Larry Johnson

Million-dollar earning Gigante (Not This Time), named 2025 Virginia-bred Horse of the Year, headlines a slate of Virginia Thoroughbred Association (VTA) award winners whose connections will receive hardware for their efforts on Saturday, Mar. 14 at Colonial Downs, the track said in a release on Tuesday. The trophy presentations will take place on the winner's circle stage between races during the Virginia Derby Day card in New Kent, and are presented by the VTA and Virginia Racing Commission.   The other winners are as follows: Turf Horse: Gigante Older Male:...

Michael Trombetta, the long-time trainer for the late Larry Johnson, visited the owner's farm in 2022 to inspect the new crop of yearlings and was struck by one in particular. The yearling was Mindframe (Constitution). "The first time I saw Mindframe, he just stood out like a sore thumb," Trombetta said. But Trombetta knew then that he would not get the chance to train the horse who went on to win the GI Stephen Foster Stakes, the GI Churchill Downs Stakes and finish second in the GI Belmont Stakes. According...

Fasig-Tipton has catalogued 690 entries for its December Digital Sale which opened for bidding Thursday. The sale will close on two separate days beginning at 12 p.m. with hips 1-349, including horses of racing age, racing/broodmare prospects, broodmare prospects, stallion prospects, weanlings and yearlings closing on Tuesday, Dec. 9 and hips 350-690, to include broodmares and stallion seasons, wrapping up Wednesday, Dec. 10. The catalogue features over 150 horses of racing age, 320 broodmares including mares in foal to 113 different stallions, 10 offerings from the Estate of Larry Johnson...

As noted last week, trainers can only amplify--not magnify--a horse's genetic legacy. D. Wayne Lukas was able to draw our attention to assets we might gladly replicate, but not even he could actually alter the genes available. In suggesting that he met his brief even more usefully with future broodmares than with sire prospects, this attorney admittedly left a star witness in the street in Serena's Song (Rahy)--whose 18-for-38 record, inside 30 months, advertised the toughness underpinning her class even more lavishly than Terlingua and others. But the point duly...

  Longtime owner and former Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association Vice president Larry Johnson died Feb. 4. He was 78. Founder of Legacy Farm in Bluemont, Virginia, his horses amassed $17.6 million in purse money from 3,132 starts. His most successful year came in 2024 when he had 25 wins and $1.6 million in earnings. On the Aug. 31 Commonwealth Champions Day card at Colonial Downs, Johnson had two stakes wins--Hollywood Walk in the Camptown Stakes and Bert Allen Stakes winner Sky's Not Falling. He was also an active Board member...

While all eyes turn to Maryland this weekend for Saturday's 149th running of the GI Preakness S. at Pimlico Race Course, Virginia-based owner/breeder Larry Johnson has his sights set strictly on the GII George E. Mitchell Black-Eyed Susan S., Friday's featured race, where his filly Call Another Play (Audible) is the lone Maryland-bred entered in the eight-horse field. The 3-year-old filly is a fourth-generation homebred for Johnson, who owns Legacy Farm in Bluemont, Va., but is a decades-long supporter of the Maryland breeding program. "I've gone to Preakness weekend for...

As we approach the opening of the 2024 breeding season, the TDN staff is once again sitting down with leading breeders to find out what stallions they have chosen for their mares, and why. Here we catch up with Larry Johnson, the owner of Legacy Farm in Bluemont, Virginia. "I'm trying to go from primarily breed-to-race to more commercial opportunities," said Johnson. A GREAT TIME (10, Street Magician - Short Time, by Clever Trick) to be bred to Constitution A homebred stakes winner of nearly $250,000 by my homebred stallion...

by Edd Roggenkamp, Versailles, Kentucky Racehorse owners are the lifeblood of this industry. Without owners, there is no need for breeding farms, sales companies, consigners, vets, feed companies, et al. But the number of licensed racehorse owners is declining in most states, which is a seriously negative trend for the horseracing industry. Over the nearly 30 years that I have owned and raced Thoroughbreds, I have always found it most interesting to sit down and have a candid conversation with another racehorse owner. It lets me find out how they...

Colonial Downs concluded its 21-day season this week, highlighted by a new all-time daily average handle and over $10-million in purse distribution. In all, total handle was $46,867,078, a record average daily handle of $2,231,765. The 2019 meet--which was 15 days over five weeks--produced an average handle of $1,166,666, for a more that 91% increase. "It is so gratifying to see the continued revival of Virginia racing as we mark new all-time handle heights," said John Marshall, Colonial Downs Group Executive Vice President, Operations. "We have held true to our...