Go Man Go

Go Man Go

Go Man Go being exercised by jockey Robert Strauss, Los Alamitos Racetrack, about 1956
Breed	Quarter Horse
Discipline	Racing
Sire	Top Deck (TB)
Grandsire	Equestrian (TB)
Dam	Lightfoot Sis
Maternal grandsire	Very Wise (TB)
Sex	Stallion
Foaled	1953
Country	United States
Color	Roan
Breeder	J. B. Ferguson
Record
47-27-9-3, AAAT speed rating
Earnings
$86,151.00 (approximately $734,600 as of 2017)
Major wins
PCQHRA Futurity, Autumn Championship (twice), Wonder Lad Stakes (twice), Clabbertown G stakes (three times); Winner Take All Stakes; Barbara B Handicap; Champion Stakes; Ruidoso Derby; State Fair Stallion Stakes; Gold Bar Stakes; New Mexico State Fair
Awards
1955 World Champion Quarter Running Horse; 1956 World Champion Quarter Running Horse; 1957 World Champion Quarter Running Horse; Superior Race Horse; 1957 High Money Earning Race Horse; 1956 High Money Earning Horse
Honors
AQHA Hall of Fame
Last updated on: April 29, 2009.

Go Man Go (1953–1983) was an American Quarter Horse stallion and race horse. He was named World Champion Quarter Running Horse three times in a row, one of only two horses to achieve that distinction. Go Man Go was considered to be of difficult temperament. While waiting in the starting gate for his very first race, he threw his jockey, broke down the gate, and ran alone around the track; he was eventually caught and went on to win the race. During his five years of competition until his retirement from racing in 1960 he had 27 wins, earning more than $86,000 (approximately $735,000 as of 2017).

Neither of Go Man Go's parents raced. His sire (father), the Thoroughbred stallion Top Deck, was bred by the King Ranch. His dam (mother) hailed from Louisiana; Go Man Go is thought to have gained his swiftness on the track from her. For the first years of Go Man Go's racing career, his owner faced difficulty in registering him with the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), a matter that remained unresolved until 1958.

Go Man Go went on to sire two All American Futurity winners and seven Champion Quarter Running Horses. He was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame, as were two of his offspring. His daughters also produced, or were the mothers of, a number of race winners, including the Hall of Fame members Kaweah Bar and Rocket Wrangler. The director of racing for the AQHA once compared his impact on Quarter Horse racing and breeding to that of Man o' War in Thoroughbred racing, or that of human athletes such as Ben Hogan and Babe Ruth.

Go Man Go was foaled in Wharton, Texas in 1953, as a result of the second breeding between the Thoroughbred stallion Top Deck and the Appendix Quarter Horse mare Lightfoot Sis. Top Deck was bred by the King Ranch, and was unraced. J. B. Ferguson had purchased Lightfoot Sis when her then-owner, Octave Fontenot of Prairie Ronde, Louisiana, decided to get out of the horse breeding business. Ferguson paid $350 for her (approximately $3,200 as of 2017) and bred her in 1952 to Top Deck (TB), resulting in Go Man Go's birth the next year. Ferguson also purchased Top Deck, after the stallion injured himself as a yearling.