RUIDOSO DOWNS, NM—DECEMBER 19, 2014—Owner/breeder Jerry Windham will be inducted into the Ruidoso Downs Racehorse Hall of Fame during ceremonies in June.

Each year the Ruidoso Downs Racehorse Hall of Fame inducts one owner/breeder, one trainer, one jockey and one horse. The trainer, jockey and horse will be announced in the near future.

Jerry Windham was the 2000 American Quarter Horse Association president and has bred and raced world champions.

“I’ve just done what I’ve enjoyed. I’m really grateful,” Windham said.

A basketball player at Texas A&M University, Windham was not involved with horses until his family — wife Pat and their three children — started showing quarter horses. Pat had gone to Ruidoso Downs as a child and then took Jerry after they were married. They then bought their first racehorse in 1977.

Windham was one of the first horsemen to recognize the potential of the thoroughbred Beduino (tb). At the 1982 PCQHRA Yearling Sale he bought a Beduino (tb) filly named Indigo Illusion.

Indigo Illusion earned $476,890 and was the 1983 champion two-year-old filly on her way to induction into the AQHA Hall of Fame. The highlight of her career came in the 1983 Faberge Special Effort Futurity. She raced the 440-yards in :21.26 for the fastest quarter mile ever by a two-year-old at the time.

Windham then found the Beduino (tb) colt Runaway Winner.

Runaway Winner won the 1987 Grade 1, $436,172 Kindergarten at Los Alamitos and then the 1988 Grade 1, $222,780 El Primero Del Ano Derby when it was run at Bay Meadows for several years.

Runaway Winner became a leading sire when he hit the breeding barn. He sired champions Deceptively and Treacherously among his 65 stakes winners and 103 stakes-placed competitors. One of those stakes-placed horses was Windham’s Veva Jean, who ran second in the Grade 3 Barnmaster Sprint Stakes.

Veva Jean turned out to be a great producer for Windham. She is the dam of Windham’s 2008 world champion Stolis Winner, who won the Grade 1, $1.9 million All American Futurity, the Grade 1, $625,000 Rainbow Futurity and the Grade 1, $1,084,194 Heritage Place Futurity. He was the all-time leading money earner at $2,235,161 until he was surpassed by current leading money earner Ochoa. Veva Jean also produced 2014 Grade 1, $900,000 Rainbow Futurity winner Trendi and 2014 Grade 1, $350,000 Bank of America Challenge Championship winner Stimulus.

Trendi was sold to William Smith at the 2013 Ruidoso Select Yearling Sale for $210,000 while Windham races Stimulus.

Windham is also breeder and co-owner of 2013 champion two-year-old filly Kates Dynasty, winner of the Grade 1, $1,000,000 Texas Classic Futurity.

Other Grade 1 winners raced by Windham include Kansas Futurity winner Magic Dozen, Dash For Cash Futurity winner Sixes Streak and AQHA Distaff Challenge Championship winner Fast For Money.

For further information about the Ruidoso Downs Racehorse Hall of Fame, go to www.raceruidoso.com, click on the racing pull-down menu and click on Racehorse Hall of Fame.