Page 49 - May_2023

Speedhorse Archives
Speedhorse Archives
by Scott Wells
Istill recall, and will always recall, the first time I ever heard the words “Go Man Go.” It was late on a Saturday night in the summer of 1956, and I was riding in my father’s pickup from the grandstand of Centennial Park (near Denver) toward the test barn. Bob’s Folly, a
horse my father trained, had just won a race called the World Championship Dash. In the winner’s circle after the race the track announcer had proclaimed the time for the 440 yards of :21.8 was a New World Record.
Breeder/owner J.B. Ferguson and Go Man Go, the 1955, 1956 & 1957 World Champion.
Now that’s powerful stuff in the mind of a
lesson in realism and my first acquaintance six year old. So even before we arrived at the
with Go Man Go.
test barn I asked Dad, “If Bob just won the
Of all the great stories of racing Quarter World Championship and set a New World
Horses, none can surpass the story of Go Record, doesn’t that mean that he’s the fastest
Man Go. He was Quarter Horse racing’s Man horse in the world?”
O’War. The son of a giveaway stallion and a His answer was not the quick affirmative
crippled $300 mare was broke and trained by reply I expected. After all, didn’t logic insist
the Strauss family and owned and bred by a
I was right? Instead, he thought about it for
Texas oil man who loved racing his Quarter
a moment and said, “No, son. There was a
Horses. J.B. Ferguson stood just over five feet horse named Go Man Go who beat him last
tall, but he had the heart of a sportsman and year. So until he beats Go Man Go, we really
the guts of a lion. He would bet on anything can’t say Bob is the fastest.” Such was my first
from a wildcat well to a fist fight but what
“Of all the great stories of racing Quarter Horses, none can surpass the story of Go Man Go.”
Scott Wells was six years of age when Bob
Folly set a New World Record at Cen ’s
Park, but his father said, “Until tennial
Man Go, we really can’t sa he beats Go
y Bob is the fastest.”
SPEEDHORSE May 2023 47