Page 73 - September_2023

Trainer Ted Wells Jr., Savannah Jr, jockey Jack Wallace and owner Ray Cates after his 1965 All American Futurity victory.
Speedhorse Archives
Memories of him are etched in my mind and on my heart.
all business, as if it were just another race. The other competitors galloped back to unsaddle, most of them splattered with mud. Then came Savannah Jr, his neck arched, blowing no harder than if it had been a Saturday morning workout. He had won the race by 2 1/2-lengths, the widest margin of victory until Special Effort 16 years later.
The winner’s circle ceremonies seemed to be taking too long and I was holding a hot horse, who likewise was eager to get moving again. As he moved about restlessly, I asked Dad if I could take him to the test barn. He nodded, I handed the colt off to Beto and draped him with the cream-colored blanket with the russet trim and the crowd applauded as he passed the length of the grandstand on his way to the test barn.
It was after dark when we got Savannah Jr bedded down and returned to the trailer house on the hill. My sisters Terry, age 11, and Sharon, age 9, were dressed in their Sunday finest, as was
Mom. Dad and I cleaned up and we went to the Chapparal for the traditional winners’ dinner. It was the first time I ever ate lobster.
The next day began like any other, aside from the congratulations of others. Savannah Jr was as frisky as ever as we got him cleaned up and ready to take over to the infield for
the official photograph for the cover of the Quarter Horse Journal. Nothing needed to be said about the snub from the photographers the previous morning.
Savannah Jr closed out the season with a victory in the Sunland Fall Futurity and was voted Champion Two-Year-Old Colt. He returned in 1966 to repeat as Champion Three- Year-Old Colt despite a limited campaign. In his final start he won the Ruidoso Championship over Decketta, Mr. Bar El and The Ole Man. He retired as the All-Time Leading Money Winner with earnings of $277,300—the first Quarter Horse to win a quarter of a million dollars.
We retired Savannah Jr after his three-year- old season and Dad retired from training to stand him at stud. He faced an uphill battle as a stallion. Three Bars and Top Deck bloodlines were all the rage in those days and Savannah Jr carried not a drop of either. He was a big, long- bodied horse—too Thoroughbredy for many breeders. And ironically, Dad said the public gave him way too much credit for changing shoes for the All American Futurity, implying that the colt was “just a mudder.”
Savannah Jr’s stud fee of $1,000 never changed. His best son was Savannah Swinger, who finished third in the 1971
All American Futurity. But he bred enough mares to sustain Wells Ranch until the other successful stallions, Azure Te and Easy Six came along. Savannah Jr is buried at the
old Wells Ranch headquarters near Alex, Oklahoma. Memories of him are etched in my mind and on my heart.
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