Page 69 - September_2023

. . . his favorite move was to savage the saddle horse when Dad would ride near to get him snubbed up to
the saddle horn.
Every All American Futurity is a setting a record there for 220 yards. Cates Dominguez) and Scott can handle the barn
wonderfully complex weave of triumph
and loss with threads running through the lives of scores of people. And while I’ve witnessed and written about many of the winners through the years in the pages of this magazine, I really only know the full story
of one of the winners. And I’ve never written about it until now.
In 1961 my father Ted Wells, Jr. took over the training of a sleek gray two-year-old filly named Savannah Cates. She was an ill-tempered filly and remained that way despite all efforts
to sweeten her disposition. But she could run. She ran fast enough to qualify for the 1961 All American Futurity and finish sixth. Then in her three-year-old year she won top class stakes races before leg problems led to her retirement.
Savannah Cates was by the Thoroughbred stallion Everett Jr., owned by the “Banana King” Everett Lowrance of Tulsa. She was out of Savannah Gray, who was owned by another Tulsan, J.R. Cates. Savannah Gray was a daughter of the palomino Question Mark, an old time racehorse of high distinction. She was able to demonstrate her talents against the best of her time, winning and placing
in stakes races at Los Alamitos, at one time
raced Savannah Gray for several seasons before retiring her and managing to acquire a free breeding to nearby Everett Jr., the resulting foal being Savannah Cates. Once she showed such talent as a runner, Cates bred Savannah Gray to Everett Jr. again in 1962. To that cover she foaled a gray horse colt in March of 1963. His name was Savannah Jr.
By 1964 the All American Yearling Sale was in its third year and prices were on the rise as the race itself was showing such phenomenal growth. Cates nominated Savannah Jr to the sale in hopes of turning a substantial profit. In phone conversations he began to question Dad as to how much the colt would bring.
“I don’t have any idea. I haven’t ever seen him.”
“Well, Lefty and Joe came and looked at him and they said he’s better looking than Savannah Cates ever was.”
“Well then, why are you selling him?” Dad was clearly frustrated. 1963 had not been a very good year for the Wells stable. We needed every possible prospect in order to turn things around. He took a shot.
“Tell you what I’ll do. I’ll leave Ruidoso after training tomorrow morning and drive to Tulsa to take a look at him. Beto (Albert
for a day or two till I get back.”
When Dad arrived in Tulsa at the Cates’s
small place two days later, he was not in a good mood. That all changed when J.R. Cates led out a strapping gray colt already the size
of a decent two year old. He could hardly
get a proper look at the colt because he was thrashing about trying to eat Mr. Cates for breakfast. Dad took the shank from him and after a minute he had the colt behaving long enough to stand back and look him over.
“It didn’t take me long. I saw lots of Savannah Cates in him but something more, too. I told him, ‘Mr. Cates, if you ever want to win the All American Futurity, don’t sell this colt.’ That’s all I told him. I knew he was going to do whatever it was he was going to do.” A week later Cates called him and said they had withdrawn the colt from the sale citing a fictional wire cut.
Dad made arrangements to have the colt shipped to El Paso right after the Ruidoso meet ended. Predictably, he was a handful to break. He could buck and lunge with the best of them, but his favorite move was to savage the saddle horse when Dad would ride near to get him snubbed up to the saddle horn.
SPEEDHORSE September 2023 67
Ted Wells, Jr.
Speedhorse Archives