Page 53 - Canada Spring 2019

Johnny Dial is the sire of Champion Anna Dial and the broodmare sire of Champion Hank’s Dial Doll.
1963 & 1964 Champion Mare and 1962 Champion 1969 Champion 3-Year-Old Filly Hank’s Dial Doll. 3-Year-Old Filly Anna Dial.
into tears and told Roy Boland he had found Breezing Johnny dead a couple of mornings before.
After the death of Charles E. Hepler, Mrs. Hepler turned away many prospective buyers for Johnny Dial, including the noted Broken Arrow breeder, Rowland Stanfield. October 15, 1961, the Miami Daily News Record of Miami, Oklahoma, had banner headlines: “L.K. Newell A Partner In Purchase Of Famous Quarter Horse Stud, Johnny Dial.” The other partner was Rowland Stanfield.
In a phone conversation, L.K. Newell said, “The only reason we were able to get Johnny is because Mrs. Hepler’s mother was very ill. Doctors had told her to move to lower altitude. So, Mrs. Hepler took her mother south to Roswell. I fell in love with Johnny Dial just like everybody did. I never thought I’d ever let him go, but I did. I guess the main thing was that my place, Sky Farms, was close to town, and there was a construction boom on. New buildings going up everywhere. I felt like I was being choked off, getting
behind, I don’t know . . . All I know is that I’m proud to say I owned Johnny Dial once upon a time.”
By 1964, many sons and daughters of Johnny Dial were making fine names for themselves on tracks. Among them was Anna “The Doll” Dial, out of Anna Bar by Three Bars TB. In 1963, Anna Dial was Champion Running Mare and Champion Three-Year-Old Filly. In 1964, she was Champion Quarter Running Aged Mare. On her retirement in 1966, Anna Dial had 74 starts. 18 firsts. She placed 19 times, showed 16 times and had cumulative earnings of $75,142.73.
During the same year Anna Dial was tapped Champion Running Aged Mare of 1964, two other Johnny Dial daughters wrote their names permanently in AQHA history. They were Cash Deal
and Sissy Dial, owned by Johnny Dial’s old friend Roy Boland.
After a long siege of leg trouble,
Roy was temporarily reduced to depending on two canes if he wanted to get anywhere. He appeared in Albuquerque with his canes after entering Cash Deal and Sissy Dial in the New Mexico Futurity. Because
of the large number of entries,
Johnny Dial won his first start at Albuquerque in 1950, and ended his career the same way he began it, with a win on Dec. 20, 1953, running 440-yards in :22.3.
SPEEDHORSE CANADA, Spring 2019 53
LOOKING BACK - AN EXCERPT FROM JANUARY 1978 ISSUE
E