Dr. J. David Richardson, a surgeon who bred and raced horses for nearly five decades while serving in various capacities in the Thoroughbred industry, died on Tuesday in a hospital in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., after being admitted with pneumonia following a COVID-19 diagnosis, according to associates. Richardson was 76. A highly accomplished surgeon in Louisville, Richardson was a member of The Jockey Club, a former member of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, and at various times served as the executive chairman, chairman, vice chairman, and secretary of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association. Richardson also chaired TOBA’s graded stakes committee. He has been a board member of the Breeders’ Cup and was a past president of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association and the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders. Richardson, a cousin of the Hall of Fame trainer Woody Stephens, purchased his first horse when he was 30, in 1975. In partnership or on his own, Richardson raised and sold more than 1,000 horses that won races, according to Churchill Downs, where Richardson could often be found during the track’s live race meet. Mrs. Revere, a horse he bred and raced with his longtime racing partner, Dr. Hiram Polk, has a Grade 3 stakes race named after her at Churchill. According to his longtime friend, Lanny Kohnhorst, Richardson was diagnosed with COVID while spending the summer in Saratoga for the races there. He was admitted to the hospital for treatment, but was discharged. However, he then contracted pneumonia, had a cardiac arrest, and died on Tuesday. “He loved it up there,” Kohnhorst said. “Obviously he missed it last year, but he wasn’t going to miss it this year.” Kohnhorst, a former farm manager who is the Churchill racetrack representative for the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association, said that Richardson helped hundreds of people on the backsides of Kentucky racetracks with their medical problems, free of charge. The Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners gave Richardson its Warner L. Jones Horseman of the Year Award in 2017. “He was a great, great man,” Kohnhorst said. “He helped a lot of people. It didn’t matter if you were a captain of industry or a hotwalker. He was genuinely interested in you no matter your walk of life.” A graduate of Morehead State University and the University of Kentucky School of Medicine, Richardson was a professor and the vice chair of surgery at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, in addition to his surgical work at the University of Louisville Hospital. “Dr. Richardson positively impacted the lives of countless individuals and meant so much to so many people in this community as well as the horse racing industry,” said Mike Anderson, the president of Churchill Downs racetrack, in a statement. “The Churchill Downs family is absolutely devastated to learn of his passing. He was such a fantastic man of the highest integrity and a tremendous champion of Thoroughbred racing.” Richardson is survived by his wife, Maxine; his three children, Melissa, Amy, and Britton; and a brother, Dr. Ron Richardson.