Jack Disney, racing publicist and sportswriter, dies at 80

Jack Disney, a former sportswriter, racing publicist, and stakes-winning horse owner, died after a lengthy illness on Monday, his friends said. Disney was 80 and had been in failing health.

A native of Los Angeles who went to Fairfax High School and Occidental College, Disney was the first beat writer to report on the Los Angeles Lakers after the team’s move from Minneapolis. Working for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, he wrote about racing at Santa Anita and Hollywood Park, about USC football when the team was led by coach John McKay, and was on the sidelines at the first Super Bowl at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

In 1989, shortly before the closure of the Herald-Examiner, Disney went to work for Hollywood Park. He worked as a publicist there and at Santa Anita until his retirement in 2012.

Disney was more than just a racing promoter. With friends and family, Disney developed Indizguys Stable, which started out by claiming lower-level Thoroughbreds who ran during evening programs at Los Alamitos. After a few years, the operation shifted to claiming more expensive horses racing at Del Mar, Hollywood Park, and Santa Anita.

The stable tended to have a single horse at a time with trainer Mike Mitchell. By far, the most successful was On the Acorn, a former $40,000 claimer who went on to win more than $500,000.

On the Acorn won the 2007 San Juan Capistrano, a race Disney said he always wanted to win, having watched Bill Shoemaker take the 1962 running with Olden Times.

On the Acorn won consecutive runnings of the Jim Murray Handicap at Hollywood Park, a particularly meaningful trophy for Disney, who was a contemporary of the famous Los Angeles Times sports columnist.

Disney enjoyed all aspects of racing, from hashing out a pick four at Los Alamitos with press-box colleagues to vacationing in England with his wife, Emily, where he was given a close-up tour of top trainer Michael Stoute’s yard in Newmarket.

Disney’s survivors include his wife and a twin brother, Doug.