Donnie Richardson, lifelong racetracker and former Churchill VP of racing, dies at age 75

Donnie Richardson, the former vice president of racing at Churchill Downs who had a wealth of experience beyond his role at the company, including acting as an agent for three Hall of Fame jockeys, died on Tuesday morning at Norton Brownsboro hospital in Louisville, according to friends of his family. Richardson, who died of pulmonary fibrosis, was 75.

A native of Louisville, Richardson spent his entire life in the sport and business of racing, with his longest tenure being the 22 years he served as the stakes coordinator and, later, as the vice president of racing for Churchill Downs, from 1990 to 2012. From the time he began selling programs at the track at the age of 14 until the time of his retirement, he served in nearly every official racetrack capacity, in addition to his work as a jockey’s agent.

“He came up from nothing, and he did every job on the racetrack,” said Vickie Foley, the Kentucky-based trainer, whose family has been friends with Richardson for 40 years. “He was a man of many hats, and he wore them all really well, and if he was your friend, he was always there for you. He is truly going to be missed.”

Richardson was admitted to the hospital on Monday after having trouble breathing, Foley said. After being informed by doctors that his prognosis was dire, friends and family members began visiting him in the hospital throughout yesterday afternoon and that night.

“It’s like he knew what he wanted and had worked out who he wanted to see and say goodbye to,” said Foley. Richardson’s two daughters, Shelley and Jennifer, were among those who were with him when he died on Tuesday morning, Foley said.

Richardson was a constant presence among horsemen in his duties at Churchill, hustling horses for stalls and stakes while continually attuned to the balance he needed to strike between trainers and management in creating an attractive racing program.

Bob Holthus, the late trainer, once credited Richardson for saving his life. According to an account Holthus gave to the Chicago Tribune, Richardson noticed the trainer was struggling during the week prior to the 2005 Derby. Richardson called doctors he knew in the Louisville area and arranged for visits. It turned out that a battery in Holthus’s heart defibrillator, installed 23 years earlier, was nearly dead.

“We used to call him ‘the principal’ because years ago when you saw him walking over you’d wonder, ‘What have I done now?’ “ Foley said. “So he had this hard exterior, but he was truly kind inside. But that’s how you had to be in the racing business sometimes.”

Richardson’s father ran the racing-program departments at Churchill, Louisville’s defunct Miles Park, and old Latonia (now called Turfway Park). After selling programs as a teenager, Richardson got a position with the racing office at Churchill and then worked as patrol judge at the track in 1969.

He spent the early and middle 1970s shuttling between jobs at tracks in Kentucky, Florida, and Arkansas, including assistant racing secretary at Churchill from 1973-1978. From 1978 to 1979, he was the racing secretary at Ellis Park in western Kentucky.

Richardson then became a jockey’s agent, handling the books of Chris McCarron and Don Brumfield, among a handful of other veterans, including Jim McKnight, Mike McDowell, and Earlie Fires. Brumfield and Carl Nafzger, the trainer, were among those who visited Richardson on Monday night, Foley said.

In 1990, Richardson returned to Churchill as the track’s stakes coordinator. He was later elevated to the company’s senior vice president of racing, handling the duties for the company’s tracks in Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, and Louisiana.

When he left Churchill in 2012, the company’s chief operating officer at the time, Willian Carstanjen, released a statement saying that Richardson had “worked tirelessly to build and protect the racing programs for both the Kentucky Oaks and the Kentucky Derby, and the success of those days for many years to come will reflect his many contributions to the racing office, front office, and backside of Churchill Downs.”

After leaving Churchill, Richardson returned to the backside as a jockey’s agent for Alan Garcia. Richardson also had the book for Channing Hill in his post-Churchill years.

Richardson is survived by his two daughters and two grandsons.