JOHN MABEE DIES AT 80.Byline: Kevin Modesti Staff Writer John Mabee, breeder and owner of Best Pal Best Pal (born February 12, 1988 in Ramona, California - died November 24, 1998 in Ramona, California) was a champion racehorse, who to this day holds the record for purses of any California-bred racehorse, earning his owners, the Golden Eagle Farm, US$5. and other top California thoroughbred race horses, died Wednesday, nine days after he suffered a stroke at his San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. County farm. He was 80. Mabee operated the 835-acre Golden Eagle Farm in Ramona with his wife Betty and helped to run Del Mar racetrack Del Mar Racetrack is an American thoroughbred horse racing track at the Del Mar Fairgrounds in the seaside city of Del Mar, California, 20 miles north of San Diego. Operated by the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, it is known for the slogan, "Where The Turf Meets The Surf. since 1970 as a board member, president and chairman. An Iowa native who turned a corner grocery store into the Big Bear market chain, Mabee once owned part of the NFL's San Diego Chargers
The Mabees won three Eclipse Awards in the 1990s as the nation's champion breeders and won six titles as the state's leading breeders. ``No one man has had more involvement in racing in California or has done more for Del Mar Del Mar is the name of several places in the United States of America:
Mabee had said his greatest thrill in racing came in 1991, when 3-year-old Best Pal carried Golden Eagle Farm's maroon-and-gold silks to victory in the inaugural running of Del Mar's Pacific Classic. The Mabees bred Best Pal and raced the popular gelding gelding castrated male horse. until he retired at age 8 as the richest Cal-bred to date. ``John Mabee was always loyal to California,'' Gary Jones, who trained Best Pal in the horse's glory days in 1991 and 1992, told the Daily Racing Form's Brad Free on Thursday. ``He always kept stallions here. He always kept mares here. He wanted to prove his program could be done here.'' Alluding to the recent death of stalwart East Coast breeder-owner Ogden Phipps at 93, Jones said: ``The racing world just lost two giants. He (Mabee) was the Ogden Phipps of the West Coast.'' |
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