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of my mind to race him and lo and behold, there was a track in Grants Pass less than 10 miles west of us.”
He started looking for a trainer and found Jo Durham. “She was the one who got me started,” Rod says. “I didn’t know what I
was doing, but I knew I wanted to race that horse. I’d only been a building contractor
for a few years at that point and didn’t really have the money to do it. But she wanted to help me get started and she also had some projects she needed done at home. So, in 1988 we began trading training for building projects. The horse, Spear Lee Vision [Spear Lee Jr-Prints Vision, Red Print], never won
a race but he got second one time and he put the bug in me. I’ve been involved in the horse business ever since.”
Rod’s interest and participation grew to
the point where he and his wife of 26 years, Alyson, owned a 75-acre ranch where they stood four stallions and owned about 30
horses in addition to boarding, breaking, and breeding about 50 others there. “She’s been right there with me and very supportive,” Rod says, “and even though it’s been more my thing than hers, she’s had her own horses at times and raced them and had riding horses.”
They raised two boys on the ranch: Carson, now 21, married and stationed at Hill Air Force Base in Ogden, Utah, and Chase, 24, who works in management for In And Out Burger.
THE FIRST SAVE
In 2012, Josephine County, home to
Grants Pass Downs, decided to discontinue support for racing. So Southern Oregon Horse Racing Association (SOHRA), of which Rod was president, decided to lease the facility and run a race meet. “He took
the front side, and I took the back side that first year or two,” says Harvey Boyle, past president of SOHRA, based at Grants Pass Downs. “He was the race meet director and we put together a meet and made a run. Rod Lowe saved racing in southern Oregon; it was going to go under.
“He stepped up and talked to the membership and said, ‘We can do this,’
so we all ended up doing it. He convinced everyone we had to donate our time because we didn’t have any money, and he went
to the Oregon Racing Commission and convinced them to give us some money. We ran that fair meet quite a few years and then about five years ago, I stepped out of the backside of it, and he pretty much took over the whole thing.”
Harvey points to Rod’s vision, intelligence, perseverance, and persuasive skills as his keys to success. “He’s a good salesman, and he excels at evaluating people’s skills and then tapping those skills. I don’t even know if he’s aware of how good he is at that,” Harvey says.
SAVE NUMBER TWO
Although Rod has been involved with
both Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses, he now focuses strictly on the sprinters. He races mainly in Oregon and at Los Alamitos, home base for his trainer Jimmy Glenn Jr. “Jimmy has been a fixture down there for years and his parents were there for years before him,” says Rod, who has also run horses in Washington, Idaho, Arizona, at Retama Park in Texas and Remington Park in Oklahoma City.
He credits Dave and Dave’s wife, Leah,
of Salem, with being his greatest influence over the years. “They’ve been the head of the Oregon Quarter Horse Racing Association for several years while I’ve been on the board,” Rod says. “They have really pushed me to be involved in things that I either didn’t know if I could do, or should do, or even wanted to do. Dave, especially, has encouraged me to be involved with AQHA, so I’m now a director for Oregon and am also on the racing committee.”
Rod has also been on the AQHA’s council committee and champion selection committee. “Once I became a director for Oregon racing, what I do with AQHA and of course our local organization really expanded,” Rod adds. “Dave has really coached me along. Sometimes trying to move out of my comfort zone has been hard but he has encouraged me to do that,
“and it has worked out well.”
“They have really pushed me to b b e e i i n nv vo o l lv ve e d d
i i n n t t h h i i n ng g s s t t h h a a t t
I I e e i i t t h h e e r r d d i i d d n n’ ’ t t k kn n o o w w i i f f I I c c o o u u l l d d do, or should do, or even wanted to do.” – – R R o o d d s s a a y ys s o o f f Dave Nelson
Oregon Quarter Horse Racing Association board member Dave Nelson and wife Leah. Susan Bachelor, Speedhorse
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“