Spilyay tymoo., June 21, 1985, Page 6, Image 6

P age 6
June 21^ 1985
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S pilyay T ymoo
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SPORTS
Pi-Ume-Sha Rodeo June 22-23
The tenth annual Pi-Ume-
Sha rodeo will be held a t the
new W arm Springs Rodeo Asso­
ciation ro d eo grounds, located
in the Industrial P ark , (on Hwy
3) Jrine 22 and 23. Signs will be
posted directing contestants and
spectators to the new arena.
Eleven everits will be featured
at the tw o-day show. The events
are: saddle bronc, bareback, bull
riding, calf roping, team roping,
steer wrestling, barrel racing,
wild cow milking, wild horse
race, ju n io r barrels and calf rid­
ing. E ntry fee for events is $40
with the exception of team rop­
ing which is $40 per m an, wild
horse which is $75 per team ,
ju n io r barrels and calf riding
which is $ 12. Added purses will
be $300 for all events with the
exception of ju n io r barrels and
calf riding w ith added purses of
$50. Bull riding will be limited
j to the first 24 signed up. The
. wild horse race is lim ited to the
first eight team s signed up. In
calf riding, the lim it will be to
the first 16 signed up. In team
roping it will be two loops, enter
twice. The events will be one go
with the exception of wild horse
race' with two goes.
fee and fo r ju n io r events o f b ar­
rels and calf riding only $2.
A M att W ewa M em orial
Buckle will be given to the winner
o f the Saddle Bronc event. The
buckle has been donated by
W ew a’s Family. Wewa was a
well known roper and bronc
rider in Northwest. His father
Jazzy Wewa stated they selected
saddle bronc because it was a
favorite event of M att’s.
F or the “top ro p er” of the
tw ô ro d eo s, saddles will be
a w a rd e d . T h e B ÿ ro n P a t t
M em orial saddle will go to the
high moriey w inner in the rop­
ing events, P a tt was a mem ber
of the W arm Springs Rodeo
A sso ciatio n , W estern S tates
Girls close out good season
A contestant fee of $7 per
Sammy Allen, center, was crowned queen o f the 10th Annual Pi-Ume-Sha rodeo. Eliza Green, left, event will be charged with the
was first runner Up and Andrea Smith was second runner up. Buffy Hurtado placed fourth. The exceptions being an added $1
rodeo will start Saturday at I p.m. and conclude with Sunday's 1 p.m. action.
, fee in.barrels for the electric eye
Papooses play well in league
The W arm Springs Papqoses
are on the ram page once again
in the Jefferson C ounty M ajor
League baseball. T he trigger
sprung after they dropped their
opener to Insurance M art of
M adras in a close7-6loss. Coach
“Snuffy” S m ith said, “It was
ju st one of thbsé days when
things just didn’t go right fo r us
arid we practically gave them
the gam e.”
Once b n the winning tr a c k .
they came back strong to over
pow er all the opponents thè rest
of the way and they even got
revenge on the Insurance M art
beating them 15-5 on their home
field, The league is fast coming
to a close 'with the title w ithin
grasp fo r the Papooses x òrice
again. This year ivas supposed
tb bè a building year, as there
were only one or two returnees
frorii last years squad.
At the beginning of the seri-
Indian R odeo A ssociation and
well know n iri rodeo circles in
the N orthwest.
The new rodeo arena will be
dedicated on Saturday, Ju n e 21
at 1 p.m. G overnor V icA tiyeh
and Ken Sm ith will participate
in the ceremonies.
A western dance will be held
at the Kah-N ee-Ta Lodge on
S aturday, Ju n e 22 with music
provided by El Coochise and
the C ountry Express from 9
p.m. to 2 a.m.
F o r the “early-bird,” a buck-
aroo breakfast will start at 6
a.m . on Sunday, Ju n e 23 at the
Agency Longhouse until 10:30
a.m. Cost fo r the breakfast will
be $3 a plate.
The W arm Springsgirls M ajor ra in w hich is very u n u su a l
League softball team are right around central Oregon.
in there Crowding for the league
Selection fo r the Jefferson
title. The girls had ju st one more C ounty A ll-Star team will take
game with Culver on their home place soon and practice, will
field to close out a pretty suc­ begin immediately. There were
cessful season. The results were only fo u r teams in the league
not available a t press time.
this year with M adras I, Culver,
The team Iqst one gam e to M adras II and W arm Springs.
