Page 160 - Speedhorse, December 2018

“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.”
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 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, there would be two runnings. Cash Deal was in one; Sissy Dial, in
the other. Both came in first. In a wild moment, Roy Boland threw his canes in the air. While the rest of the crowd danced around and cheered
for Johnny Dial daughters, their devoted owner was forced to stand where he was until someone captured his canes and returned them to him. He didn’t care. He reckoned that 1964 was, canes or no canes, one whale of a year. And it was the same year that Johnny Dial was sold to the man who had been making bids for him for a long time.
could walk by his stall and see him resting in there in a back corner with a hind leg cocked. Then you’d watch him break and see an honest horse come loose. Oh, he was something when he was running, and he was a great asset at my place. But I don’t have to defend him as a sire. His record is there.”
Johnny Dial ranks 25th out of 45 all-time leading sires of money earners, and 23rd out of 41 all-time leading sires of ROM race qualifiers. He is an all-time leading maternal grandsire of ROM race qualifiers. 81 of his 112 daughters have produced a combined total of 148 Qualifiers.
Quincy Farms was not to be Johnny Dial’s last home. According to Ed Honnen, “By the late Sixties, I wasn’t too happy with the way the horse business was going. For various reasons, I made a few decisions. To let Johnny Dial go was one of them. But I never wanted to sell him and never forgot him. I never did.”
In 1968, Earl and Virginia Shapiro, Paul and Doris Travis and the Grafton Moores attended
a horse sale in California before backtracking to the AQHA Annual Convention that was held
in Las Vegas that year. Throughout the sale, and throughout the flight to Las Vegas, Earl Shapiro continued to brag on Johnny Dial. Paul Travis finally said, “Johnny Dial’s for sale. Why don’t you buy him?”
Until Paul Travis made that remark and asked that question, Earl Shapiro had not
AUTUMN
Johnny Dial was sixteen years old when
he went under the ownership of Ed Honnen
at Quincy Farms in Aurora, Colorado. Ed’s personal ideals and convictions rode with breeding live cover. No collection room existed at Quincy Farms. The Colorado breeder said, “I think Johnny Dial approved of the deal. And I think he was the finest son Depth Charge ever had. I loved him. He was the best mannered horse I ever knew. I had known him ever since he had started out on the track. He was a marvel on the track, so complacent before a race. You
158 SPEEDHORSE, December 2018
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