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After a few months of looking, Jelks offered up his personal training track, located just south of his ranch house and stables on River Road near First Avenue. His track was chosen to become a new public track, partly because it was 4 miles from the center of the city, which was workable for most individuals despite war rations on gas and tires. Also, it was on the bus lines.

All of the movable parts from the closed Moltacqua track, such as the grandstands, judges’ stand and concessions stands, were relocated there.

Also, a three-eighths-of-a-mile straightaway or chute was added to the original half-mile track. This portion of the track was the site where the rules and specifications for quarter horse racing were established by Melville Haskell between 1943 and 1946. It is the origin of the straightaway chute system, a standard for quarter horse racing today.

This chute is now on the National Register of Historic Places, as is the entire track.

A champion sire

In August 1943, Jelks took a trip to Lexington, Kentucky, where he purchased a yearling by the name of Piggin’ String, who would go on to be a champion and also sire numerous other champion race horses.

The first season at the Rillito Race Track, 1943 to 1944, had both quarter horse and thoroughbred races each Sunday, with the exception of the World’s Championship Quarter Horse Speed Trials in February, which were held over multiple days. Shue Fly was named the World Champion Quarter Running Horse for the third consecutive year.

Jelks’ new horse Piggin’ String, ridden by Frank Figueroa, was the highlight at many races that season as he dominated some races over other top horses. Jelks also raced several of his other top horses, including Tio and Retire, with several victories to their names.

Before the beginning of the 1944-45 racing season, a small pamphlet about the Rillito Race Track and the new American Quarter Racing Association (AQRA) — initiated by M.H. Haskell to keep ringers from running and to put racing on an organized basis — was printed.

New rules set

The pamphlet shared a little information about the new AQRA on the back page:

“Racing at Rillito during 1944-45 will be conducted under the Rules and Regulations of the recently formed American Quarter Racing Association. Since performance of the Horse and the promotion of clean sport are what the Association is interested in, any foul riding or unsportsmanlike behavior will be severely penalized under these rules. Provision is made for registration ‘for racing purposes only’ of all horses taking part in Quarter Races and any horse, no matter what his breeding is eligible. This will help in handicapping as well as identification, since the horse’s record will be kept on the back of his Registration Certificate which must be presented at each Associated Track where he wished to start. Application for registration may be made at any track recognized by the Association or by writing to M.H. Haskell, Acting Registrar. “

The new organization wasn’t formally organized until February of 1945.

In January 1945, after the U.S. government had requested the Rillito Race Track be shut down until further notice due to the war, Jelks temporarily donated the track and all its facilities to the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Livestock Show to hold the yearly speed trials. There wasn’t any pari-mutuel wagering that day, and the only reason for the speed tests was to gauge performance, as that was a quality used in judging quarter horses.

Queeny overcomes

For this event, Jelks planned on entering his top “short horse,� Piggin’ String, but he was injured. Jelks purchased Queeny (now spelled Queenie), a 6-year-old partially crippled mare who despite her disability had dominated races in New Mexico and Louisiana.

On Feb. 4, 1945, the World’s Championship Quarter Horse Speed Trials, part of the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Horse Show, in connection with the 12th annual ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Livestock Show, was held at the Rillito Race Track, with a 12-race event that began at 1 p.m.

The featured race of the speed trials was the World’s Champion Quarter Mile Race with competitors including Queeny, Squaw H. and Jeep B.

The local paper shared the results of the important sprint: “Setting a new track record of twenty-two and seven-tenths seconds (22.7) for the quarter-mile dash yesterday at Rillito racetrack, Queeny, … piloted by Frankie Figueroa, nosed out … Squaw H., to win the world’s quarterhorse quarter-mile championship. The new queen of the 440-yard dash chopped five-tenths of a second off the existing track record to dethrone Shue Fly, the defending champion.�

In May 1945, it was announced that the federal government’s race ban was being lifted and that the Rillito track would have its formal reopening in late October.

