Page 159 - Speedhorse, December 2018

Weanling Johnny Dial (right) and a foal by Depth Charge TB and out of Shue Fly.
slouched into the gate, yawned around, cocked a hind leg and, on the call of the break, Johnny was gone.
“Gone like a streak,” Roy Boland contends. “Johnny Dial. I loved him then and still do. His daughters made me a successful breeder.
I still have Denise Dial, 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,
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.
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
“1950 through 1953 he slouched into the gate, yawned around, cocked a hind leg and, on the call of the break, Johnny was gone.”
SPEEDHORSE, December 2018 157
LOOKING BACK - AN EXCERPT FROM JANUARY 1978 ISSUE
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© Elmer Helper
© Elmer Helper
Black Annie in 1948 with her one-day-old colt by Depth Charge TB that was named Johnny Dial.
© Elmer Helper
Johnny Dial at two years of age with Elmer Hepler.