Trainer Shawn Davis thanks his lucky stars every day that he is even able to physically walk into his barn at Remington Park every morning.
He is 83 years old now and when he was 29, he was told by doctors that he would likely never walk again and obviously would never train horses again. But here he is, returning to this track with two stakes winners from the 2023 Remington Park meet – U.S. Army, who won the Jeffrey A. Hawk Memorial and Soul Sacrifice, who won the Jim Thorpe Stakes.
“When I was 29, I had already won the World Championships of 1965, 1967 and 1968 in saddle bronc riding,” he said. “It was about 1970 and I was up in Montana, riding in a rodeo when I broke my back. I was riding a bronc, one that had never been ridden in 17 tries and I went to spur him and he jumped up in the air and flipped. When I came down, I had broken my back.”
It only got worse. Davis said that rodeo had no ambulance and no doctors. So, the veterinarian looked him over after he tried to get up and couldn’t move his legs. With no ambulance, they loaded him up in a station wagon and shipped him off to meet an ambulance in Missoula.
“Then when they were transporting me, they ran out of gas,” he said. “It took them hours of waiting to get me to the hospital. When we finally made it, the doctors said most people with his kind of injuries don’t live through it and rarely ever walk again.”
A year and a half later, Davis was back on the rodeo circuit after being in a body cast for “six or seven months.” A rodeo legend, 16-time World Champion and Pro Rodeo Hall of Famer Jim Shoulders of Henryetta, called Davis and asked him if he wanted to get on a horse. Shoulders was known as the “Babe Ruth of Rodeo.” How do you turn down Babe Ruth?
“So I got up on the horse and probably gave him the worst ride of his life,” said Davis. “The next day was better and pretty soon I was riding again.”
Davis said he rode in seven National Finals when doctors thought he would be an invalid. Those same doctors, he said, were flocking to him to find out what he had done to get back to that.
“I never won another World Championship; I wasn’t as good, but I rode,” he said. “I was certainly walking even though I had broken four or five vertebrae in my accident.”
At one point, Davis quit riding and was doing all kinds of executive jobs in rodeo, one of them was producing a rodeo for then-President Ronald Reagan in Maryland, which led to dinner with the President on the White House Lawn.
There isn’t much room to improve off that, so he turned to racehorses in the 1980s, prior to Equibase recording any statistics. He said he won seven or eight of his first 11 races, but his first “official” winner as a trainer, according to Equibase, was 3-yearold filly Blurred Colors on May 27, 1991, at Les Bois racetrack in Boise, Idaho. Davis has shot up in the training world since then, conditioning such runners as the two Remington Park stakes winners along with another sprinter, Chief Cicatriz, who won the top sprint of the meet here in 2020, the David M. Vance Stakes. That gelding wound up winning more than $600,000 under Davis’ tutelage.
U.S. Army, a Kentucky-bred 4-year-old gelding by Army Mule, out of the War Front mare She Stays Rollin is owned by George Sharp. U.S. Army’s record, as he returns to Remington Park, is 20 starts, five wins, six seconds and three thirds for earnings of $243,494. He was ridden to victory in the Jeffrey A. Hawk by Luis Quinonez. He went off the 9-5 favorite in that Dec. 15, 2023, race. He hasn’t won since, but had good second- and third-place finishes at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., this year.
“We will try to get him entered in an allowance race here and see,” Davis said of his plans for U.S. Army. “The goal is to have him ready for the Hawk again. He was a bit of a disappointment for me when we got him, but his attitude has changed since I have had him. You have to build up their confidence. He was kind of ‘blah’ when he lost. But if you treat them like you want to be treated, they come around and he appears to be.”
Soul Sacrifice, an Oklahoma-bred 4-year-old gelding by Home of the Brave, out of the Super Saver mare Dulces Suenos, is owned by Casner Racing and was ridden to the Jim Thorpe Stakes win by Jose Alvarez. He was the 3-1 second favorite and has now run out $99,275 with five wins in 13 starts. He has had only two races since winning the Thorpe on Dec. 15, and he ran 10th and sixth at Sam Houston Race Park in Texas against allowance and starter optional claiming company.
“He didn’t seem to compete well against open company,” said Davis, “but we rested him (since March 16) and he has done well here. I hope he runs like he is training because he has looked great.”
Regardless of how any of his racehorses do here this meet, Davis figures he’s ahead of the game. He is thrilled to be anywhere after being told he wouldn’t walk again. He doesn’t even think about retirement.
“I was still galloping horses at 76 and I still get up on the pony now to watch workouts,” he said. “Besides, I feel like I have lots of time left. My dad was 89 when he passed. My mom was just five days short of 101 when we lost her. Her dad was 96. I just know I have a lot better attitude about life when I come to the barn in the morning, not just sitting around doing nothing in a chair.”
– Workouts – Wednesday, Aug. 7 Multiple Remington Park stakes winner Rowdy Rascal shared the five-furlong bullet honors this morning while training with stablemate Even Terms. The pair worked in company for trainer Boyd “Jobe” Caster, over a fast track in :59.51, handily.
Wednesday training took place under sunny skies with temperatures in the mid-70s. A total of 110 horses received official workouts this morning.
Owned by JT Stables of Springdale, Ark., Rowdy Rascal enjoyed his most recent local stake triumph in the 2022 Jim Thorpe Stakes. All of his Remington Park stakes wins have been against fellow Oklahoma- breds. The 5-year-old gelding is by Den’s Legacy from Dancing Diva who is by Affirmatif. Erik McNeil was up for the work Wednesday morning. Rowdy Rascal brings a career mark of 26 attempts, six wins, a pair of seconds and four more third-place efforts into the upcoming season, with $282,462 in earnings.
Even Terms may be ready for improvement of the drill with Rowdy Rascal. The Oklahoma-bred 3-year-old is owned by Olis Goodnight of Meade, Kan. and has only a maiden victory to his credit, scoring against fellow state-bred $7,500-claiming company at Remington Park on Oct. 21, 2023. A son of Majestic Hussar from the Liquor Cabinet (Ire) broodmare Calico Star was bred by Goodnight. Obed Sanchez was up for the bullet move.
The top four-furlong work went to Gee She’s Fancy, trained by Kevin Scholl, as the 5-year-old Texas-bred mare went in :47.22, handily. Owned by Jeffry and Julie Puryear of Denton, Texas, Gee She’s Fancy is by Gormley from the Even The Score broodmare Fancy Ticket. Scholl was aboard Gee She’s Fancy this morning.
Remington Park has provided more than $357 Million to the State of Oklahoma general education fund since the opening of the casino in 2005. Located at the junction of Interstates 35 & 44, in the heart of the Oklahoma City Adventure District, Remington Park presents simulcast racing daily and nonstop casino gaming. The 2024 Thoroughbred Season will begin on August 16. Must be 18 or older to wager on horse racing or enter the casino gaming floor. Visit remingtonpark.com for more information.
