Page 92 - September 2022

Hava Zevi, the black mare that all Mr Ollie Te, Hava Zevi’s first foal, winning Zevi TB, the sire of Hava Zevi. Williamses’ horses trace back to. the 1998 Valley Junction Futurity.
“They’re good owners. They understand the racing industry and they work hard at it.” – Randy Smith
Courtesy Williams Farms
I think. I kept her in my mind and a couple years later I was talking to a horseshoer and mentioned Billie White Shoe, and he said, ‘Well, I just trimmed her feet out at Payola, Kansas,’ and told me that a fellow named Mr. Ivan Carr owned her. He suggested I call him.
“I could’ve claimed her that race day for $2,500,” Randy says. “I called Mr. Carr and asked if he’d sell her. He said he’d take $2,200. That was quite a bit of money back then, but I bought her from him and bred her to Zevi and that’s where I got Hava Zevi in 1991, my old mama, my black mare that put me in business! Everything we have today came from that old black mare; all our horses are kinfolks and related to her, and it just evolved from there.”
Randy wasted no time joining the ranks of graded stakes-winning breeders, with Hava Zevi’s first baby, Mr Ollie Te, by Mr Eye Opener. The 1996 gelding earned $100,403
in five years, with 10 wins and seven seconds from 34 starts. His first win was his trial for the Central Juvenile Challenge-G3 at Prairie Meadows, and his second was his trial for the Valley Junction Futurity-G2, which final he also won just a few weeks later.
“As a matter of fact,” Randy says, “I think that’s how Gwen got hooked on racing. We hadn’t actually gotten married at that time, and she was with me at Prairie Meadows.
Mr Ollie Te got out there and won that race and must’ve won $60-70,000. I think she thought, ‘This racehorse thing might not be too bad after all!’”
As a sophomore, Mr Ollie Te won his trial to the West/Southwest Derby Challenge-G3 at Arapahoe, and his final year he won the Mother’s Day Silver Cup Stakes and his trial for the Father’s Day Gold Cup, both at Mount Pleasant, Michigan.
THEIR EVOLVING OPERATION
Although at one time Randy and Gwen stood a homebred stallion (the 2001 colt Kool Quick Kid, by Royal Quick Dash and out of Hava Zevi), they decided their area wasn’t race oriented enough to support the venture. “Most people are more into golf and motorcycles and the lakes up here,” he says. “We’re the only ones around here who are involved in racehorses.”
But Kool Quick Kid did sire Kool Memories, whom Randy considers one of the best barrel horses east of the Mississippi River. And Kool Quick Kid’s full sister, WRS Quick Sister, was one of Williams Racing’s foundation mares.
These days, the couple breeds the biggest, strongest babies they can, then they turn them over to trainer Randy Smith to race at Horseshoe Indianapolis in Shelbyville, Indiana. “They’re good owners,” Smith says of the Williamses, for whom he’s trained for about seven years. “They
90 SPEEDHORSE September 2022
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Speedhorse Archives
Courtesy Williams Farms