Page 97 - January 2022

From his early days in racing, John Creager started riding a little bit beginning when I was
demonstrated Thomas Jefferson’s quote, “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.”
His talent and work ethic as a jockey earned him the 1994 AQHA Champion Jockey title, Los Alamitos’ 4th All-Time Leading Jockey ranking with 2,018 wins, and Los Alamitos’ 12th All-Time Leading Stakes-Winning Jockey with 86 stakes wins. His career stats total 4,565-605-561-605 with $6,638,382 earned from the mid- to late-70s until he retired from riding in late 2002.
“John would come into Los Alamitos and work his tail off every day,” says trainer Russell Harris, for whom John later won hundreds of races. “His agent talked me into riding him, so I put John on a colt and the first one he rode for me, he just did a terrible job. I told his agent, ‘Don’t you ever try to talk me into doing that again!’
“Well, John just kept on coming to the barn and coming to the barn and working his tail off, and finally he just embarrassed me into having to put him on some horses,” Russell continues. “He kept on working his tail off down there and first thing you know, he was one of the leading riders there!”
John’s work ethic and dedication weren’t lost on those who witnessed them, including Dr. Ed Allred, AQHA’s All-Time Leading Breeder and Owner as of year-end 2021 and owner of both Los Alamitos Race Course and Rolling A Ranch in Atascadero, California. When John retired from riding, Doc Allred snapped him up to manage the Rolling A, and he’s been there ever since.
BUSH TRACKS TO THE BIG TIME
John grew up in the ’50s and ’60s with a brother and two sisters on a ranch in Morgan, Utah. “My family and my aunt and uncle
had horses, so I was always around horses and riding,” he says. “My neighbors had a horse they wanted to try to run, so since I was little, I
still in school.”
He got his first jockey license in Idaho at age
16. “Growing up, we always ran chariot races, and before you ran, you had to help out around the barn breaking colts and training,” he says. “It was just part of being a jockey.”
He graduated from Morgan High School, then attended fall and winter quarters at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. “Then I
went off to be a jockey and never went back to school,” he says.
He rode in Utah, Idaho and Colorado, before setting his sights on Los Alamitos. “When I came to California, I was pretty young,” he says. “Guys like Bobby Adair, Kenny Hart and Danny Cardoza were already here and established. It was a great colony of riders; there were 20 guys in the jocks’ room that were all good riders.
“Gary Waite, who trained in Utah, had helped me get started and then when I came out here to California, I rode a lot for Russell Harris, and for Connie Hall who had Chicks Beduino,” John says. “I also rode a lot of good horses for Blane Schvaneveldt, Charlie Bloomquist and Judd Morse, and for
Mike Robbins.”
He attributes his success to the many jockeys and trainers who taught him along the way, including Mark Skeen and Darren Charlton as well as his brother Greg, his father, his uncle, and his good friend and former brother-in-law Bill Holbrook. “Good horses are what make a good rider,” John says. “I guess I was pretty good, but I had to work hard. You have to be able to take success with a little bit of disappointment and try to keep yourself from getting too far down. As a jockey, it was always a challenge, and I was able to make a pretty good living at it while doing something I enjoyed. For someone to go to work and have fun is pretty good luck.”
Jockey John Creager on Jodys Glory after winning the 1979 St. Nicholas Express Handicap for owner B S Borroum and trainer Russell Harris.
“You have to be able to take success with a little bit of disappointment and try to keep yourself from
getting too far down.” – John Creager
SPEEDHORSE January 2022 95
Los Alamitos
William Zuazo, Speedhorse