Harris Farms announced July 3 that John C. Harris, a stalwart in California breeding and racing, had died. He was 81.
"Ubiquitous" doesn't begin to describe the influence of Harris in California's Thoroughbred breeding and racing industries. On the racing side, his green and white silks are some of the most frequently seen on California racetracks. On the farm side, no one can drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco via Interstate 5 without passing and usually visiting the Harris Ranch Inn in Central California.
Harris also had served on just about every racing-related board, be it the California Horse Racing Board, California Thoroughbred Breeders Association, Thoroughbred Owners of California, or University of California, Davis Equine Research Laboratory. He leaves a void that will be impossible to fill.
The stallions standing at the Coalinga, Calif., ranch regularly rank high on California sire lists, and the number of runners to come off of the property fills stakes histories throughout the state and beyond. They famously include two-time Horse of the Year Eclipse Award winner California Chrome and 2000 Horse of the year Tiznow, neither bred by Harris, but foaled and raised at the ranch and the recipients of the Harris team's expertise. Both of those horses have been enshrined in the Racing Hall of Fame.
Harris bred and raced a plethora of stakes winners in his own name or in partnership with others, such as his good friend, Donald Valpredo, who died last October. Soviet Problem and Work the Crowd were two of Harris' best runners. He particularly enjoyed their careers not only because of their stellar abilities, but because he owned the former with Valpredo and the latter with Norma Foster Maddy, then the wife of California Sen. Ken Maddy.
California-bred Horse of the Year of 1994 and trained by Greg Gilchrist, Soviet Problem won two match races that year, the first on dirt at Golden Gate Fields and the second on turf at Del Mar. Her 10 stakes victories included that season's Laurel Dash Stakes (G3T) and back-to-back editions of the Valkyr Handicap. Soviet Problem also ran second in the 1994 Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) at Churchill Downs, losing by a head to Cherokee Run.
"She was one of the most memorable horses we ever had from race one," Harris said. "She always did everything right."
Harris had a long friendship with Sen. Maddy that enabled the two of them to work together on many major pieces of legislation that benefited the California Thoroughbred industry. Harris met Maddy when he was running for the California Assembly to represent the Fresno area.
"I was not too involved in politics then," Harris wrote in a 1999 tribute to Maddy. "But once he mentioned that he liked horse racing, I knew that I had found my main man."
Katambera, the dam of Work the Crowd, was a $6,250 claim in 1987, and Harris bred her to Political Ambition to get Work the Crowd in 1991. While Work the Crowd was in training, Bill Clinton had been elected United States president and Hillary Clinton was the first lady.
"We really wanted to name her Hillary, but that name was already taken," Harris said of the filly. "Politicians have to work the crowd, don't they?"
So with the moniker of Work the Crowd and also trained by Gilchrist, the filly won 12 stakes from 1993-95, including five graded stakes. She was named champion Cal-bred 2-year-old female in 1993, the same year Soviet Problem was named champion Cal-bred 3-year-old female. The next year, Work the Crowd won the state's champion 3-year-old female title while Soviet Problem walked away with the titles of older female, sprinter, and turf female in addition to Horse of the Year.
Carla Gaines was Harris' primary trainer in Southern California for decades. She trained such Harris runners as Cal-bred champions Closing Remarks and Super High and stakes winners Lucky J. H. and Desert Law.
Gaines' current Harris trainees include Coalinga Road, winner of the 2023 Unusual Heat Turf Classic Stakes and most recently third in the May 24 Crystal Water Stakes at Santa Anita Park.
"I can't describe in words how important the support from John Harris has been," Gaines said in the winner's circle after the Unusual Heat.
Other Harris runners included Cal-bred champion Moscow Changes, trained by the late Howard Zucker.
Santa Anita joined the racing community in mourning the loss of Harris with the following statement: "His contributions to the Thoroughbred industry in our state cannot be overstated and his support was unwavering. The green-and-white Harris Farms silks were omnipresent in Santa Anita's winner's circle and the legacy of the man they represent will be everlasting. Our thoughts are with his family, friends, and fellow horsemen and women. May his memory be a blessing."
More important than his racing stable, however, is Harris' service to the industry. He sat on just about every major racing-related board in California and nationally. A partial list includes chairing the CHRB, as a former president of the CTBA and as a CTBA board member at the time of his death, a board member of the TOC, chairman of the Bay Meadows Operating Company, a board member of Breeders' Cup Ltd. and the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, and a member of The Jockey Club.
Born in Fresno, Harris graduated from the University of California at Davis in 1965 with a degree in animal production. For decades he oversaw the Harris Ranch Beef Company before selling it several years ago. He supported UC Davis throughout his life, especially the veterinary school and equine research, and has served on the Equine Research Laboratory advisory board.
In 1981 Harris established the Jack A. Harris Memorial Scholarship Fund to honor his late father and to provide financial assistance to those pursuing higher education. The Edwin J. Gregson Foundation honored Harris in 2023.
"The Gregson Foundation relies on the support of people like John Harris," said Jenine Sahadi, the foundation's president, at the time of that honor. "We are grateful not only for John's decades-long financial support of our organization and programs, but also for his service to every aspect of the Thoroughbred industry."
Harris has been a longtime supporter of the Big Fresno Fair, especially the race meeting held there every fall and the Big Fresno Fair Museum, which opened in 2012. For many years, the fair annually conducted the Harris Farms Stakes, which Harris homebred Fashionably Fast won twice.
The Fresno race meeting is one of the many California fair meetings that will not be renewed this year. Harris had been working as recently as the June 19 CHRB meeting with fellow breeder and CTBA board member George Schmitt to resurrect racing at Fresno and Ferndale, but the CHRB voted against it.
Harris was voted into the California Racing Hall of Fame in 2008, a class that included Russell Baze, Mel Stute, Decidedly, and Flying Paster.
"Our state has a great combination of resources: land, water, and climate," Harris wrote in a CTBA publication in 1990. "They ensure a productive agriculture, a wonderful place to raise horses, and a magnet for growth of all types."
To that end, Harris was a major supporter of the California Cup program from its inception in 1990, when he was the CTBA president. His homebred Teresa Mc, named after his mother, won the 1991 California Cup Matron Handicap.
"We needed a better way to highlight Cal-breds to make people perceive that Cal-breds have more value and to actually see that it is to their advantage to own and breed good Cal-breds," he wrote before the first Cal Cup. "Let's hope that after the final horse has cooled out and the final toast is made on Nov. 3 that we can all be proud of California Cup and feel we have created something valuable."
Harris is survived by his wife, Cookie, as well as by extended family and countless friends and colleagues. A Harris Farms press release noted that a private burial ceremony will be held and a public celebration of life is being scheduled and will be announced soon.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Jack A. Harris Memorial Scholarship Fund.
