Racing Mourns Passing of Owner/Breeder Bud Johnston

The racing world and California in particular mourned the passing of Elwood (Bud) Johnston, who died in his sleep Tuesday. Johnston, who bred and raced 2011 Eclipse Award champion older male Acclamation, would have been 78 yesterday.

“I’m just numb,” said an emotional Kenny Black, assistant to Don Warren, who trained for Johnston many years. “He was so good to me. He was an excellent horseman and treated me like a son. He loved horse racing and he loved to run.

“The only thing he didn’t like was not running. ‘Dag-nab it,’ he would say if he was angry or upset because a horse couldn’t race. I never heard him use a curse word.

“He was at our house in Rancho Cucamonga all day Sunday for my daughter Kaylee’s seventh birthday party, playing with all the kids and having a great time. He and his wife were the last people to leave.

“In all my years in the business, I never met a better a horseman. I learned something from him every day.”

In addition to Warren, the Johnston family had tremendous success over the years with trainer Bruce Headley. “He was my best friend, my buddy, my partner,” Headley told the Paulick Report on Tuesday. “He was very honest, very knowledgeable, and always enthusiastic. He truly loved horses. He was nice to people and always a gentleman, always smiling.”

California’s leading breeder 13 times, Old English Rancho has bred more than 200 stakes winners and has been home to prominent stallions such as Fleet Nasrullah, The Pie King, Lucky Mel, Windy Sands, Kennedy Road and Unusual Heat.

Johnston was the son of Elwood B. “The Pie Man” Johnston, who began breeding and owning horses in California in the 1940s with the establishment of Old English Rancho in Chino. Bud Johnston and his wife, Judy, took over management of the farm which had been moved to Ontario, in 1957.  “O.E.R.” was again relocated in 1997 to Sanger, near Fresno, where its current stallion roster is comprised of Acclamation (by Unusual Heat), Cyclotron, Surf Cat, Vronsky and Big Bad Leroy Brown.

Acclamation won 11 of 30 starts including the $1 million Pacific Classic in 2011, in a career spanning from 2008 to 2012. He earned $1,958,048, and was thus Johnston’s all-time leading money earner.

Preceded in death by his father and mother, Betty, Johnston is survived by his wife of 58 years, Judy, daughters Darlene Johnston Smith, Mary Johnston Hilvers, five grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.

Services for Johnston are pending.

Source: Santa Anita Park