R.D. HUBBARD

Stakes Highlights:

-Won 2007 Championship at Sunland Park with Ketel Won

-Won Zia Park Championship in 2007 with Ketel Won

-Won Champion of Champions with The Down Side in 2003

     Kansas native R.D. Hubbard spent over 30 years in the glass manufacturing industry, building AFG Industries into a Fortune 500 Company, which he sold in 1992. His current holdings include majority ownership of Ruidoso Downs Racetrack and Casino, where he currently serves as the tracks chairman, and Zia Park Racetrack in Hobbs, New Mexico. His previous racetrack interests included The Woodlands, Multnomah Kennel Club, Turf Paradise and Hollywood Park. R.D. Hubbard gained control of Hollywood Park in February 1991, and immediately began a massive facelift to restore the tracks Lakes and Flowers image. During his first meeting as Chairman of the Board and CEO, attendance increased 11.3 percent and handle rose 7.3 percent.

    Hubbard is no stranger to the Champions of Champions, having won the race with Denim N Diamonds in 1981 and as part owner of The Down Side in 2003. Hubbard also finished second with Super Sound Charge in 1980 and third with Denim N Diamonds in 1982 and Prissy Fein in 1985. The owner was also part of the Champion of Champions with fifth-place finisher Western Heart in 1997 and third place finisher Stoli in 2001. Hubbard co-owned Western Heart with Ed Allred and Prissy Fein with J.T. Hotten.  

  Alongside, John T.L. Jones and country music artist Toby Keith, R.D. campaigned  Champion of Champions winner and All American Futurity finalist The Down Side. The partners also campaigned the talented older horses Planet Holland and Latest Version at Los Alamitos. Longtime partners in the horse business, Hubbard and Jones won the 1998 Ruidoso Horse Sale Futurity (G1) with First Down Bounce and the '99 Rainbow Derby (G1) with My Dashing Lady, one of world champion Dash For Cash's final foals. Hubbard's wife, Joan Dale, is the owner of the superstar distance horse Prankster CF. The latter is undefeated in four starts around the turn. Regarded as the nation's #1 distance horse, Prankster CF won the Marathon National on December 12, 2004. Hubbard's stable will also feature the stakes placed Latest Version, also a finalist in the Los Alamitos Winter Championship, and Rainbow Futurity winner Planet Holland. Top 2-year-olds in the stable will include the speedy Separate Tac, a half-sister of Vandy's Flash Handicap winner I Ought To Be First, and maiden winner Shesnowlady. 

     A former member of the NTRA Board of Directors, Hubbard is a principal owner of Crystal Springs Farm in Paris, Kentucky, and has Thoroughbred interests in Argentina and Brazil. In 1992, the Hubbards founded the R.D. and Joan Dale Hubbard Foundation, and he is also the founder of the The Hubbard Museum of the American West, featuring an incredible art collection of Anne C. Stradling. In 1991, R.D. established the Shoemaker Foundation, named in honor of Hall of Fame Thoroughbred jockey Bill Shoemaker. The Shoemaker Foundation provides financial relief for riders with debilitating illnesses or injuries.