Page 71 - July 2020

“We enjoy racing, but we enjoy breeding as much, if not more. Something we truly enjoy is matching our mares to stallions, trying to find the right conformation to enhance the mare. That’s what we do.”
State offered soccer as well. I just jumped on a train and went out there. I think I got $40 toward tuition, got a job cleaning the gym, and started my collegiate career. It was a very good move. In ‘58, ‘59 and ‘60, San Jose State won the NCAA boxing all three years. Our coach went to Rome with the Olympic team. That was the year Muhammad Ali went—or Cassius Clay in those days.
Q: You’ve worked exclusively with Quarter Horses all these years. Why? A: I was working in the design and furniture business in California, San Francisco. Then I went down to L.A. and became a manufacturer’s representative for many years. Raised my family and so on. Went to Santa Anita almost weekly, and Hollywood Park. Then I discovered Los Alamitos. I saw a horse named Viking Copy win the Los Alamitos Derby and I thought, I really like this. Who would you rather watch in the Olympics? Would you rather watch the 100-yard dash or the 3-mile run? So, I loved the Quarter Horses. I became a big fan.
Q: What are your hobbies?
A: This consumes me pretty much. I had
a retail business, which I retired from in December. The horses keep me pretty busy. I like to play golf once in a while. I belong to Bermuda Dunes Country Club. I don’t play much, or I play with my old friends once in a while. My brother, he comes out once a year and we’ll play. Or Nolan Martinez, my grandson, we’ll play. He was a top choice [third-round draft pick] for the Yankees in 2016, right out of Culver City High School.
Q: Do you have a nickname and, if so, what is it and how did it come about? A: I’ve been called a lot of things—some of them not too complimentary and they were probably deserved.
Q: What is the strangest personality quirk you have ever seen in a horse? A: The fastest horse I ever saw, we raised, but he was a tough horse to train and to get to do anything right. That horse was Bon Accord. ... we gelded him, and he was still hard to work with. You had to play games with him all the time. He was the fastest qualifier to the [2013] All American Derby. He broke 21 seconds going 440. He won about $700,000 but that
horse easily could have won 2-3 million dollars, easily. He was just a quirky personality ... still the fastest horse I ever saw. And absolutely
the biggest pain in the butt imaginable. Juan Aleman was his trainer. Raul Valenzuela was his rider and did a great job with him.
Q: What is your favorite thing about living where you live?
A: When I moved here, with the freeways, you could go anywhere you want in 10, 15 minutes. It’s a different world out here today. Housing
is incredibly expensive. I purchased a home
out in the desert two decades ago. When this COVID-19 thing came around I moved out to my home out here. I certainly enjoy living out here. The weather’s been tolerable. It gets hot but if you get everything done by 10:30 or 11 in the morning, you can catch up other stuff around the house. There’s something about waking up every morning with the sun shining on you. That’s what you get out here.
Q: What’s one thing you don’t like about Quarter Horse racing?
A: Some of the skullduggery that goes on with the drugs. I think there’s been a lot of progress the last few years. Dr. Allred set the stage
for trying to cut back on this stuff. He made
a hard choice and it was the right choice to make, running off any of the people who have cheated. You go to all the trouble of breeding and raising these horses. There’s nothing worse than seeing them get beat by inferior horses who may be running on enhanced programs. ... I’m a real hard-liner when it comes to that.
Q: What’s one thing you like about Quarter Horse racing?
A: I like the people who are in the business. They’re cattlemen, they’re farmers, which is my background. They’re oilmen, which is not my background. But they’re very down-to- earth people. They’re more enjoyable to be around, based on what I experienced, than
the Thoroughbred business. Most of them [in Thoroughbreds] don’t know enough about horses to come in out of the rain. To me, what it’s all about, it’s all about the horse to me and the people around the horse. For the most part, they’re hands-on. Even some of the scoundrels in the business, they’re good horsemen. I’ll say that for them.
Garvan congratulating jockey Raul Valenzuela after winning the Southern California Derby.
THE LIGHTER SIDE
Garvan with long time business partner Nancy Yearsley.
Garvan says Bon Accord (above) was the fastest horse he ever saw.
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