Page 67 - May 2022

“I haven’t seen that before,” I said.
“Oh, Bubba always does that to these babies. Teaches them to break straight,” Fish explained. “Don’t they crash into those boards sometimes?”
“No. By the time we break them out of the gates they done walked and trotted through there so many times they’re used to it.”
Needless to say, it was a tip I would use for many years to come.
Only a few weeks later, Cascio hauled the big Rocket Wrangler colt down to Del Rio and introduced the world to Dash For Cash, an immortal influence on the sprinting breed.
As for the Go Man Go colt, Fish touted me
on that day, he was named Windy Ryon. While Dash For Cash was already a burgeoning legend
by midsummer, his stablemate had been plagued by a series of minor problems which delayed his debut. It wasn’t until the trials for the Rainbow Futurity that Windy Ryon went postward and as bad luck would have it, he had to run his initial race on as bad a racing surface as you can imagine. This was years before they installed the Quarter Horse straightaway at Ruidoso Downs and the seasonal rains had caused the track to become deeply rutted
Bubba Cascio recalled, “B.F. Phillips had asked me earlier that day, ‘What about this colt?’ and I told him, ‘Today you might see the fastest horse you’ve ever seen in your life.’”
All day long, as we watched the trial races, each field would break normally, sprint normally onto the main track and immediately bog down in the deep mud. It was like they were hitting a wall all day. And the times reflected it. So, when Nicodemus and Windy Ryon left the gate on top, my eyes were pinned on them, waiting to see the deceleration when they hit the deep stuff. Just before the swamp, Nic took a good hold and held him together while Windy Ryon flew through that mud like
no horse ever before him, continuing
to stride as if he were on a normal
surface. The rest of the field collapsed as
all the others had done all day, likely
losing sight of Windy Ryon’s big red hindquarters. It took the Teletimer
to accurately describe the event.
Windy Ryon had raced 400 yards
in 19.86 seconds! His time was
and the surface was drying out slowly. I remember walking across that quagmire and feeling it pull at my well-fitted boots. If it wasn’t a foot deep, it was very close to it. It wasn’t too bad up on the chute for about 75 yards out of the gate. But as soon as the surface dropped onto the main oval, those horses hit a plowed field. It was the worst I ever saw.
All the 400-yard trials were run on a single day, beginning around 10 a.m. By late afternoon, the fastest heat had slogged through in a time of 20.56 seconds. When Jerry Nicodemus rode Windy Ryon onto the track, the colt was an obvious favorite based on his pedigree, his connections, and his workouts. But neither ordinary fans nor seasoned experts could have predicted what would come next.
Speedhorse Archives
Leading breeder B.F. Phillips with Dash For Cash.
more than five lengths faster than
Jerry Nicodemus, who rode Windy Ryon in his Rainbow Futurity
trial, is the #12 all-time leading jockey by money earned
with over $30.6 million.
Champion Ronas Ryon, a son of Windy Ryon, in a packed winner’s circle after winning the 1986 All American Futurity.
SPEEDHORSE May 2022 65
Speedhorse Archives
Speedhorse Archives