From Santa Anita Publicity
ARCADIA, Calif. (Feb. 2, 2016) — One of America’s top apprentice jockeys in the early 1980s, Kenny Black was at times overcome with emotion yesterday following his biggest training achievement to date–a brilliant 3 ¼ length win in Saturday’s $250,000 California Cup Turf Classic by Old English Rancho-bred What a View, who was ridden by Kent Desormeaux.
What made the win especially emotional was the fact that E.W. “Bud” Johnston, who had headed the farm’s breeding and racing operation (which was founded in California in 1948 by his father, E.B. “The Pie Man” Johnston and his wife, Betty) dating back to 1957, passed away unexpectedly one day shy of his 78th birthday last year on May 5.
“I’ll be forever grateful to Buddy Johnston and his family for the opportunity they’ve given me,” said Black, who was hired by Johnston as the farm’s private trainer following the retirement of longtime conditioner Don Warren last year. “Buddy has had his horses here in the same stalls since 1953. This is tradition with Old English Rancho.
“Mr. Johnston was so good to me, so to be able to win a stake like this is the start of a new era. Me and the (Johnston) family are moving on, so this was cool to win our first stake together.”
Black, who was reduced to tears in a post race interview with Michelle Yu on Santa Anita’s simulcast network, was joined in the Winner’s Circle by an equally emotional Mary Hilvers, who is the daughter of Bud and Judy Johnston.
“I grew up with this,” said Hilvers. “It’s amazing. Obviously, when we lost dad so unexpectedly and suddenly, there were questions about whether we’d be able to keep it (the family racing business) going…It’s a family thing. We really want to carry on my dad’s legacy and my grandmother’s.”
And, thanks in-part to Kenny Black and homebreds like What a View, the future appears bright for the red and white colors of Old English Rancho.