April 24
First Down Dash became the all-time leading sire of winners, with 1,383, after Sunrise Creek broke her maiden and pushed First Down Dash to surpass Easy Jet, who has held the position for many years. First Down Dash is the sport’s all-time leading sire by money earned, leading sire of graded stakes winners, leading sire of Register of Merit earners, as well as the leading sire of stakes winners with 2,373 foals.
April 29
Tony Guymon won his 1,000th career Quarter Horse race with a wire-to-wire victory aboard Branquino in a 330-yard maiden at Los Alamitos. Guymon received the 2016 PCQHRA Jockey Special Achievement Award after winning races at major Quarter Horse tracks, including Sunland Park, Remington
Park and Ruidoso Downs. Some of his biggest rides include Worth Doing in the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity, One Proud Eagle in the Kindergarten Futurity, and Bannister in the Wild
West Futurity.
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May 4
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Both houses of Congress approved a budget bill to allow an increase in the number of non-agricultural visas issued during this fiscal year that ends in September. The bill allows the cap on nonresident, nonagricultural visas to rise from 66,000 to 130,000 at the approval of the secretary of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor.
May 13
Steven Dean Prather passed away at the age of 59. Among other things, Prather was a member of
the State Board for the New Mexico Horseman’s Association, and served on the Zia Park Horseman’s Committee and the New Mexico Horse Breeders’ Association Board of Trustees. Prather, who owned and operated Doubletree Farm, recently received the 2016 Jim Curry Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award from the New Mexico Horseman’s Association.
Tony Guymon won his 1,000th career Quarter Horse race with a wire-to-wire victory aboard Branquino in a 330-yard maiden at Los Alamitos.
150 SPEEDHORSE, January 2018
SPEEDHORSE MAY 2017
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