Ruidoso Downs Race Track Announces 2023 Hall of Fame Class 

(Ruidoso Downs, NM) — Ruidoso Downs Race Track will induct five individuals and one race horse into the prestigious Ruidoso Downs Race Track Hall of Fame this summer with the annual ceremony scheduled for June 29th, 2023.

Here are the 2023 Ruidoso Downs Race Horse Hall of Fame Inductees:

Horse: See Me Do It

See Me Do It, the 1989 AQHA World Champion, has been selected as this year’s horse inductee. Owned and bred by the late Jean Dillard, who passed away in 2021, See Me Do It won 17 career races in 24 starts accumulating earnings of $913,464.

As a two-year-old in 1988, See Me Do It finished second in the Grade-1 All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs, and won the Oklahoma Spring Futurity at Blue Ribbon Downs.

The filly went undefeated her three-year-old season winning three grade-1 stakes events including: the Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos; and the All American Derby and Rainbow Derby at Ruidoso Downs. She was the only horse in AQHA history to win all three of those prestigious stakes races.

The champion mare capped off her career as a four-year-old winning the 1990 All American Gold Cup and World Championship Classic at Ruidoso Downs.

See Me Do It was trained in Oklahoma and at Ruidoso Downs by Bobby Turner. While in California, she raced under the care of Blane Schvaneveldt.  She was ridden by jockey Larry Layton.

Owner: The Urschel Family (Dan, Jolene and Mary)

The Urschel family, known as one of the most successful owners and breeders in the quarter horse racing industry, will be honored by being inducted into the Ruidoso Downs Race Track Hall of Fame.

In 1973 the Urschel family won their first of an unprecedented four Rainbow Futurities with homebred mare Flying Rockette campaigned by Mary Urschel, Dan’s mother. Dan’s father Lester passed away shortly after that, and they took a short break from racing before re-entering the industry in 1978 when they purchased a six-figure yearling filly named Easy Dimple at the All-American Yearling Sale.

The family’s success on the race track continued in 1979 when Pie In The Sky won the All American Futurity that year. The following season, the family won the 1980 Rainbow Futurity and finished second in the All American Futurity with Mighty Deck Three.

In 1981, Dan and Jolene paid the highest price in history, $1 million, for a two-year-old quarter horse named Special Effort.  The son of Raise Your Glass (TB), Special Effort posted the fastest qualifying time in trials of the Kansas Futurity (now called the Ruidoso Futurity). Special Effort would go on to win the Kansas Futurity, the Rainbow Futurity and the All American Futurity and remains the only race horse to ever win the Triple Crown series. The young stallion had been syndicated for $15 million prior to winning the All-American Futurity and became one of the industry’s leading sires and leading broodmare sires.

Over a three-year span, 1979 to 1982, the Urschel family won the Kansas (Ruidoso) Futurity twice, Rainbow Futurity twice, the All American Futurity twice, and the Kansas (Ruidoso) Derby once. They also won the first running of the Heritage Place Futurity in 1981 with Jumbo Pacific.

The Urschel’s also bred leading AQHA sire Strawfly Special and they were partners in the ownership of Leading Spirit, who won the 2005 Ruidoso and Rainbow Futurities.

Mary Urschel campaigned many winners at Ruidoso Downs including Hall of Fame inductee Master Salls.

In 1998, Mary passed away followed by Dan in 2014. Dan’s wife Jolene continues to be involved in the racing industry along with their son Ken Urschel and daughter Dana Pinkston, all of Canadian, Texas.

Jockey: Joe A. Martinez

Jockey Joe A. Martinez, considered one of the top jockeys throughout the southwest during his three decade career, will become the latest jockey to become a member of the Ruidoso Downs Hall of Fame.

Martinez was at the height of his career in 1990 when he won an all-time record 103 races during one season at Ruidoso Downs.

Some of Martinez’s most notable mounts include: See Me Gone, winner of the 1991 Rainbow and All American Derby; Royal Down Dash, winner of the 1993 All American Derby, 1993 Sunland Park Fall Derby and 1994 New Mexico Challenge Championship; and World Champion Stoli, on board to win the 2000 West Texas Futurity.

