Stable Relationship

Four years ago, Mimi Wells went out to buy beef noodle soup for her husband, Dwayne. When she came home, Dwayne was dead on the couch, a victim of a heart attack.

Dwayne was a quarter horse owner and trainer, a successful one. He saddled 564 winners that earned more than $2 million.

Mimi was part of Dwayne’s team. A child of privilege in Philadelphia’s Main Line suburbs, she competed in horse shows from the age of 7. Even when she went away to college, at the University of Arizona, Mimi took every chance she could to hang around horses. That’s how she met Dwayne.

On the day Dwayne died, Mimi thought she was finished with horses. “I didn’t have faith I could carry on without Dwayne,” Wells said as she sat in the cafeteria at Los Alamitos Race Course.

Tonight, Wells will have a horse she owns, Chicks First Policy, running in the $400,000 Champion of Champions race at Los Alamitos. Chicks First Policy has won six of 12 starts this year, including the California Sires Cup Derby.

“Dwayne was 53 when he died and he loved this business,” Wells said. “My first instinct was to get out of the business. But I looked at his stable of horses and I knew Dwayne had some big hopes for some of the babies. One of those babies was Chicks First Policy. My sons and some of our friends at the track convinced me to stick with this.

“And boy I’m glad I did.”

The first time Mimi met Dwayne, Dwayne watched her gallop a horse. “He told me I was doing it all wrong,” Wells said. “And he was right. Dwayne was a jockey then and he loved riding. But he had a terrible time with his weight, he always did. He was 5-8 1/2 and he was always dieting. It wasn’t healthy and I believe he died so young because of the stress he’d put on his body from all the dieting.”

On Sept. 22, 1972, Dwayne and Mimi bought their first horse, Rebel Croton, which went on to win his first race. The last horse Dwayne trained, Bobby Blue, raced on Sept. 23, 1996. Bobby Blue won too. “Dwayne won his first race and his last race as an owner and trainer,” Wells said. “I just realized that today.”

Dwayne always loved the quarter horses, but Mimi had been raised around the more haughty world of show horses and thoroughbreds.

That was her preference, she said, “Until the first time I saw a quarter horse race. It was so fast. The speed, my God, I loved the speed. I was hooked after that. I couldn’t stay away. We began to have a wonderful life together.”

Success came early. Rebel Croton cost them $1,500, which at the time seemed like a dangerously huge expenditure to Mimi. It was Dwayne who loved the study of the sport, who examined bloodlines and breeding books.

Dwayne became one of the most popular owners around Los Alamitos and he loved training his horses. Mimi would help when she wasn’t at home with the couple’s sons, Danny, who is 27, and David, 25.

On the day he died, Mimi said, Dwayne came home to Orange from an early-morning session at Los Alamitos and complained of heartburn.

“He sat down on the couch,” Mimi said, “and told me he felt like a bowl of beef noodle soup. I told him we didn’t have any and that I’d go get some. I ran out to the store, maybe five minutes away. When I got home, Dwayne was still on the couch, slumped over. I called 911, but he was already gone.”

As Mimi thought more and more about what Dwayne would have wanted, “I knew in my heart,” she said, “that Dwayne would have wanted me to continue with his horses. I went and got my training license. Everybody at Los Al was supportive. The stewards all wanted to help me, but to do the training of the horses was just too big a burden for me. I decided I would stick to the ownership part.”

In 1998 Wells had only 24 winners out of almost 240 mounts and she decided to hire respected trainer Dan Francisco. “Hiring Dan was a blessing for me and my horses,” Wells said.

This year, with Francisco training, Wells’ horses have 35 wins, which makes her the second-leading owner behind track owner Ed Allred. Francisco says Wells is the ideal boss. “Mimi allows me to run her horses where they belong,” Francisco said. “That’s a key.”

As much success as Wells and Francisco have had this year, Wells said that “I could never have imagined having a horse of mine in the Champion of Champions race. This means a lot because it is a race for winners. I think it’s the hardest race to get into. It says something about the quality of a horse.”

Wells said she’s had offers to buy Chicks First Policy. Lucrative offers. “But you know what? No money can equal the feeling of having this horse race Sunday,” she said. “Dwayne knew that. I think he’d be very happy right now.”