M adras I team brit have since The com petition was not th a t
eyened the series beating them great so the JC All-Stars will
iri seven innings by the score have their w ork cutout for them
7-6, on their hom e field, other in preparation for the district
th an th a t no other team has tournam ent which is scheduled
been any kind of threat. This for July"10, in Culver.
has been a pretty good year for
Local girls nom inated for the
the local girls however the weath­ A ll-Star team are D anni K at-
er was not very coopérative this chia, L aura M iller, Rachelle
year as during the4beginning of Beetles, Jocelyn Moses, Shirley
■ th e
Cl asses to
son there were times when, the;,
team looked pretty ragged, butv
W ater exercise classes will be
th a t’s where practice,»comes in;?
The boys Worked very hard to held fro m 6-7:00 p.m . each
correct their mistakes and im-y W ednesday beginning June 26
prove their weak sp o tsto where/ at Kah-Nee-Ta Vjjlage Pool.
Conducted by W arm Springs
it w asn’t so bad in actual game
Welipess P rogram coordinator
situations.
The Jefferson , C ounty All-j Eva M ontee the class is open to
S tars will be selected sobn andi * swimmers and non-swimmers
practice w illbegin immediately: i ; alike; Exercise^ will not be con­
T he coaches have riot been.! ducted in deep water.
W ater exercises is.particularly.
named for the A lFStar teamn
season tnererWas a foFof ^Allen. Danielle Gabrieland Toby
for those who wish to. exercise
but have had jo in t injuries. The
water removes pressure from
jo in ts an d a p p lies m in im al
strength building movements.'
A pool fee of $1.00 will be
charged, b u t there is no cost frit;
the class. To qualify for the pool
discount price please pre-register
for the class by calling the Wel­
lness office at 553-1161, ext.
205.
Smith. Playing for district will
be a com plete new ball game for
the girls, a new experience for,
them to meet , the best .in their
division o r age group. When
they enter the district tourna­
ment they will know they will be
in for a tough ball game and
each run scored will really have
to be earned. But if the girls
show some determ ination and
hustle and no goofing aro u n d
they could do ju st as good as
any other te a m in the to u rn a­
ment. '
Heath in comebackat Grants Pass Downs
by Greg Hanberg
o f the Courier Staff
Printed with permission
H e’s won the biggest horse
race in Michigan, ridden against
jockey legends Willie Shoemaker
and Bill H artack, and nearly
rode in the K entucky D erby.'
Now M artinez H eath is back
trying his luck at. G rants PasS
Downs.
The nom adic life of a jockey
has taken Heath, 40, every where
from Spokane to Tijuana, from
Fresno to M iami. But fo r now
H eath is racing in G rants Pass,
where he was recently ranked
No. 2 to Jim G lenn in the G P
Downs jockey standings.
There seems no questioning
his talent and ability. H eath has
ridden with the best on some of
the greatest tracks in America.
“ M artinez was one of the top
riders in the country and he’s
still a heck of a good rider,” said
Southern Oregon Horse Racing
A sso c iatio n P re sid e n t J o h n
Freeman. “He knows w hat to do
on th at track. If I had a horse
out there, h e’d be the one I ’d
want on it.”
H eath, a full-blooded W arm
Springs Indian, has returned to
G P dow ns for the first time
since 1961 when he won the fea­
tured race on a three-day race
program. H e’s making a come­
back of sorts after suffering a
serious injury riding in Pleasan­
ton, California, in 1979.
* He didn’t pick up racing again
until 1982 and has stayed exclu­
sively on the W est Coast getting
back into track shape. He and
his agent, R.W . “Jigger” Dale,
decided th at G rants Pass would
be the best place to be for now,
and H eath hopes to be in Cali­
fornia later this summer.
H eath, w ho’s had his share of
breaks in his long career, hurt
his knee arid ankle tw o weeks
ago at Q rants Pass and h asn ’t
been as active in the saddle. But
he stillhas ridden seven winners
, this,, season, nine seconds and
eight thirds despite the lack of
action or preferred mounts.
“ His success here sure hasn’t
surprised us,” Dale said. “H is
ability to position the horse is
superior and he just stands orit
when he’s racing on the track.”
Ever since he rode his first
colk at age 5— he was subseu-
qently throw n—on his parents’
ranch in W arm Springs, H eath
has been into horses and horse
racing.
H eath is one of eight children
th a t grerw up in W arm Springs.
His father, now deceased, used
to be the chief of the tribe. Now
his brother is.
• His first race came at age 13
in M adras. On a m ount nam ed
Easy R idin’, H eath won the
very first race he ever rode. The
purse was $100.
