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Galobar was the first All American Futurity winner in 1959.
In a short time, Hensley offered Wiggins full time employment as the track’s publicity and marketing director. Wiggins accepted.
It took a brave soul to advertise an “imaginary” race with an “estimated” purse
of $50,000 in 1958 when the nation’s average income was $4,650 and a nice house cost around $10,000. A $50,000 horse race seemed like an impossible fantasy. Especially in a remote New Mexican village with a small and widely scattered local population. But Hensley was
just such a brave soul and he had bought the track after having seen substantial crowds show up there for July 4 celebrations featuring rodeo events and horse racing. The Hensley family business as commercial liquor distributors in Arizona had taught him much about human nature and business opportunities. He also knew Ruidoso had something rare and desirable in that region of the country—cool summer temperatures. The mountain oasis was a perfect
place to escape the blazing heat of the summer months in neighboring Texas, Oklahoma, and Arizona. It was also a perfect place to escape the daily scrutiny of one’s friends, neighbors, and congregations. It was a place where one might partake of an adult beverage or even make a wager on a horse race.
So, Hensley made his own daring wager
on a horse race. The concept of the race, which has become the cornerstone of the Quarter Horse racing industry over the past six decades, was a daring experiment with
no guarantee it would be sustainable. Some other such efforts had failed. But those failed projects did not have Walt Wiggins promoting them. Advertising was, of course, part of their strategy and Wiggins was a master copy writer and layout artist. But an even more important tactic was a nationwide grass-roots effort to convince Quarter Horse breeders to nominate their racing prospects.
The late cowboy singer Ray Reed, who worked for Hensley and Wiggins during that time, put it this way: “Walt worked up all the materials and the nomination blanks and Gene and me would fill up the back of my pickup with cases of whiskey and they’d send me to visit just about every breeder in the country, from California to New York. I’d be gone for weeks at a time, just me and my guitar. I’d try to let folks know I was coming but sometimes
I couldn’t. I’d try to get there when there was good daylight so we could look at all the horses so we could get to braggin’ on ‘em a little. Then sometimes we might take a sip of whiskey or two before dinner. Then after dinner I’d pull out my old guitar and pick and sing for a while. When I left the next mornin’, I’d leave some nomination blanks and a full bottle of whiskey just so they could stay warm while they were lookin’ at their colts and thinkin’ about it.”
It took a brave soul to advertise an “imaginary” race with an “estimated” purse of $50,000 in 1958 when the nation’s average income was $4,650 and a nice house cost around $10,000.
82 SPEEDHORSE November 2022
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