Page 214 - September 2018

SPEEDLINES: Higheasterjet by Ty Wyant and Walton Wiggins Jr.
Owner G.D. Highsmith (third from left), trainer Johnie Goodman (third from right) and jockey Billy Hunt in the winner’s circle after Higheasterjet won the 1982 All American Gold Cup.
On Sunday, August 30th, it was a typical late summer afternoon in central Oklahoma. The thermometer was approaching the
90-degree level and there was enough humidity to feel the air.
At First Call Farm on the gently rising flat from the Canadian River west of Norman, it was business as usual.
First Call Farm has recently been converted to the female equivalent of a stallion station.
It is women’s liberation taken to the irrational extreme, with only females present.
Alamitos Doll Two is one of the leading members of this harem without a sultan.
On that sultry summer afternoon, Alamitos Doll Two was alternating between casually grabbing a bite of grass and reaching back with her head to shoo away pesky flies.
Alamitos Doll Two and her pasture-mate, Miss Jelly Roll, were very happy in their equine nirvana. Grass, water and warm weather . . . what more could a horse’s dreams include?
Nearly 500 miles to the southwest in the Sacramento mountains that separate the New
Mexico highlands from the eastern New Mexico plain, horses must work for a living.
Higheasterjet, the 3-year-old gelding out of Alamitos Doll Two, is a determined laborer who had his name forever enshrined in Quarter Horse racing history on that same summer afternoon.
For decades, people wondered who would be the first Quarter Horse millionaire as purses grew and $1 million races became a seemingly monthly event. In fact, Ruidoso Downs was bragging that there would be a millionaire from just one race within a year. Well, Higheasterjet did it and he did it in a style that couldn’t have been more fitting for the long, lean gelding.
It is no secret that Higheasterjet wins his races more on determination and class than his physical well-being. Any novice handicapper can figure out that a horse that only starts five times a year as Higheasterjet will do in 1981 is not without his physical limitations.
But Higheasterjet doesn’t know of his limitations, and if he did, he probably wouldn’t care. He is a running gelding from the same mold as Forego. He will give his all and keep on
giving his all until he can’t stand or his human connections retire him.
And, Higheasterjet had to give his all on Sunday, August 30th in the 440-yard 10th race at Ruidoso Downs, otherwise known as the $854,000 All American Derby.
Trainer Johnie Goodman, who seems to own the big money races at Ruidoso, had regular rider Billy Hunt on Higheasterjet, and they drew the second post position. Inside of them on the rail was national riding Champion Danny Cardoza on Anne and B.F. Phillip’s $600,000 purchase, Queen For Cash.
Queen For Cash had honed her quickness in California and jumped to the early advantage when the starting gate doors swung open. This reporter had never seen Higheasterjet run in person and thought that he got off to a sluggish start. But later, Ruidoso veterans said that it was not an unusual start for the gelding.
Anyway, Queen For Cash had the lead as she went over the hump, with Higheasterjet finding the track more to his liking with each stride. Passing the saddling enclosure,
212 SPEEDHORSE, September 2018
LOOKING BACK - AN EXCERPT FROM OCTOBER 1981 ISSUE
For decades, people wondered who would be the first Quarter Horse millionaire . . .