“Once I got started racing, no
one could stop m e.” H eath said.
And winning, H eath has rid­
den horses at practically every
track on the West Coast. It was
Johnny London, a famous jockey
in his time, who took Heath
from P ortland to the big tracks
in C alifornia, including Bay
M eadows in San Francisco and
Santa Anita. At the ripe age of
18 H eath once rode seven win­
ners in one day, O ctober 12,
1963, at Fresno.
- A lthough he won a fair Share
of races, it wasn’t until he booked
with agent Neal O rrick th at he
began to branch out. O rrick
took him to famed A rlington
P ark in Chicago, and it is there
he made a nam e for himself
with the horse racing elite.
He got his first start riding in
Chicago in 1965. Riding against
Ÿ
the best was good experience,
He came back strong; the
but it d id n ’t bring much imme- « highlight of his 1973 season;
diate success, either.
■ came when he rode Laughing
v “I was ju st ab o u t ready t o : Gull to six consecutives Wilis,»
leave when I got lucky and won includes a rich stakes race, at
a race so I stuck aro u n d ,”, líe Golden Gate Park.
said. “Then I won another one
But there were some down
and decided to stay.
times also. He took some, time
A few people began to notice ’ off .after getting divorced in
this jock ey from sm all-to w n ’ .1975, a traum atic experience
Oregon.
that affected his personal health.
“ Shoem aker was known as He adm itted th at he started to
the ‘S h o e’ and I was called the lose interest m ?the sport th at
“ M occasip,’ ’’Heath Laughed.
had become his life.
By th is tirite H e a th w a s ;
But he never strayed too far.
spending his summ ers jri h o t’4 He continued his racing in Cali­
and muggy Chicago and hisJ fornia until he broke his leg in
winters racing in New Orleans. ' th at messy accident in Pleasan­
He hit the peak of his jockeying * ton; there doctors put in a rod
days in 1968 when he rode No to straighten out his leg, and it’s
D ouble to victory in the famed stifl there today. H eath was on
M ichigan Mile in D etroit.
crutches for a year and a half,
Soon, he was being primed to : spending m ost of his tim e on his
ride’in th e Kentucky D erby, th e 1 W arm Springs ranch gaining
country’s most fam ous horse J weight, the ultim ate h o rro r for
race. In the Derby trials Heath a jockey. His weight, once a
was riding P o tt Digger and rias^ svelte 110 pounds, ballooned to
finishing fast when the horse
145. He ended up ‘‘retiring”
suffered a leg injury. The horse from horse racing, but the bug
took second in the trials but had _ inside him gnawed at him to
to scratch from the Derby.
jum p back in the saddle.
“ I think I could have won the |
“One day 1 went to the faces
D erby,” H eath said. ‘‘The horse ’
I had Was a good one and a very J and I thought, ‘I ’ve got to get
back into this,’ ’’ he said.
strong finisher.
T h a t’s all it took. He lost
“I was disappointed I d idn’t
most Op his added w eight and
get to run in, the Kentucky Derby,
but then I couldn’t find a motet made his debut in 1982 in Spo­
kane; He then moved south to
room in Lduisville, either.’1’ 1
Fresnd and the, winning edged
W e year was hardly a wash­
returned to M artinez Heath,
out. Heath says he earned about
i The qqmeback has been slow
$125,000 that year. '
at times, but his success is start­
Heath continued to win races
after that, but nothing matched
ing to pick up again. After
1968. He wanted to racé closer G rants Pass ends its season July
to hom e and raced mostly ori
7, he and Dale hope to pack
their bags to California—again.
the West Coast; again in the
early 1970s. He was the leadingjockey
He needs to lose ab o u t six more
in the California fair ciféüit in ' pounds off his 5-foot-4, 122-
1972 until he broke his ankle— *; pound fram e before he can com­
forcing doctors to insert a screw ‘ pete at the tracks in Santa Rosa,
to make it héal properly—ending - S to c k to n , S a c ra m e n to an d
Pom ona.
his season;
“We shouldn’t have too much
trouble getting him horses,” Dale
said, “A b o u t 99 percent of the
people bére and in California
know who he is.” . .
Sòme day H eath may finally
’ it in for good and chase
cattle at the fam ily’s ranch. But
it probably w on’t be any time
soon. T hrough the good times
and bad he’s been a survivor.
“I ’ve thought ab o u t giving it
u p ,” hb said, “but w heruit’s in
your blood you can’t give it up.”
Martinez Heath