Trainer Tammy Johnson was the first to unload at Remington Park for the upcoming 2025 American Quarter Horse, Paint, and Appaloosa race season.

© AQHA Racing

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK—FEBRUARY 3, 2025–Trainer Tammy Johnson had nine horses in tow when she pulled up to the Remington Park gates around 1:30 a.m. Monday morning, the first to unload at the racetrack for the upcoming 2025 American Quarter Horse, Paint and Appaloosa race season.

Her load included Quarter Horse stakes winners Rock Ya Later and Uncle Eds Idea. Johnson had been the first to come through the gates six years before two-time top trainer of the 2024 meet Dee Keener ended that streak in 2023.

He had been the first to arrive as it was his modus operandi to make several trips to his home in Inola in Northeastern Oklahoma on this day. Johnson said her streak was not really a desire to be first, but also one of necessity like Keener's.

"My home in Gatesville, Texas, is about a six-hour trip to Remington Park, hauling; more than 300 miles," she said. "If we're going to make it more than once, we really need to get here a little after midnight, go back home for four or five hours of sleep and then hit the road again. We are only doing one trip this year."

There is a good reason for that. Johnson said she had two trailers with nine horses on board, but one of the trailers lost a hub on a wheel in Jacksboro, Texas, about halfway to Oklahoma City.

"We had to borrow a smaller trailer from a friend there, but we made it," she said. "And we will have to have the trailer repaired before we can haul the rest. We should have 24 horses at Remington by Wednesday."

Among Johnson's stable are Rock Ya Later and Uncle Eds Idea, both have black-type wins on their resumes. In fact, Rock Ya Later comes to Remington Park off two victories at Zia Park in Hobbs, New Mexico.

His last win came in the Grade 2 King Rick Rack Stakes at Zia. The other trip to the winner's circle there came in allowance company. Rock Ya Later's lifetime record is 25 starts, five wins, two seconds and seven thirds for $174,192 earned. His is a 5-year-old gelded Texas-bred son of Rock Solid Jess, out of the Separatist mare Dosvedanya.

Uncle Eds Idea has won 12-of-40 career races lifetime, including the Grade 3 King William Stakes at Retama Park near San Antonio in 2023 and the Black Gold Championship Futurity at Will Rogers Downs in Claremore, Okla., in 2019. Uncle Eds Idea is an 8-year-old gelded son of Dominyun, out of the Mr Eye Opener mare Mystical Eye. His career earnings of  $346,256 make him the top active earner in Johnson's barn.

She had Viva Le Don, but that 9-year-old who banked $516,937, has been retired.

Johnson is a multiple graded stakes-winning trainer, having successful runs in 14 of those events, including nine at Remington Park. She has won graded stakes in Oklahoma City with the following, according to Equibase statistics:

Viva Le Don, 2021 (G2) Remington Park Distance Challenge
Madewell, 2019 (G2) Remington Park Distance Championship
Rock About It, 2018-2019 (G3) SLM Big Daddy Stakes
Jess a Hilbily Bone, 2018 (G3) Pauls Valley Stakes
Jess a Hilbily Bone, 2017 (G2) Remington Park Distance Championship
Rockin Disco, 2015 (G2) Remington Park Championship Challenge Stakes
CJs Rocksolid, 2015, 2017 (G3) Remington Distance Handicap

Many of those stakes win came at 870 yards, around the hook as they call it in Quarter Horse racing. Johnson has been the Queen of the Hook at Remington Park. The reason?

"We work at it," she said. "We never quit. Just like (President Donald) Trump says, 'If you want to win, you never quit, no matter what kind of beating you take along the way.'

Johnson has been training since 1991, some 34 years, but still loves getting up early with the roosters crowing to do her job.

"As long as we keep raising good babies," she said. "It's like opening new Christmas presents. What else would I do? I mean we do have Charolais cows, but nothing beats watching the racehorses at the track."

Johnson's lifetime numbers are 1,798 starters, 235 wins, 209 places and 218 shows for horses' earnings of $4,851,237.

Horsemen can send their athletes to the track tomorrow as training begins Tuesday morning at Remington Park. The meet begins Thursday, March 6.

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Remington Park has provided more than $374 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 year-round simulcast racing and casino gaming. The 2025 American Quarter Horse Season will begin on March 6. Must be 18 or older to wager on horse racing or enter the casino gaming floor. Visit remingtonpark.com for more information.