Page 64 - Speedhorse December 2019
P. 64
60 SPEEDHORSE, December 2019
Jim Walker
Small-Size Breeder, Big-Time Runners
by Diane Rice
If you’re looking to get into the racehorse breeding business, don’t be scared off by big names with pastures full of high-dollar horses. In his lifetime raising and racing homebreds, Jim Walker, 87, has run his fair share of highly talented and accomplished horseflesh.
“Jim’s is the Cinderella story of Quarter Horse racing,” says Monty Arrossa, Jim’s trainer of about 10 years who moved a division of his training operation from Jerome, Idaho, to Los Alamitos, California, a few years ago. “Jim has been able to compete at the highest level with just two mares. He is proof that a little guy from Bellevue, Idaho, can actually produce a champion.”
That Champion — 2016 AQHA Champion 3-Year-Old Gelding, ranked sixth by wins for that year — is Zoomin For Spuds, by Zoomin For Bux and out of the Corona Cocktail
mare A Perfect Cocktail. The 7 year old also earned Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association’s (PCQHRA) Horse of the Year
