Bred classic-placed Mindframe
LAUREL, MD – The new Maryland Jockey Club at Laurel Park mourns the passing of influential owner and breeder R. Larry Johnson, who died on Feb. 4 at 78.
The owner of Legacy Farm in Bluemount, VA, Johnson’s foray into breeding began in 1978 when he purchased the mare Ran’s Chick for the bargain basement price of $2,800.
While Ran’s Chick never made it to the racetrack, she became Johnson’s foundation broodmare, with more than 40 stakes horses emerging from that family.
Ran’s Chick is the fourth dam of Future Is Now and Call Another Play, homebred stakes winners for Johnson in 2024. Future Is Now captured the Grade 2 Franklin Stakes at Keeneland and the Grade 2 Intercontinental Stakes at Saratoga, while Call Another Play took the Weber City Miss and Geisha Stakes at Laurel Park. Call Another Play also finished third in last year’s Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico. Michael Trombetta trained Future Is Now and Call Another Play.
Ran’s Chick is also the fourth dam of Mindframe, who Johnson sold to Repole Stable and St. Elias Stables for $600,000 as a yearling. Mindframe raced four times last year and finished second in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes at Saratoga and the Grade 1 Haskell at Monmouth.
Johnson was a patient horseman. He bought Grade 2 winner True Valour for $220,000 at a 2020 Fasig-Tipton Horses of Racing Age auction, and True Valour raced six times for trainer Graham Motion during 2020 and 2021 before going to the sidelines for over a year due to ankle surgery.
True Valour returned as good as new as an 8-year-old, winning Laurel’s King T. Leatherbury Stakes, then finishing a close third in Belmont’s Grade 1 Jaipur Stakes. True Valour completed his career with a runner-up effort in Saratoga’s Grade 3 Troy Stakes.
“I was actually surprised that Larry wanted to put him back in training,” Motion said after the King T. Leatherbury victory. “But Larry is the eternal optimist and loves racing.”
Johnson was a former Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association Board of Directors Vice President. He had also served with the Virginia Thoroughbred Association and was a board member of the Virginia Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protective Association. Between 2017 and 2022, Johnson was Maryland’s leading earner of Maryland fund awards. His horses earned over $20 million.
