In late summer 2014, Smiling Tiger had completed his first year as a stallion in California when co-owner Phil Lebherz realized a change was necessary.
Smiling Tiger stood at Lebherz’s Premier Thoroughbreds, near Oakdale, but needed to be at a more prominent farm, Lebherz remembered over the weekend.
“It was too insane,” Lebherz said of managing the stallion. “I decided I needed an expert group of people.”
Lebherz called John Harris and inquired whether Harris Farms in Coalinga could take Smiling Tiger.
“I knew John already,” Lebherz said. “I asked if I could send him down there and that was that. He had a much better facility.”
Smiling Tiger was shipped 130 miles from Premier Thoroughbreds to Harris Farm, where he spent the rest of his stallion career. The transfer was a winning move – Smiling Tiger rose to a prominent position in the state’s stallion rankings – and one that Lebherz recalled fondly after John Harris died at the age of 81 after a lengthy illness on July 3.
“We lost one of the good guys,” Lebherz said.
“He ran a good business. He was a straight shooter. He was always very straight up with me.
“He always appreciated that we were breeding so many horses for California. He loved racing and he loved Smiling Tiger.”
John Harris was a leading Thoroughbred owner and breeder in California for decades and rose to a prominent leadership position in the sport in his home state and in national affairs.
Harris Farms stood nine stallions in 2025, including three active stallions that rank among the top 10 in the state in progeny earnings this year – Catholic Boy, Om, and Stanford.
Smiling Tiger, who died in 2024, ranked seventh on the current progeny list through Saturday with more than $1.2 million in earnings.
Harris owned such prominent runners as Soviet Problem, a winner of 15 of 20 starts and the 1994 California-bred Horse of the Year; and Closing Remarks, a five-time stakes winner from 2021 to 2023 who earned $1,000,820, to name two.
The national Horses of the Year Tiznow (2000) and California Chrome (2014, 2016) were raised for clients at Harris Farms.
Carla Gaines began training for Harris in 1989, the year she won her first race for Harris at the Solano county fair in Vallejo. In a heartfelt Instagram message published on Saturday, Gaines paid tribute to what Harris did for her career.
“Some people come into your life and leave a mark that never fades,” she wrote. “John Harris was one of those people.
“He gave me my first opportunity in racing. Since that day, we shared incredible moments, and memories I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life. But beyond the victories, John was simply a remarkable man. Kind. Loyal. Quietly powerful. Steady in a world that often isn’t.
“It hurts to say goodbye, but I’m grateful for every moment, every conversation, every lesson.”
Away from the sport of racing, Harris was active in the business of racing, serving as a member of the Jockey Club, as past president of the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association, and as chairman of the California Horse Racing Board in 2004-05 and again in 2009. He served on the racing board from 2000 to 2011.
In recent months, despite his illness, Harris provided financial support, along with fellow owner and breeder George Schmitt, for proposed race meetings at county fairs in Northern California. The fair circuit collapsed last winter because of financial issues. The proposals funded by Schmitt and Harris were rejected by the racing board at three consecutive meetings in April, May and June.
“I can’t tell you how miserable some of the people opposing racing in Northern California were to that man, even when he was bedridden,” Schmitt said on Saturday.
“John Harris was steadfast that Northern California fairs needed horse racing. He put his money where his mouth was.
“He supported horsemen in the state until his dying day.”
Harris and Schmitt hoped to finance a race meeting this fall at the Big Fresno Fair, not far from Harris’s home. The racing board defeated the proposal by a vote of 4-3 on June 19.
The $100,000 Harris Farms Stakes for statebred sprinters was part of the Fresno meeting in recent years. The Harris-owned Fashionably Fast won the race in 2019 and 2021.
Schmitt visited Harris in early June, on the day of the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga. In recent months, Harris followed his stable’s runners courtesy of a white board prepared by his staff that listed the day’s activity.
“He still loved to bet on the races,” Schmitt said.
“For a guy that had everything that he had, he was as down to earth as any human being that I’ve ever met.
“I’ll miss John’s advice and counsel from time to time. I’ll miss being able to talk about strategy and where to go.”
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