Louisiana trainer Eddie Johnston dead at 75

Longtime Louisiana trainer Eddie Johnston passed away Saturday, Aug. 28 in Metairie, Louisiana.

Johnston, 75, had been battling cancer for years, his close friend and fellow New Orleans-based trainer Sturges Ducoing said Monday, confirming Johnston’s passing.

Johnston, a New Orleans native, first came around the track as a young child through his uncle, trainer Alex Johnston. Eddie Johnston had his first official starter as a head trainer in 1981, though his first Louisiana racing license was as an owner, taken out in 1976. Still an active trainer at the time of his passing, Johnston won 588 races during a training career that co-existed with Johnston’s work as a successful janitorial-supplies salesman.

“The condition book was always in his briefcase,” said Ducoing. “He was a good horseman. He really knew how to enter. And a good person, too.”