Louisville equine program led this jockey to a second career

In 1990, Jeff Johnston was working as a jockey at Prairie Meadows in Iowa and attending Iowa State University when he had to make a decision.

The track, owned by the state, was nearing bankruptcy. Johnston could either remain in college in Iowa without riding – and figure out a way to pay for school – or he could transfer to another institution that allowed him to work with horses.

Johnston considered the University of Kentucky in Lexington, not far from Keeneland and a number of breeding farms. But then he discovered the University of Louisville and its Equine Industry Program.

With Johnston an accounting major, the Equine Industry Program – part of U of L’s business school – seemed a better fit. And there were still plenty of opportunities to work with Churchill Downs just steps away from the school.

Johnston suspended his riding career while finishing out college, but he continued exercising horses at Churchill in the mornings and breaking yearlings around his afternoon classes. After graduating in 1992 with a bachelor's in business administration, Johnston set out to race ride again, and his U of L experience paved the way for an eventual second career.

First, he returned to Iowa, riding again at Prairie Meadows and then at The Woodlands in Kansas City. In the fall, Johnston came back to Kentucky to take mounts at Turfway Park and at Beulah Park in Columbus, Ohio.

Meanwhile, in the fall of 1993, he married JoLynn Glauber, who also attended U of L’s Equine Industry Program. When Johnston returned to Iowa to ride, Glauber joined him, working in marketing at Prairie Meadows. And when he moved to Kansas City, she returned to Kentucky to plan the wedding.

Per the couple's plan, one maintained a steady job, while the other pursued a career perhaps less stable but that was a passion. Around this time, JoLynn Johnston had the steady job, working as marketing director for River Downs in Cincinnati. Johnston plied his craft in the saddle.

Johnston chose to stay on the smaller circuits most of the time to “be a big fish in a small pond.” Then, when he got a better mount, he could follow it down the road to stakes company at tracks such as Churchill Downs. Johnston retired from racing in 2006, with a final record of 11,795 starts, 1,375 wins and $15 million in earnings.

Toward the end of his riding career, he had become more involved with The Jockeys' Guild, and it was a full-time job offer from the organization that prompted Johnston's retirement. He had served as a senator and on the guild’s board of directors.

While Johnston was still riding, the Jockeys' Guild was going through management problems.

“With my degree, I was able to look at the books, look at the financial statements, discuss it with the other riders and the board members get a good grip amongst ourselves of what was going on rather than relying on our management group to tell us how the organization was doing," Johnston said.

After management was ousted, the other board members asked him to work with the organization full-time as a regional manager. He now helps with tracks in Kentucky and New York, among others.

While Johnston was still riding, the guild went through turmoil with tracks over health insurance for jockeys. The limit for coverage had been $100,000.

“We had a couple injuries that really weren’t major injuries, but the hospital bills quickly surpassed $100,000, and we petitioned the tracks to raise their on-track policy to help cover those costs," Johnston said.

The dispute was highly publicized, Johnston said, and he and about 30 other riders were asked to leave Churchill Downs until the issue was resolved.

“I was kind of labeled as a troublemaker, and it hurt my racing business," he said. "Basically, the jockeys had to make a stand and say, 'Look, we need some change. We’re not getting any help from the tracks.'”

Eventually, the issue was resolved, with tracks agreeing to raise insurance coverage to $1 million.

So when he was offered the full-time position as a regional manager with The Jockeys' Guild, “I was intrigued with the business part of the organization. It was really a time when I got to use what I learned in school and help lead the other jockeys into a new era.”

Johnston’s top priority with the Jockeys Guild is to look out for rider by negotiating with tracks, inspecting them and working with management to make sure everything is safe. He works on behalf of the guild to ensure tracks have ambulances and paramedics on site and to help improve helmets, safety vests and rails.

The guild works with the Association of Racing Commissioners International to develop model rules, then it asks all the states and jurisdictions to adopt them.

The guild also works with other groups, including U of L, UK and the New York Institute of Technology to come up with data to support new rule proposals.

That’s not how it worked in the past, Johnston said. “Everything had been done the same for years and years and years,” he added, with no data to support arguments for rules changes. “Hopefully, the industry thinks that we’re working more intelligently now, that when we come to them, we come to them for a good reason.”

Johnston said U of L’s Equine Industry Program prepared him well for his position. Majoring in business administration, his electives – such as law and marketing classes – were centered on the racing industry, perhaps focusing on sales or track operations.

“It makes it almost easier to learn because sometimes you don’t even realize you’re learning a principle," he said. "You’re just reading about something you’re interested in."

And with that approach, “you learn more about the industry from the ground up," Johnston added. "When I was a rider, you’re so focused on getting that next mount … you don’t have time to really think about how those horses got there. You don’t learn about nicking and picking out your stallion for your mare and then raising the foal and all that goes into it. And the farms, and the sales, and pinhooking – all these other industries or jobs that are in the equine industry. To get that horse to the point where you can get on him and go exercise him or go race him. …

“When I got finished, it really made me reconsider, think deeper about how many people have touched this horse, how much time and money has gone into this horse before I get on him,” Johnston continued. “It makes you respect the horse more. If a horse runs poorly or if there’s something wrong, or maybe he’s just not talented enough, it makes you more sensitive to the owners or the trainers to say, one, you really want to be honest with them because you don’t want to give them false hope, but two, you know what this horse means to them now.”

An intense track, the Equine Industry Program gives students the professional skills they need to succeed in the horse industry covering equine economics, marketing and law, among other topics. Small class sizes are emphasized along with individualized advising