Page 81 - March_2022

Through the years, they’ve raised and/or raced a long list of winners – including
No Brakes Now and Faster Than Hasta
According to fellow trainer Wes Giles, who won the All American Futurity last year with KJ Desparado, both Bob and Gary are “people people” who get along with most everyone. “More than anything, when they’re talking to you, they’re telling the truth so you can believe in what they’re telling you,” he says. “We used to compete against each other all the time and when we were done in the afternoon, we’d go have a drink together or have a barbecue and BS together.
“Bob has a memory like I’ve never seen before and can rattle off jokes for hours,” Wes continues. “Gary is more of a down-to-earth guy. For instance, he was working the gates one time at Gillette, Wyoming, and he went to grab this filly for me. I was trying to tell him not to grab her until I got her turned toward the gate, but this mare ran off with him and Gary wasn’t about to turn loose
of her. She had him running so fast that it tore the heels right off his brand-new cowboy boots! So, the first colt that mare had we named RTR Sliding Heels.”
THEIR TRACK STARS
Bob and Gary’s first stakes winner was Tex O Toddy in the first running of the Colorado Breeders’ Futurity at Centennial Racetrack in Denver in 1982. “That was incredible,” Bob says. “I called Gary at home within 10 minutes! I’d have called sooner but I had to go find a pay phone!”
Through the years, they’ve raised and/or raced a long list of solid winners, including stakes-placed No Brakes Now (SI 104), who died in 2020. The Haberfelde Ranch-bred stallion by The Signature and out of Timeto Thinkrich daughter Timeto Brake ran second in the Aberdeen Derby and sired Won For Shelly (out of Count Giacomo daughter Foggiest Notion).
They also ran the Graded stakes winner Faster Than Hasta, by their stallion Hasta Be Fast (Pritzi Dash-Hasta Be Special, Special Effort) and out of Special Leader daughter Leadmetoyourladder, bred and raised by Wardell Quarter Horses.
“Faster Than Hasta has great versatility; he’s been able to run any distance at some point in his career,” Bob says. “He’s won races from 330 to 870 yards and is a six-time qualifier to the AQHA Challenge Championships.”
In the 2014 gelding’s second out, he ran second in the Minnesota Stallion Breeders’ Futurity trial and went on to win the final. He also won the Prairie Meadows Juvenile Challenge trial and final and was named the North Central Quarter Horse Racing Association (NCQHRA) Futurity Reserve Champion, the Minnesota Year-End Open Champion and Minnesota Year- End 2-Year-Old Open Champion.
His second year out, he won the Prairie Meadows Derby Challenge Championship and ran second in the AQHA Adequan Derby Challenge Championship-G3, also at Prairie Meadows.
Stakes placed No Brakes Now
Stakes winner Faster Than Hasta, shown winning the Covered Bridge Stakes in 2020.
H H a a s s t t a a B B e e F Fa a s s t t
SPEEDHORSE March 2022 79
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