Page 31 - ATR 2 2015 web

Both of the thoroughbreds are
unusually friendlier than Oaklawn
Park-style racehorses. There’s none of “i’ll Never forget the phoNe call wheN i was
the edginess or friskiness to the filly at
all, and while the colt is a little more asked to coNsider BeiNg oN the Board. you’d
standoffish, he shows a fun side. “God thiNk ed mcmahoN had called me.
intended horses to run free,” Rice says, that’s how Big it is to me.”
“not to be kept cooped up in a 12x12
stall 24/7.” Because of that very belief
in freedom, Rice will keep his racing
thoroughbreds at his home for a couple
of months at a time when they are not
racing elsewhere and assigned to a race est with you, if they had asked me to the state’s biggest trucking companies,
track’s barn. serve in this capacity five years ago, I and their views gave him a “totally dif-
As for this yearling colt, if Rice gets probably wouldn’t have taken it. I prob- ferent outlook” from what he’d had
the offer he’s looking for — in the low ably wouldn’t have felt ready for that. I when he started Stallion.
six figures — this impressive specimen wouldn’t have been ready.” “Carriers my size, we do share the
may run under some farm’s preferred But Rice says that serving on other same problems, but it’s listening to
colors in a stakes race in a year or two, boards in the Little Rock area, many of these larger carriers and the way they
who knows? This could be one of those them for nonprofit, charitable organiza- handle business compared to the way
one-in-a-million horses like last year’s tions, has “really taught me a lot, too.” we handle business,” he said. “I’ll never
California Chrome that came out of Rice is chairman this year for the forget Blue Keene from Tyson [Foods
nowhere to take the country by storm Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance. He’s Inc.]. We were talking about an issue,
for a few weeks. Rice might decide to served on the board for Make-A-Wish and I was sitting beside Blue, and he
keep the horse, turn him over to one of Foundation in the Mid-South Region for said, ‘Take it easy, take it easy.’ I get
his regular trainers, and race him. four years, and he’s been on the school really emotional about everything, and
Either way, it’s fascinating to watch board in Beebe. he just got me to take it easy, to learn
Rice’s nurturing style with these two Rice has a strong handshake and the corporate way of doing things.”
thoroughbreds and hear his thoughts a hearty laugh. He laughs a lot, in fact. Rice is mindful of having started
of what they might one day become. He also can be emotional when talking a truck brokerage company in a small
It’s the way he’s handled his Stallion about what he’s most passionate about: shop in North Little Rock, then mov-
Transportation Group going on 23 his company, his family and the com- ing the company to Beebe into a
years, growing the company to $40 pany’s charitable giving. 4,800-square foot former house of a
million in annual revenue and, three “God has blessed me well in this local dentist, employing 20 office people
years ago, moving it into a spacious company. We give all the credit to and depending mostly on owner-opera-
18,000-square-foot headquarters, as God,” Rice said. tors for his truck fleet.
he sets the course for Stallion’s reins to Growing up in a small home in the In 2001, when Arkansas Trucking
gradually be taken over by his children. Rose City section of North Little Rock Report last visited Rice, the company
has given Rice a different perspective was bringing in $15 million in annual
leaRning fRoM The boaRd of entities like the Arkansas Trucking revenue.
Garland Edward “Butch” Rice Association and its board, he said. “I That’s almost tripled now to $40
III, the president and CEO of Stallion take it really personal. It is overwhelm- million, and the truck fleet was flipped
Transportation Group, will move into ing to me. I started working for a truck- to company-owned trucks now totaling
the chairman’s role of the Arkansas ing company when I was 13 cleaning 74, with one or two owner-operators
Trucking Association Board of Directors the shops, you know. Being on the helping out. In 2012, Stallion moved
in May after serving a year as chair- Board itself, I’ll never forget the phone from the former house to the current
man-elect. call when I was asked to consider being location on old U.S. 67.
“I’ve been on the Board for a on the Board. You’d think Ed McMahon “The [ATA] Board is something I
while and have seen a lot of people had called me. That’s how big it is to have had a passion for and take it per-
come and go. The major companies, me.” sonally, but it’s not just my own issues.
the J.B. Hunts, ABFs, PAMs, USAs all Sitting on the Board for the past I don’t go with my own agendas,” Rice
have seats on the Board, but some of decade and a half, Rice said, brought said. “I’m very, very open-minded, but
their people have changed. To be hon- him in the same room with leaders of
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aRkansas TRuCking RepoRT | issue 2 2015 31