Go Man Go

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Go Man Go
- Go Man Go -
Breed:	Quarter Horse
Discipline:	Racing
Sire:	Top Deck (TB)
Grandsire:	Equestrian (TB)
Dam:	Lightfoot Sis
Maternal grandsire:	Very Wise (TB)
Sex:	Stallion
Foaled:	1953
Country:	United States
Color:	roan
Breeder:	J. B. Ferguson
Honors
Racing Record
47-27-9-3, AAAT speed rating[2]
Race Earnings
$86,151.00[2]
Major Racing Wins
PCQHRA Futurity, Autumn Championship (twice), Wonder Lad Stakes (twice), Clabbertown G stakes (three times);[3][4] Winner Take All Stakes; Barbara B Handicap; Champion Stakes; Ruidoso Derby; State Fair Stallion Stakes; Gold Bar Stakes; New Mexico State Fair[5]
Racing Awards
1955 World Champion Quarter Running Horse; 1956 World Champion Quarter Running Horse; 1957 World Champion Quarter Running Horse;[2] Superior Race Horse; 1957 High Money Earning Racehorse; 1956 High Money Earning Horse[5]
Honors
AQHA Hall of Fame[1]
Infobox last updated on: April 4, 2008.

Go Man Go was a Quarter Horse stallion and racehorse. He was named World Champion Quarter Running Horse for three years in a row, one of only two horses to achieve that distinction. His father was the unraced Thoroughbred stallion Top Deck, who was bred by the King Ranch. His dam, or mother, hailed from Louisiana, and although she also was unraced, she passed on her speed to her offspring. Go Man Go was considered mean, and on his very first race while in the starting gate he threw his jockey and broke the gate down and raced around the track. He was eventually caught and went on to win the race. He retired from racing after five years with 27 wins and earnings of over $86,000.

While he was still racing, his owner faced difficulty with Go Man Go's registration with the American Quarter Horse Association (or AQHA), but eventually this was resolved in 1958. He went on to sire, or father, two All American Futurity winners, as well as a seven Champion Quarter Running Horses. He was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame, along with two of his offspring. His daughters also produced a number of race winners, including the Hall of Fame member Kaweah Bar. The director of racing for the AQHA once compared his impact on Quarter Horse racing and breeding to the Thoroughbred Man o' War or the athletes Ben Hogan and Babe Ruth.

Contents 1 Background and early life 2 Racing career 3 Ownership and registration problems 4 Breeding career and legacy 5 Pedigree 6 Notes 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Background and early life

Go Man Go was born in Wharton, Texas in 1953, and was sired by Top Deck (TB) and his dam was an Appendix Quarter horse mare named Lightfoot Sis. Lightfoot Sis was from Louisiana, and showed classic short speed in her pedigree,^[6] although she was unraced due to an injury as a filly that left her without sight in one eye.^[7] Her sire was the Thoroughbred Very Wise, and her dam was a Quarter Horse mare named Clear Track.^[6] Top Deck was owned by the King Ranch, and although he was unraced himself, his sire Equipoise won the 1942 Kentucky Derby.^[8]

Scott Wells, a racing correspondent, wrote in The Speedhorse Magazine that the horse "grew up lean and hard-boned, long-bodied and long-hipped, but not the best looking horse in the world. Not the best looking, just the best."^[9] Most reports are that Go Man Go was a handful to handle.^[10] His trainer once told Walt Wiggins Sr that Go Man Go was "jes plain mean as a bear most of the time."^[11]

[edit] Racing career

Go Man Go raced for five years, and started in 47 races. From those race starts, he won 27 times, placed second nine times and was third three times. His race earnings were $86,151.00 with 88 racing points from the AQHA. From the AQHA he earned a Superior Race Horse award as well as a Race Register of Merit. The best speed rating, or racing grade, he achieved was AAAT, the highest grade awarded at the time.^[2] Go Man Go was named World Champion Quarter Running Horse for three years running in the middle 1950s, for the years 1955, 1956 and 1957.^[4] The first year he won the World Champion Quarter Running title, he was the very first two-year-old to win the title.^[10] He was a mutlitple stakes winner,^[12] winning the Clabbertown G Stakes three times in a row. Other stakes wins included the Pacific Coast Quarter Racing Association Futurity and LA Autumn Championship.^[3] When he retired, he held the world records at 440 yd (400 m) and 350 yd (320 m), as well as age and gender records at 400 yd (370 m).^[12] Go Man Go is still the only stallion to win the title World Champion Quarter Running Horse three times, and shares the distinction of being the only three time winner of the award with Woven Web (TB).^[13]

In his very first race, he flipped over in the starting gate, dumped his rider, and crashed through the front to run around the whole track before finally allowing himself to be caught and reloaded. He went on to win the race. His next five races were won by him with a total of nine horse-lengths lead.^[10] His last race on September 6, 1959 at Ruidoso Downs was the last of the twelve times he faced Vandy's Flash, and the only time that Vandy's Flash won over Go Man Go.^[14]

