It’s amazing to reach 90 years of age. It's another thing to reach it and still be a hands-on participant in the horse racing industry.
Today, George Johnson celebrates his 90th Birthday. The resident of Milton, ON still jogs, trains and owns racehorses with his son Greg.
Johnson, a pilot bomber and flight instructor during World War II, purchased his first standardbred, a son of Dylan Mac named Little Joker, in the 1950s under the encouragement of his brother Stanley.
Following the war, Johnson got a degree in business from the University of Toronto and established a grain and hay supply business, which he sold in 1990 along with his horses to return to his studies at the U of T. After a decade, Johnston was drawn back to the harness racing industry.
The Johnsons campaigned veteran WEG circuit trotter Trace Of Class, who banked $252,165 in his career, and Mr Go, who won a leg of the General Brock Trotting Series in 2009 and banked nearly $100,000 before he was sold early this year. Currently racing, Johnson has the three-year-old Andover Image colt, Pommer, and the five-year-old Angus Hall mare, Bonnie Ronnie.