A top rider of both quarter horses and thoroughbreds throughout his career, Martinez won over 4,000 races in 25,300 mounts with combined earnings of $36,500,000. He won over 140 stakes races including the All-American Derby twice, Rainbow Derby twice, Rainbow Futurity, Texas Classic Derby, and Riley Allison Futurity among other stakes events.

Trainer: Paul A. Smith

If there is a trainer known for stamina and longevity in the New Mexico racing industry, it would be Paul A. Smith who continues to train race horses in a career that dates back nearly seventy years. Smith becomes the newest trainer selected to the Ruidoso Downs Hall of Fame.

Smith first came to New Mexico training race horses in the 1950’s. Some of his earliest athletes that helped him to establish his career include: the famous match race horse Painted Joe Jr.; the two-furlong world record holder Red Jones; influential quarter horse sire Otoe; and foundation broodmares Miss Breeze Bar and Three’s Gal. Perhaps Smith’s most recognized stakes winner was the great Fast Gas who in the late sixties and early seventies won 18 stakes races throughout New Mexico, including five stakes races at Ruidoso Downs.

Smith-trained horses have more than 14,000 starts with 1,500 wins and career earnings of over $8,200,000.

Racing Official: Mike “Mitch” Mitchell

Recently retired after a long stint as Ruidoso Downs Race Track outrider, Mitch Mitchell was raised in South Dakota as part of a large ranching family. He began riding races while in high school at local race tracks Fort Pierre and Park Jefferson until he became physically too heavy. He began working at various race tracks across the country as a gallop boy, assistant trainer and other track-related positions.

By the mid-1980’s Mitch came to Ruidoso Downs and began working on the track’s gate crew for the next fifteen years. Then, after suffering an injury, he switched jobs to become the track’s outrider, a position he held for the next twenty years until his retirement in 2021.

The phrase “never met a stranger” describes Mitch perfectly. As head outrider, he took very seriously the responsibility for the safety of both jockey and race horse. He also enjoyed sitting in the saddle next to the rail in-between races to let race fans get an up-close look at his mount. He will be honored for his work by becoming a member of the Hall of Fame.

Special Achievement Induction: Scott Wells

Scott Wells has spent his lifetime in the horse racing industry after getting a fast head start. As a young boy he first accompanied his father Ted to Ruidoso Downs in 1960, and in a few short years they would win the 1965 All-American Futurity with Savannah Jr.

Striking out on his own in the early seventies, he worked as assistant trainer to racing legends D. Wayne Lukas, Jack Van Berg and Richard Hazelton. From that point, Wells became a licensed thoroughbred trainer on his own.

In 1990, Wells changed his career path and began working in race track management. First employed by Remington Park, he soon accepted a position as assistant general manager at Hollywood Park. That was followed by a general manager position at Ruidoso Downs, followed by a race track management position in Mexico City and Uruguay.

In 2004, Wells assumed the role of general manager at Remington Park and shortly thereafter accepted the same position at Lone Star Park. He held both positions until his retirement at the end of 2021.

When time allowed during his busy career, Wells authored many personal stories and poems about horse racing. He began publishing stories in what became Speedhorse Magazine in the 1970’s. In 1982, he collaborated with Speedhorse in the publication of The Nicodemus Era. From 1990 to 1992 Wells wrote more than one hundred columns for the Daily Racing Form. In 1996 Wells published What A Way To Go, an early history of Los Alamitos Race Course. In 2010, Wells published a novel, Teaching Narcissus to Swim, which is set in Ruidoso Downs.

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The annual banquet to honor the Hall of Fame inductees will be held at Alto Lakes Country Club on Thursday evening, June 29th at 6 p.m. Tickets to the banquet will be available through the Ruidoso Downs Box office at 575-378-4140.

Ruidoso Downs Race Track will open for the 2023 quarter horse and thoroughbred racing season on Friday, May 26 and run through Labor Day on Monday, September 4th. For more information visit www.raceruidoso.com.