Page 46 - July 2020

Although John isn’t listed as the trainer for the horses he’s handled, he has provided a firm foundation for racetrack trainers to build on when those horses head to the track.
John’s first stakes winner was Ronsepi, shown winning the Chance To Excel, owned by Valeriano Racing Stables LLC, posted the fastest 2012 California Breeders’ Sprint Stakes. qualifying time and won the Ed Burke Million Futurity-G1 on June 21.
head, so with people needing a place for their horses when the big ranches shut down, John took the opportunity to provide layups. He leased part of the Coopers’ farm as well, and picked up horses from Cooper, Abigail Kawananakoa, Steve Charles, Ben Warren and Ron Hartley. “I was spread so thin that I had to decide on one or the other,” John says. “That’s when I decided to retire from shoeing for the public and try to make a go of it with the farm.”
He’d leased Coopers’ farm for several years when the Sperry ranch, his current location, came up for sale. It was big enough to hold all the horses at one location, so the choice was simple. He and Cathy now raise, breed, break and sales prep horses in addition to providing layups.
THE BIG BREAK
Ron Hartley became John’s client at his very first ranch, bringing about five broodmares. “Ron’s daughter, Dayna, would keep the brood- mares at her place, then bring them to us to foal, then take them home,” John says. “When it came time to wean them, we’d get them back and finish raising and breaking them, then send them to [Cooper] at the track.”
John credits Ron with keeping him in busi- ness at that time. “I can remember years of his horses only winning two to three races a year
Despite establishing his and Cathy’s successful business ... John sees his greatest success as raising his family
and I was always in a panic thinking, ‘This guy is going to quit.’ Slowly, it all started changing. We started winning more races and he started buying more horses. The more he won, the more he bought and the more he bred. When it really hit was when he bought Moonist (Separatist-Your First Moon, First Down Dash). Ron never had a bad year after that! And because of that, I started picking up other trainers. Ron Hartley and John Cooper are who made me in the race business.”
Although John isn’t listed as the trainer for the horses he’s handled, he has provided a firm foundation for racetrack trainers to build on when those horses head to the track.
“He’s really got a good feel for horses,” says trainer John Cooper. “He’s a horseman, and a good one. I can tell you that if I wasn’t going to
be here, I’d give my horses at the racetrack to him. He knows exactly what needs to be done and he’s a hard worker. You can call him a cowboy, you can call him anything you want, but he’s a good hand.”
2019 AQHA Champion Trainer Chris O’Dell concurs. “I depend on him; I give him all my colts and I trust that he’ll do a good job with them, and he does.”
Ronsepi (Separatist-Rondidi, Strawfly Special) was John’s first stakes-winning horse: The gelding won the California Breeders’ Sprint Stakes as a 4-year-old in 2012. “He was out of one of Ron [Hartley’s] favorite mares,” John says. Ronsepi ran second in his very first start but injured his hoof during the race, requiring a year and a half of specialty hoof care to return him to the track. “Nobody thought he’d ever
John and his wife Cathy.
44 SPEEDHORSE July 2020