Blue Ribbon Downs, proving ground for such Quarter racing legends as #1 all-time leading trainer Jack Brooks, #1 all-time leading rider G.R. Carter, as well as world champions Easy Jet, Miss Thermolark, Gold Coast Express and See Me do it, will close its gates permanently on November 28, the last day of its current meet.
Founded in 1960, as a match race track on Bill Hedge’s ranch in Sallisaw, Oklahoma, “Old Blue” or BRD, as it came to be known, defied logic as it grew from a straightaway track with a two-horse starting gate and 12-stall barn, in a rural agricultural community of 8,000 people, 160 miles east of Oklahoma City, to become the nation’s largest non-pari-mutuel track.
“It is simply due to a lack of patron support,” said general manager Blaine Story. “The whole racing industry nationwide has been struggling from a lack of support by patrons. We’ve been in good shape purse-wise the last few years, and the horsemen have responded with good horses and lots of full fields, but we just aren’t getting the fans to come out, watch and wager.”
Bill Hedge initially drew horsemen with yearling futurities, which were not condoned by AQHA. “The colts were already in training and their owners wanted to run them at something to find out if they were any good, before deciding whether to take them to bigger tracks,” Hedge explained. “The yearlings and early twos that could handle the pressure at BRD were the ones they could take to bigger tracks … and stand a good chance of winning.”
One of the “early twos” who launched his career at BRD was Easy Jet. By this time, BRD had gained AQHA approval and its popular yearling futurity had been replaced with the Blue Ribbon Futurity for two-year-olds, with its trials run on the day after New Year’s. One week after he won his Blue Ribbon Futurity trial, in 1969, Easy Jet set a track record in the finals. He would go on that year to win 20 more races, including the All American Futurity.
“I never pushed him an inch,” said Walter Merrick, Easy Jet’s trainer, who at the time was mindful of predictions that the colt would not last through his 2-year-old season. “I just let him run. If anything got stove up and a little tired, it was yours truly.” Easy Jet would win four more futurities, in four states through November, following his All American win. He was named AQHA World Champion in 1969, and the next year, he earned two additional world titles.
All Blue Ribbon Downs business was conducted from Hedge’s home, until he sold the track to a group of investors in 1973. Seven years later, Ralph Shebester purchased the track and made numerous improvements to the property itself and and to the benefit of Quarter racing. On December 3, 1983, BRD hosted the richest non-pari-mutuel race in history, the $1 million Black Gold Futurity, part of a championship series that was the model for Thoroughbred racing’s Breeders’ Cup.
Shebester led the drive for pari-mutuel racing in Oklahoma and in 1984, Blue Ribbon Downs became the first track in Oklahoma (or Texas) to conduct pari-mutuel wagering.
The track was eventually acquired by Race Horses Inc., which filed for involuntary bankruptcy in 1997 and 2002. In 2003, Blue Ribbon Downs was purchased for $4.25 million by the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, which began operating it as a racino in November 2004.
The track property will be put up for sale and there are unsubstantiated reports of at least two potentials buyers, including the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Coincidentally, on Friday, the day of Blue Ribbon Downs’ announcement of closure, the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma emerged from a bankruptcy auction in New York as the buyer of Lone Star Park in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex area.