Page 58 - Speedhorse November 2019

Baxter has trained the earners of over $1.3 million, including 1997 Champion 3-Year-Old Filly Fabulous Form, and multiple stakes winners Ima Reb Hot and Check This Reb . . .
1997 Champion 3-Year-Old Filly Fabulous Form, shown winning the QHBC Distaff Classic-G3 at Los Alamitos on Dec. 21, 1997.
BUILDING A FOLLOWING
Along the way, Baxter helped found the Northern Racing Quarter Horse Association. Anywhere there was a racetrack, Baxter raced. “When they first opened at Salem, Oregon,
at the state fairgrounds, they had a racetrack there,” Chris says. “I think the first day they had Quarter Horse racing, he won all the races.
“Things were kind of rough way back then,” she adds. “In the win pictures, you can see the stadium and there were only half a dozen people up there. I think they were all so involved with their horses, they’d hang on the rail and watch the race and then go back to the barn and
get their horse ready. It took a while for the audience — the betters — to show up.
“Baxter had such a following that all wanted to run horses, so wherever they talked about opening a track or starting a Quarter Horse meet, they were all glad to see him come because he had so many horses. I think one time at Yakima, he had 40 head!” she adds.
BUILDING A FAMILY
Baxter and his first wife, Betty, had two daughters: Terri, who now lives near Baxter and Chris (his second wife) in Vancouver, Washington; and Susie, who lives with her husband, Will “Billy” Vincent in Libby, Montana.
Billy started working for Baxter in 1970 when he traveled to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, with some people from Libby who had Thoroughbred racehorses. “Coeur d’Alene
was running hot and heavy in those days and I liked Quarter Horses,” Billy says. “That winter, Baxter had a fellow there breaking colts for him who broke his leg. Baxter saw me down there galloping horses and called my folks to ask if I could come work for him. I was just a junior in high school at the time, so the Andrusses said they’d make sure I went to school. I wanted
to go so badly, so my folks let me and I stayed working for Baxter until I stole his daughter [Susie] away from him and came back home. I took away his best help!”
“Andy was notorious for firing his help,” Chris confides. “Because he expected perfection from himself, he also expected it from his help and if anybody slacked off, they got fired. It got to be kind of a joke; I think he fired Billy more than any person, but Billy would just go away for a day and then come back like nothing had ever happened.”
Chris met Andy around 1971 through her father, who belonged to the Clark County Saddle Club Posse with Andy. “One of Andy’s breeders that he trained for, Ben Weiler, had brought his yearlings over for Andy. Dad and his friend Don
wanted to buy a racehorse and they bought Ben Weiler’s gelding, Cats Gold Bar (Catawambus Bars-Golden Catch, Catch Bar). I would go over to Andy’s and to the track to see the horse.
“We actually got together years later,” she continues. “Dad passed away in July 1996
and he’d had horses with Baxter all that time. Baxter’s wife passed away in December the same year. My mom wanted me to help her sell the horses, and I ended up keeping some of them. Andy was training them and pretty soon I was going to the track with him. Instead of being a spectator, I was helping him get the horses to the paddock and one thing led to another. We were married in August 2002.
RACETRACK SUCCESSES
Andy’s dedication sowed the seeds of his success. “They went on vacation just one time in his life,” Billy says. “I think it was around 1964. They took the kids to Disneyland and Mexico, but on the way they stopped and saw Three Bars and Go Man Go. All he did was horses; that’s all he lived and breathed, and still does. His enjoyment is the horses.”
Although not all the horses Andy trained were futurity horses, Billy says, Andy was dedicated to every one of them. “He could read them. He’d know when one was off or needed a rest.
“All he did was horses; that’s all he lived and breathed, and still does.” - Will “Billy” Vincent
56 SPEEDHORSE, November 2019