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the 1998 Remington Park Championship-G1, as horses that are special in his career.
“Those were two particular horses that I had that were just absolutely great,” Harris said. “Jodys Glory was my first Champion in ’79. He was just such an individual and fun little horse.”
Harris’ barn included quite a few horses at Los Alamitos, and if he hit a dry spell, it dampened his spirits.
“At that time we had so many running that two weeks was a long stretch,” Harris said of not getting into the winner’s circle. “Brook would see that I’d be getting a little bit ornery and it was bothering me that we hadn’t won a race, and she’d say, ‘You better enter ‘Jody.’ That’s the kind of horse that he was. He was one of those put-me-in-coach horses because he was going to take care of it.
“The Newsomes’ Deposit Cash was so gutsy and so tough,” Harris added. “He was the ‘Rodney Dangerfield’ and nobody ever gave him any respect and he goes and beats all the best ones in the Remington Park Championship. He did a lot of things like that. There were many special horses when you’ve got Florentine and Prissy Fein and all the ones like that, but there were a couple of them that you had so much fun with at the barn, and they mean just as much.”
In 1972, Harris had two starts and earned
$33. Over his 44-year career, he saddled 11,205 starters, and his runners won 53 graded stakes races including 27 open Grade 1 races. In addition to the aforementioned horses, other notable horses trained by Harris include Calyx, the first AQHA Distance Champion in 1987; Hold All Tickets, the 1987 Champion 3-Year-Old Gelding; Willie Wanta Dash, the 2000 Champion Aged Stallion; and stakes winners Big Time Hero, Special Shake, Fightin Jane, Artesia, and Easily A Rogue.
“I really had a bunch of nice horses and just got to meet some super, super people.”
He counts his competitors as some of his closest friends.
“I had such good friends – Blane Schvanevedlt, Denny Ekins, Jim Persinger, Jack Brooks – all of the ones that I was around a lot of times,” Harris said. “We finished in the morning and there
would always be six to eight trainers go and have breakfast together. We did a lot of things in the evenings together. We’d meet up at the sales – most of the time we’d bunk together at the sales. Blane Schvanevedlt and I shared a room all the time when we went at Heritage. Those kind of things, don’t seem like they do that any more. We were best of friends and would do anything in the world for each other when we weren’t running, but when it was race time, we tried to beat each other. It sure
is special having those friends and those kind of stories. It was a lot of fun.”
Over the past four decades, Harris accumulated race trophies, friends and stories, but he’s also acquired some accolades of his own for his dedication to his craft.
In 2017, Harris received the AQHA Special Recognition Award at the AQHA World Champion Announcements, and in 2015, he was inducted into the Ruidoso Downs Racehorse Hall of Fame.
“I started at a time when the racing was just absolutely unbelievable,” Harris said. “When I went to Los Alamitos and stated out there, I can remember when they were running all those really good horses like Kaweah Bar and Charger Bar. All of those good horses were running, and when they’d come back after the race, the whole grandstand
was standing and clapping for them. It was just a whole different kind of atmosphere about it. It was just something real special. To be involved in it in those days and go through it, it’s been a very special career.”
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