Page 145 - Speedhorse November 2019

“They just kept on coming in – Charlie Jenson with his Thoroughbred, Wandering
Boy, to start up First Call Farm – then Dr. Bill Fosster’s Cottonwood Farms – Reeve Ranch – Wingate Farms – and so many others. The valley had really come alive. We even had a match track – Cockleburr Downs. The powder room was wherever the tallest cockleburs grew, and the races were wild on Sundays, I can tell you that.
“B.J. Trimmel officed in my barn and took care of my breeding right after he got out of school. I was his first customer. He went on to become great. Rick McLin came to work for me when he was still practically a kid, I loved him like a son. Today Rick’s managing Frank Merrill’s Winward Stud, and B.J. Trimmel’s the attending veterinarian.
“Rick stands Scooter Bug G, a great Appaloosa stud, and he talked me into breeding my mare, Miss Kiss Me, to Scooter Bug. The mare’s by Bull Bar out of a My Texas Dandy Jr. daughter. She came with Mister Clyde in 1977. I sold him when he was about 15 months old, for $10,000. Thought I was the smartest man in the valley. Then the horse ran out about $80,000, and now they’re going to syndicate him for who knows how much more money.”
Although Jack had owned, known and loved many good running horses before he established Canadian Valley in 1961, the time he could spend with them was always limited. At the age of 62, Big Train Nelson had changed all that. His business became horses, 24 hours a day.
“I’ve always had a particular idea about training horses and have had some good trainers like Elmer Moody to depend on. And down the line I’ve
seen a few trainers that I think ought to have been branding cattle instead of training horses. They’re the kind of trainers that will beat a colt over the head with a rope or something, give him hell in the gate and then wonder why he won’t run.
“To my way of thinking it’s easy to break a colt as long as you’re gentle but firm. I love fooling with them. The finest thing in the world is to get
a colt used to you when he’s a baby. Handle him, teach him you’re not going to hurt him. But don’t make a pet out of him, else he’ll be inclined to get lazy. Gentle but firm. Then, when the time comes, you can spend anywhere from three to four months getting him ready for his first out.
“He’ll take it from there, as best he can, depending on his breeding and conformation. It’s good breeding that makes the most trips to the Win Circle, and that old mamma that’s involved has a lot of say-so in how many trips are made. That’s why I’m so proud of that pretty little thing, La Galla Win. All I did was own her for a while and take care of her. But in her I saw something that deserved to be passed on. I was proved right when she became the mamma of Go Galla Go, and the grandmamma of Rocket Wrangler and the great- grandmamma of Dash For Cash.”
Some of the foundation stallions at Canadian Valley were Go Man Go Jr., Go Badger Go, Flash Deck and Scooper Parr. Go Man Go Jr. (Go Man Go-Mexhome TB), was co-owned by Jack and his good friend, Glen Dickinson, the architect who designed the Myriad Convention Center in Oklahoma City.
By the mid 1970s, Jack had about forty good mares.
“Good help was getting harder and harder to find, so I started phasing out. I was 76, and figured
it was about time. My wife, Bernice, and I sold the farm to some nice people who have turned it into a Hunting/Jumping center, and we moved into a house here in Norman in wintertime, 1979. I came down with the flu on Valentine’s Day. I think I’ve still got it – I advise anybody who lives on a ranch to stay there.
“When I look back on the years I’ve been in the horse business and try to figure out just where the biggest steps have been taken for improvement in the industry, it’s mighty hard to settle on just one area which you think is best. But, for me, I think it’s in the area of artificial insemination. Sanitation wasn’t always at its best. Today, though, breeding labs, big or little, can be as sterile and as efficient as a people hospital. That’s what’s great to me.”
Although the Nelsons have converted to “city living,” they still own one mare that is stalled in the valley. The mare is Kracker Lou.
“Lou ran an unofficial AA before hurting her ankle. She’s by Lou Go, a Go Man Go son out
of Leo Lou, AAA, by Leo. Kracker Lou’s dam is a Thoroughbred, Ocean Crest by Faila. Lou has a Mr. Big Wheel foal at her side, that I’m planning on naming Magic Wheels or Wheel And Deal or Wheelin’ Man. I hope to run him in the Black Gold
Futurity. Lou is now in foal to Sky Steak, si 94 and a stakes winner, by Sky Way Rocket by Rocket Bar (TB) and out of Small Steak by Levan.
“When we were phasing out at Canadian Valley, I thought about getting away from horses completely but just couldn’t do it. It wouldn’t be right, after all this time. I’m not saying I couldn’t be happy without them – just as long as I’ve got my wife, Bernice. She’s so tiny. My nickname for her is ‘Little Bit.’ From the start, our marriage has been a fairy tale. I’ll never stop being in love with her. She’s just a baby, you know, only sixty-four.”
Big Train and Little Bit have always contributed time, worry and money to the cause of bringing pari-mutuel to Oklahoma.
“If you think we’re discouraged because of the long time it’s taking, rest easy, because we’re not discouraged. And we’ll go on doing what we can to help the cause in any possible way that we can.”
Clyde William “Jack” (Big Train) Nelson, the man with many names, is also a man with many friends. One of his favorite times to share with friends is near sundown. Conversations begin with many subjects, but one subject will always overtake the rest – Horse.
Jack occasionally enjoys a nip of Jack Daniels. A toast that he offers before taking the first sip defines his own feelings about life.
“I’ve always been a man who tried to say it the way he felt it and do it the way he thought it ought to be done, without ever hurting anyone else.”
The toast that Jack favors is:
“Here’s to those that do as we do And here’s to those that don’t.
To hell with those that do as we do And go around saying they don’t.”
LOOKING BACK - AN EXCERPT FROM JULY 1980 ISSUE
Scooper Parr, with Roy Brooks up and trained by Jack Hobbs, after winning at the Oklahoma State Fair.