Fred Danley To Be Remembered As One of Racing’s “All-Time Great” Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred Trainers

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9

(Ruidoso Downs, NM) Ownership and management of Ruidoso Downs Racetrack today expressed their sympathies to the family and friends of Fred Danley, the longtime stakes winning horse trainer that passed away at 83 at his home in Anthony, New Mexico.

“Fred devoted his life to training champion racehorses,” General Manager Rick Baugh said. “He started training in New Mexico with his dad, Ike, and continued as a fixture in our sport to the very end. He will be remembered as an all-time great in the industry.”

Danley-trained quarter horses and thoroughbreds won more than 3,000 races and earned more than $41 million over his sixty-five year career. Danley received his trainer’s license and began winning races at age 18 in 1963. His quarter horse Pour Me A Drinkk ran second in the Shue Fly Stakes on Saturday in El Paso, shortly before Fred passed away.

“There may never be a horse trainer in New Mexico to equal his career standards for hard work and longevity. He was bigger than life for many in the racing industry,” Ruidoso Downs All American Select Sale Manager Walt Wiggins said. “The number of horses that he successfully trained and managed is astonishing. He had a tremendous eye for what could make a champion racehorse and he did everything possible to develop racehorses to fulfill their potential.”

In 2019, Danley’s trained All American Derby winner Rusty’s Miracle. In 1963, Danley trained Mr. Tinky Bar, winner of the Kansas Futurity (later named the Ruidoso Futurity) and finished runner-up in the All American Futurity that year. He trained quarter horse Gotta Get to twenty-one career victories including nine straight during the 2004-08 racing seasons. There is a long list of owners and trainers that have partnered with Danley to find the winner’s circle in both breeds. He trained the 1994 quarter horse Namehimastreaker to twenty-eight wins and twenty-seven seconds in one hundred career starts.

“I’ve ridden plenty of horses for Fred,” AQHA Hall of Fame Jockey G.R. Carter remembered. “He would train a horse all the way up to race day. That was his pattern. There have been very few horse trainers—ever—that have been as successful over the long haul as Fred Danley.”