Page 52 - Canada Spring 2019

“A kid could lead him to the gate. But, it took the bravest and the best to hang onto him when he went out of it.”
Cash Deal and Omadial. Johnny Dial was a gentleman. He was professional. Calm and easy in the gate, unconcerned. You know, after he started his career in 1950, it got to where he yawned so much in the gate they made a band to put around his mouth. It didn’t do any good. If he wanted to yawn, he broke the band. So, they just gave up and let him do it his way.”
1952 belonged to Hairball. Coming out of the number three- hole at Bay Meadows, travelling over deeply plowed ground, he covered his 440 in :22.1. This smashed the World Record of :22.2 for stallions, jointly held by the great Tonto Bars Gill and Brigand TB, also by Depth Charge. In 1952, Johnny Dial topped the Leading Money Earner list and was named Champion Quarter Running Horse and Stallion. He was the third stallion in thirteen years to claim the double honor.
The brown horse from New Mexico built his straightaway reputation during the early years of organized Quarter Racing when no horse was promised “a rose garden,” and never got one. It was Johnny Dial’s destiny to face, often more than once, some of the most formidable professional athletes that ever looked down their bridles at the heads of straightaways. Only a few of them were River Flyer, Billy VanDorn, Stalking Gal, Legal Tender B, Monita, Black Easter Bunny, Chappo S, Little Egypt,
Mona Leta, Miss Tacubaya (also by Depth Charge), Dolly Mack, Aunt Amie, Miss Ruby, Clabbertown G, Tonto Lad, Dalhart Princess, Grey Question, Ed Heller, FL Kingbee, Barker’s Pride and Barbara L.
Credit goes to Johnny Dial’s trainer, Bill Grounds, and to the “bravest and best” that could stay on Hairball when he exploded from the gate – Richard and Robert Strauss, Felix Durosseau, R.D. Hay and
A. Hetrick. Johnny Dial withdrew from competition, fully sound, in 1953. He had 27 official starts, 13 firsts. He placed six times, showed twice and ran out of the money only 5 times. He was AAAT, with cumulative earnings of $22,906.35. When Johnny Dial broke for his last race, he was carrying 130 pounds. He ended his career the same way he began it, with a win.
SUMMER
Johnny Dial formally went into the stud on the spread of Charlie Hepler, with a headstart, in1953. Breezing Bobby by Flying Bob,
was already in foal by Johnny. She produced his first offspring, Breezing Johnny, AAA. Johnny’s stud was off the main circuit. By 1961, he only had 29 starters. Of those, seventeen were winners, 19 earned their race ROM, and 10 were AAA.
Elmer Hepler, who went straight down the line with his brother until Charlie’s death, purchased Breezing Johnny from Charlie’s widow, Mrs. Vivian Hepler. Johnny Dial’s first son never changed hands again. In 1976, the man who adopted Johnny Dial in his heart in the early 1950s picked up the phone, called Elmer Hepler and asked for a breeding
to Breezing Johnny. Elmer broke
52 SPEEDHORSE CANADA, Spring 2019
Johnny Dial set a New World Record winning the Dotkay Handicap at Bay Meadows on Oct. 25, 1952, running 440-yards in :22.1.
LOOKING BACK - AN EXCERPT FROM JANUARY 1978 ISSUE