[edit] Ownership and registration problems

When he was a two-year-old in 1955, A. B. Green bragged that he intended to buy Go Man Go from his breeder, J. B. Ferguson, but Ferguson did not want to sell the horse. However, he felt he had to at least set a price, so having heard that Green had come to see Go Man Go with a cashier's check for $40,000 ready to pay Ferguson, Ferguson set the price at $42,000 cash and twenty-one breedings to the stallion. Green surprised Ferguson by having the cash, and Ferguson felt compelled to sell Go Man Go. However, two years later, Ferguson bumped into Green at an Los Alamitos race meet, and Green claimed that Green's newest horse Double Bid could outrace Go Man Go. This incensed Ferguson, who had just entered Go Man Go's full brother Mr Mackay in a race with Double Bid. Ferguson bet Green $42,000 against Go Man Go that Mr Mackay would beat Double Bid in the upcoming race. Mr Mackay won the race, and Ferguson had Go Man Go back. Later, however, sure that he owned Go Man Go's full brother and father and mother still, he sold Go Man Go to Frank Vessels Sr. and Bill and Harriet Peckham for $125,000. Unfortunately, later the full brother, and mother and father of Go Man Go were all killed.^[15]

It was Green who ran into problems with Go Man Go's registration. At that time, the AQHA had two types of registration, the Appendix and the Tenative. Appendix registered horses were the offspring of Thoroughbreds and either Tenative-registered Quarter Horses, or of Thoroughbreds and Appendix-registered Quarter Horses. Go Man Go was originally registered in the Appendix, as his dam was an Appendix-registered mare. The way to advance out of the Appendix into the Tentative registry was to qualify on performance grounds and pass a conformation examination conducted by the AQHA. Go Man Go certainly qualified under the performance criteria, but his conformation was such that he more resembled a Thoroughbred than a Quarter Horse. Green, however, knew that in order to increase the stud fees, or price charged for the right to breed a mare to a stallion, he could charge, Go Man Go needed to acquire a Tentative number rather than his Appendix number. So Green appealed to the Executive Committee of the AQHA, which had the ability to give horses Tentative numbers without passing the conformation exam. In both 1956 and 1957, the committee declined to take action, waiting on Go Man Go's first foals to make a decision. Finally, in 1958 they awarded Go Man Go number 82,000 in the Tentative registry.^[6]

[edit] Breeding career and legacy

Retired to the breeding shed, he early on proved his worth as a stallion.^[6] From the first year of foals, in 1958, three of them made the finals of the All American Futurity: Mr Meyers, Dynago Miss and Angie Miss.^[16][17] His stud fee in 1960 was $500, but by 1963 it was $2,500.^[18] He sired 942 foals, and 552 of them earned their Race Register of Merit. Seventy-two of his offspring were awarded a Superior Race Horse award.^[6] Among his get were Go Josie Go, Dynago Miss, Duplicate Copy, Story Man, and Hustling Man.^[4] His daughter Goetta won the All American Futurity and was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame.^[19] Another daughter, Ought To Go was also inducted into the AQHA Hall of Fame.^[1] Eight of his offspring won Champion Quarter Running Horse awards.^[4] His entry listing his offspring who won Race Register of Merits in the Quarter Racing Digest covers five full pages plus part of another.^[2] As a broodmare sire, or maternal grandsire, his daughters have produced Rocket Wrangler, Mr Kid Charge, Kaweah Bar, and Go Together.^[16][20][21] As of April 2008, his offspring had earned over $7,000,000 on the racetrack.^[5]

Even though he was foaled in 1953, and most of his offspring raced before the days of large purses, as of April 2008, he was still number 22 on the AQHA's All-Time Leading Sires of Winners list, and ranked 41 on the same listed organized by race earnings.^[22][23] As a broodmare sire, he still is number two on the AQHA's list of All-Time Leading Broodmare sires of winners, and number ten on the same list arranged by earnings.^[24][25]

He was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame.^[1] A further honor was the naming of a stakes race after him.^[26] He died in 1983 and is buried near the headquarters of the Bueno Suerte Ranch in Roswell, New Mexico, with a crown-shaped granite headstone engraved with "Go Man Go, The King."^[27] Walt Wiggins, a racing commentator and author, described Go Man Go as "He was a brilliant speedhorse, some say the fastest ever. He was wild and reckless, a rogue at first, and often a clown who selom saw the uniqueness of his talents of the seriousness of his commission. He had intrinsic greatness and couldn't care less."^[28] Dan Essary, who was Director of Racing for the AQHA for many years, described Go Man Go's impact on the Quarter Horse breed as "He was to Quarter Horse racing what Babe Ruth was to baseball, what Ben Hogan was to Golf and what Man O'War was to Thoroughbred racing. Horses may have run faster and horses have earned more money, but the fame of Go Man Go lingers."^[29]

[edit] Pedigree

Pennant (TB)

Equipoise (TB)

Swinging (TB)

Equestrian (TB)

Man o' War (TB)

Frilette (TB)

*Frillery (TB)

Top Deck (TB)

*Chicle (TB)

Chicaro (TB)

Wendy (TB)

River Boat (TB)

*Sir Gallahad 3rd (TB)

Last Boat (TB)

Taps (TB)

Go Man Go

Mentor (TB)

Wise Counsellor (TB)

Rustle (TB)

Very Wise (TB)

*Ormond (TB)

Omona (TB)

Simona (TB)

Lightfoot Sis

Dewey (TB)

The Dun Horse

Mais

Clear Track

Old DJ

Ella

mare by Beauregard

An * means that the horse was imported into North America. (TB) stands for Thoroughbred.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Go Man Go at Quarter Horse Directory
• Go Man Go at Quarter Horse Legends
• All Breed Pedigree Database Pedigree of Go Man Go