Johnston to retire as director of racing at Penn National

When Eric Johnston left his hometown of Grantville, Pa., in the 1980s, he thought he was leaving for good. His career in the racing industry kept him elsewhere for decades, but when he finally returned to Penn National Race Course in 2014, his old home was familiar and foreign all at once.

“I don’t think I had an appreciation for central Pennsylvania like I did when I came back,” Johnston said. “The Susquehanna River is just an absolutely amazing body of water that runs through this area and it’s about 10 miles from the racetrack. You look out of my office and you see the mountains and you watch the leaves on the mountains change. I know people out on the West Coast. They say they’re not mountains, just hills. No, they’re mountains. They’re just a lot older than yours.”

Last week, Johnston announced that he will retire from his position as the Director of Racing and Sportsbook at Penn National, effective Aug. 30. Across four decades in the racing industry, he has demonstrated a fierce dedication to change and growth.

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After starting his career at Penn National in 1983 and briefly working for the Maryland Jockey Club, Johnston became the stakes coordinator at the new Sam Houston Race Park in 1994. He was soon promoted to director of racing and racing secretary at the Texas track and worked there for nearly two decades.

Those early years at Sam Houston were defined by sky-high expectations and meager returns, as Texas failed to live up to its billing as a purported future hotbed of Thoroughbred horse racing. Johnston and many others persisted, however, and the track became a sustainable operation that still hosts racing today.

After years of organizing, Sam Houston finally earned a graded designation for the John B. Connally Turf Handicap in 2006. Now known as the John B. Connally Turf Cup, the event remained a Grade 3 race through 2024. Just before he left in 2013, Johnston also helped organize the inaugural Houston Ladies Classic, which became a Grade 3 race in 2016.

“Getting graded status for a couple of races in an area that doesn’t have a whole lot of graded horses running around, I thought was a major achievement,” Johnston said.

For the last 10 years, Johnston has been back in Grantville, vastly different than his found home in Texas but naturally closer to him in other ways. One year after he returned, the Penn Mile became a Grade 3 race, cementing its status as the cornerstone of Penn National’s biggest card each year since.

After championing two smaller tracks to national relevance, Johnston said that he wouldn’t change anything over the course of his career. Leaving Grantville and carrying on his legacy there later was all part of the same goal.

“I just knew that I wanted to grow in the game,” Johnston said.

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