Honoring the late P. G. Johnson
He was an unforgettable racing personality.
Thursday’s P. G. Johnson Stakes honors a Hall of Fame trainerwho was a favorite summer guest of Saratoga Springs during the racing season.
The Chicago native, who was largely self- taught, purchased his first thoroughbred in 1942 for $ 75.
Named Song Master, he provided Johnson with his first winner two years later, and for the next 60 years he craftedamarvelous career.
In theMidwest he trained at Arlington Park and Detroit Race Course, followed by seasons in Florida andMaryland before settling inNewYork.
Johnson won training titles at Aqueduct, Belmont, and Saratoga on the way to his induction into the Hall of Fame in 1997.
If you asked hima question you got a straight answer, and then some.
Johnson fearlessly exercised his First Amendment rights, and made racing the better for it.
I imagine if he were here today, hewould have little patience with
the absurd political correctness that has infected our society.
I loved theway he analyzed the horses in his care.
He trained Maplejinsky, winner of the Alabama Stakes in 1988, at 1 ¼ miles over the likes of Coaching Club American Oaks winner Goodbye Halo and Ashland winner Willa on the Move.
Maplejinsky’s sire was Nijinsky II, winner of the English Triple Crown and himself a classic sire with a staying influence.
Her mother was Gold Beauty, a daughter of Mr. Prospector who was Eclipse Award sprint champion in 1982, when she won the Test Stakes at Saratoga and the Fall Highweight over males at Belmont Park.
“When I began training her as a 2- year- old she was listening to hermom,” Johnson told me the morning before the Alabama. “I’d want her to go threeeighths in 36 and she would go in 34. I’d want a half in 48 and she would go in 46. And when she came back she had her head up in the trees!”
As she neared her debut in late 1987, she developed sore shins, which Johnson considered a blessing in disguise.
He ruled out a start and walked her for a month, followed by three months of jogging at Fair Hill in Maryland.
When she began her career the following April at Aqueduct, going 6 furlongs, she rallied strongly from far back towin at first asking in a crowded field.
“The Nijinsky finally came to her,” he commented.
By the time Saratoga rolled around, Johnson had produced a fine- tuned filly who could call on the best aspects of her pedigree.
She won three straight before the Alabama, including the Mon mouth Oaks at 1 1/ 8 miles, and was constantly improving upon staying close to the pace without running off.
Maplejinsky won the Alabama in a front- running performance.
Another of my Johnson favorites was Kiri’s Clown, winner of the Sword Dancer Handicap at 1 ½ miles in 1995 on turf.
Kiri’s Clown was a smallish dark son of the gritty Foolish Pleasure, winner of the Kentucky Derby in 1975.
Although not regarded as a long distance runner, Kiri’s Clown had plenty of graded stakes seasoning under his belt when he came to Saratoga, including a win in the New Hampshire Sweepstakes at 1 1/ 8miles.
Johnson instructed jockey Mike Luzzi to let Kiri’s Clown fire out of the gate, try and get a first quarter in 22 seconds, and then take hold.
Those are dicey instructions if Kiri’s Clown decided not to settle for Luzzi with ten furlongs remaining.
But Johnson got into the Hall of Fame by knowing his horses and preparing them for the challenge.
Luzzi was near perfect, getting the first quarter in 22 4/ 5 seconds and leading all the way towin by a neck in new course record time of 2: 25 2/ 5.
Johnson’s knowledge of pedigree, and results therein, could and should fill a book.
And if you think there are not gods of racing, Johnson and Volponi won the Classic at Arlington Park, where it all started 60 years earlier.
Working almost to the end of his life, he died on August 6, 2004, a few months after losing his beloved wife Mary Kay earlier that year.
To this day, I think of P. G. Johnson on mornings when I walk through the Fifth Avenue gate of the Oklahoma Training Track and pass his barn.