Film shot here

The highlight of the 1945-46 race season at the Rillito track was the filming by Pathe ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ of a motion picture on quarter horse racing.

On Oct. 14, 1945, opening day of the winter racing season, the track was attended by 3,000 racing fans.

A Pathe ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ director and cameraman had arrived in town a day earlier, and a special booth was constructed for them. The cameraman was there to film a short on quarter horses. The motion picture would tell the history and development of racing in this section of the nation.

Over the next week they recorded footage of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ from “Aâ€� Mountain, San Xavier Mission, and ranch scenes from nearby cattle ranches. The director chose “Roper,â€� a cow pony on Bob Locke’s new ranch near Three Points, to film during a cattle round-up. They also filmed how he was handled and trained to race, and how he was trailered and driven to the race track to compete on Sundays.

A week later, at the following race program, Pathe ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ shot more footage, this time of Roper the Grade A buckskin stallion who was entered into the Grade C 330-yard dash, for picture purposes only. He had the rail position in the race but wasn’t figured in the mutuel wagering pool, although the public was allowed to back their favorite steeds among the five other starters in the Grade C event.

In February 1946, this 10-minute short subject film called “Quarterhorse� ran at the Rialto Theatre in downtown.

Women jockeys arrive

In 1950, an article highlighted changes at the track related to women jockey.

On Feb. 26, 1950, a story appeared in the local paper about two of the top female jockeys in the Southwest who competed at Rillito.

Nora K. Heare, a 24-year-old former Wellesley College English composition major, came to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ to study animal husbandry at the University of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥. She was already a great show and jump rider and had three of her own horses here with her: Three Feathers, Cardinal Folly and Field Mouse. At this time, she and her husband George were training horses at the Jelks’ ranch.

The other jockey was Betty Bowdle, a 19-year-old native of Salt Lake City. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Bowdle of Arivaca, who moved to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ while Betty was in high school. Her father was a cowboy, and her mother formerly trained horses in Australia.

Her first victory was in the Powder Puff Derby at the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Rodeo Grounds in 1948 riding Red Moss. At the time, Bowdle had an apprentice jockey’s license and was employed at Melville Haskell’s Rincon Stock Farms.

Neither of the women rode the turns on the track but were limited, because of the rules, to riding the straightaway dashes.

No more World’s Championship

For the 1950 and 1951 season, changes were made to racing at the track that were explained in the local paper.

On Nov. 3, 1950, it was reported that 11 big stake races, beginning in January 1951, would take place at the Rillito oval and that the “speed trials� had been eliminated and “World’s Championship Quarter (Mile)� would be replaced by “The Rillito Handicap� at 440 yards.

The new races were being named in honor of people, places and horses. For example, The Roy Adams was named for James Roy Adams, a cowboy and rodeo star who had died a couple of years earlier; The Santa Catalina was named for the mountain range sitting majestically in the background of the Rillito track; and The Traveler was named in honor of a foundation sire by that name of the American Quarter Horse breed.

The newspaper explained the reason for the lineup change and the reason for the elimination of the championship quarter race:

“Since in the past few years, quarter horse races have found competitive running grounds other than in back pastures of the sagebrush country, the ‘World’s Championship Quarter,’ has been dispensed of in the sense of the meaning for future racing meets here.

“Quarter horse racing is now a major part of some West Coast and Southern tracks of prominence. Therefore, with many of the great quarter-mile racers taking part on more than a half dozen ovals, there is no race to determine the champion year by year.

“The judging will determine the champion from all records and performances compiled each year. For its part in contributing a goodly share of champion contenders to the pool, Rillito Race Track will supplant the ‘World’s Championship Quarter’ title with ‘The Rillito Handicap.’�

The 1951-52 and 1952-53 race seasons saw numerous records in attendance and pari-mutuel betting due in part to the change in racing format with numerous stake races bringing in top-notch horses from across the Southwest throughout the race season, rather than just during the speed trials.

On June 4, 1953, Jelks sold the Rillito Race Track to a group of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ businessmen and women.